365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 342: Rudolph ruins the mint condition of your comic book and laughs about it

House ad for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer #10 (December 1959); printed in Sgt. Bilko #16 (November-December 1959)
Comic cover art: pencils and inks by Rube Grossman (?)
Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp

A Four Color Christmas, Day 8: Mister Nimoy Joins the Army

Cover of Four Color #745 [Francis the Talking Mule] (November 1956), pencils and inks by Don Gunn
Francis's movie career really didn't pick up until the talkies were invented, but he got pretty popular then.



Watch out for Leonard Nimoy in the second clip as Football Player No. 52 (on the right). He was an unknown when he appeared in that Francis film, but one day he would have a role that all of America knew and loved him as: the host and narrator of In Search Of....

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 341: Uh, Jonah, you got a little..on your face...no, the other side...yeah, right there...no, over to the...

House ads for All-Star Western (1970 series) #10 (February-March 1972);
(top) printed in Batman #237 (December 1971); (bottom) printed in Our Army at War #240 (January 1972)
Ad art: pencils and inks by Tony DeZuñiga
Ad designed by Sol Harrison (?) or Ben Oda (?); lettered by Gaspar Saladino Ben Oda

A Four Color Christmas, Day 7: The elves that didn't become dentists were put on Santa-grooming duty

Cover of Four Color #205 [Santa Claus Funnies] (December 1948), pencils and inks by Morris Gollub

Today in Comics History, December 6: It's Sloppy Joe Day!

from Justice Society of America (2007 series) #1 (DC, February 2007), script by Geoff Johns, pencils by Dale Eaglesham, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Jeromy Cox, letters by Rob Leigh

Today in Comics History, December 6: The Pope is dismayed to find he has not been invited to the Joker's party

from Batman #320 (DC, February 1980), script by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Irv Novick, inks by Bob Smith, colors by Ben Oda, letters by Glynis Wein
Now, as we saw on August 1...


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Osa
...the Super DC Calendar '76, ordinarily the expert and definitive source for Pre-Crisis birth dates, lists August 1 as Joker's birthday. In a reverse of the way I usually run this blog (and if I can't contradict myself, who can I contradict?) I'm gonna declare that August 1 is more definitive a birthdate than December 6, and that's because A) The Joker lies and B) that December date is really just the fourth-wall breaking, real-world on-sale date of the next exciting issue of Batman Comics & Stories. Well, you didn't expect them to hold this exciting story until August came around again, did you?

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 340: Atomic twin powers, activate!

The question on everybody's lips—along with that dee-licious holiday-only limited-edition Gingerbread Kiss Chapstick—is...

House ad for Firestorm (1978 series) #1 (March 1978); printed in Detective Comics #475 (February 1978)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino
Well, turns out he's this guy! Advertising in the very same issue! Convenient, huh?


House ad for Firestorm #1 (March 1978); printed in Detective Comics #475
Ad art: pencils and inks by Al Milgrom
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

A Four Color Christmas, Day 6: Meanwhile, Candice is staring longingly out of the window

Cover of Four Color #527 [Charlie McCarthy] (January 1954), painted art by unknown

Happy Tenth Blogiversary, Mike Sterling!

Sorry, Wrong Number! Nova

So, let's talk about Nova. I'm a big fan, actually, It's a fine science show and continues to be as educational and entertaining as it was the day it debuted in 1974.


Also debuting during the sassy seventies: the Man Comic Book Called Nova, or as I like to call him, "Spider-Man of the Seventies."


Cover of Nova (1976 series) #1 (September 1976), pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Dan Crespi

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 339: The He-Man Woman-Hater's Club comes runnin' for the great adventures of Superboy

"Dig What's Coming" house ad for Superboy (1949 series) #149 (July 1968); printed in Adventures of Jerry Lewis #107 (July 1968)
"Dig What's Coming" pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff
I can never resist showing a beautiful Neal Adams cover:


Cover of Superboy #149, pencils and inks by Neal Adams, letters by Gaspar Saladino

A Four Color Christmas, Day 5: He'll be back again someday but before that you will notice your wallet is missing

Cover of Four Color #435 [Frosty the Snowman] (November 1952), pencils and inks by Dan Gormley

Hey Girls, More Comics!

In sharp relief with the Lois Lane ad I posted earlier, which is cluelessly misogynistic (but I imagine not intentionally meant to be hurtful to anyone)...take a big steaming gander or goose at this one-page gag (accent on the gag) humor strip from a Charlton romance title:


"Mannequins" from Just Married #107 (September 1975), creators unknown
Geez, wow. Even Reggie Mantle is never that much of a complete jerk.

Shame on you, comic that was made for girls in the first place.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 338: Hey girls, comics!

House ad for Lois Lane #5 (November-December 1958); printed in Lois Lane #4 (September-October 1958)
Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp

A Four Color Christmas, Day 4: The sun'll come out tomorrow (and melt this snowman within minutes)

Cover of Four Color #206 [Little Orphan Annie] (December 1948), artist unknown

WhoTube

When I saw this house ad for the following issue in Doctor Who Classics #4, I got really excited...


...(incidentally: Photo Reference Sighted Off the Starboard Bow, sir!)...



...I got really excited not because Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor was going to meet Sarah Jane Smith, the companion of the Third and Fourth and Tenth Doctors (and only those three Doctors, if you want to pay attention to a silly little thing called canon):


Panels from "Train-Flight" in Doctor Who Classics Series V #5 (October 2013), script by Andrew Donkin and Graham S. Brand, pencils and inks by John Ridgeway, letters by Glib, new coloring by Charlie Kirchoff, originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #159 (April 1990), "with thanks to London Buses and British Rail for reference material"
But rather because the cover features One of My Favorite Things in the Whole Wide World™, The London Underground Map.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 337: All I want for Christmas is you

House subscription ad for DC romance comics (1965); printed in Girls' Love Stories #110 (April 1965)

A Four Color Christmas, Day 3: Christmas with sole

Cover of Four Color #253 [Christmas with Mother Goose] (November 1949), pencils and inks by Walt Kelly

Comics News for December 2, 2013

Top: from the Wonder Woman story "Slave of the Queen Bee!" in Adventure Comics #464 (July-August 1979),
script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Joséé Delbo, inks by Joe Giella, colors by Gene D'Angelo
Middle: from Avengers #74 (March 1970), script by Roy Thomas,
pencils by John Buscema, inks and colors (?) by Tom Palmer, letters by Sam Rosen
Bottom: from Blackhawk #229 (February 1967), script by Bob Haney,
pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Charles Cuidera, letters by Stan Starkman

Today in Comics History, December 2, 1942: Footnote from future allows Superman of past to detect the history of the present

from All-New Collectors' Edition #C-54 [Superman vs. Wonder Woman] (DC, January 1978), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by José Luis Garcia-López, inks by Dan Adkins, colors by Jerry Serpe, letters by Gaspar Saladino