There Is No Hope at Haley's Circus

Let us never forget that June 27, the day after the anniversary of the death of Bruce Wayne's parents on June 26, is the anniversary of the death of Dick Grayson's parents. (See: There Is No Hope at Haley's Circus 2013.)


Panels from Batman #436 (Early August 1989), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by Pat Broderick, inks by John Beatty, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by John Costanza

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 26

Each June for the past few years (2012, 2013) we've commemorated one of the most retold, one of the most iconic scenes in comic books: the shooting of Thomas and Martha Wayne Gotham's City's Park Row (and in an assortment of Elseworlds)...the dark back street later known as Crime Alley. It's a scene so seminal that it even appears in the pilot for Fox's new Gotham television series this fall.


Clip from the trailer for Gotham, premiering on Fox

The Adventures of Bully: Doodling on the Park Slope CSA sign-in sheet

That's Community Supported Agriculture, not Confederate States of America, by the way.

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 25

Panels from Batman: The Man Who Laughs one-shot (February 2005), script by Ed Brubaker, pencils and inks by Doug Mahnke, colors by David Baron, letters by Rob Leigh

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 24

Page from Batman and the Mad Monk #5 (February 2007); script, pencils, and inks by Matt Wagner; colors by Dave Stewart; letters by Rob Leigh

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 23

Page from Batman #561 (January 1999), script by Chuck Dixon, pencils by Jim Aparo, inks by David Roach, colors by Lee Loughridge, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History, June 23, 1953: World's first levitating car chase

from "Fellow Travelers" in The Witching Hour #1 one-shot (DC/Vertigo, December 2013), script by Lilah Sturges, pencils and inks by Shawn McManus, colors by Lee Loughridge, letters by Carlos M. Mangual

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 22

Panel from Nightwing (2011 series) #0 (November 2012), co-plot by Tom DeFalco, co-plot and script by Kyle Higgins, pencils by Eddy Barrows, inks by Eber Ferreira, colors by Rod Reis, letters by Carlos M. Mangual

Bully Eats Food: At Bark Hot Dogs

I need a bendy straw!


Update on July 25: I posted this photo and caption on Twitter last week...


...and Bark Hot Dogs just awarded me their Tweet What You Eat winner of the week! I won a whole growler of beer!


Now I really do need a bendy straw.

Thanks, Bark!

2016 Update: Sadly, they've closed.

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 21

Pages from Superman: Speeding Bullets one-shot (1993), script by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils and inks by Eduardo Barreto, colors by Les Dorscheid

Psylocke Psaturday is Back!: Okay, who ordered a ninja in a swimsuit?

We pretty much haven't seen hide nor purple hair of Psylocke for the past six months since she went through the Deux Ex Machina Siege Perilous, until she (literally) washes up on the shores of Uncanny X-Men #255 with that most conveeeeeeeenient of comic book maladies, amnesia.


Panels from Uncanny X-Men #255 (Mid-December 1989), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Marc Silvestri, inks by Dan Green, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Michael Heisler
Luckily all that sea water hadn't washed the beautiful purple shade out of her hair, which, we should remind you here, is dyed. Anyway, say goodbye to that version of Psylocke forever, or at least as forever as you can get in a Claremont comic without her angsting about it for a page every other issue. Now and forever — she is Lady Mandarin! Which, actually, was really just a preemptive attempt by Marvel to keep CBS from capitalizing on their popular weekly tie-in TV series The Mandarin (starring Lee van Cleef) by creating a female-fronted spin-off. Eh, who am I kidding...Marvel would never use that cheesy an excuse to create a character.


Cover of Uncanny X-Men #256 (Late December 1989), pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Scott Williams

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 20

Pages from Justice League (2011 series) #25 (January 2014); script by Geoff Johns; pencils by Doug Mahnke; inks by Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Keith Champagne, and Doug Mahnke; colors by Gabe Eltaeb, Tony Avina, and Rod Reis; letters by Nick J. Napolitano

Today in Comics History, June 20, 2012: The only happy marriage left in the Marvel Universe

house ad for Astonishing X-Men (2004 series) #51 (Marvel, August 2012), pencils and inks by Dustin Weaver, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 19

Panels from Smallville: Season 11 #24 (digital comic, November 2012),script by Bryan Q. Miller, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Marc Deering, colors by Wendy Broome and Carrie Strachan, letters by Saida Temofonte

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 18

Panels from Detective Comics #853 (April 2009), script by Neil Gaiman, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Scott Williams, colors by Alex Sinclair, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 17

Page from World's Finest Comics #288 (February 1983), script by Mike W. Barr and Marv Wolfman, pencils and inks by Adrian Gonzales, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Andy Kubert

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 16

Panels from "Berlin Batman" in The Batman Chronicles #11 (Winter 1988); script, pencils, and inks by Paul Pope, colors by Ted McKeever, letters by Ken Lopez

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 15

Cover of Batman Black and White (2013 series) #1 (November 2013), pencils and inks by Marc Silvestri, colors by...oh wait, never mind.

Today in Comics History, June 15: Black Baron returns from relaxing week-long vacation

from "The Diary of a Desperado" in Adventure Comics #145 (October 1949), script by Otto Binder, pencils and inks by George Papp

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 14

Panels from Batman: Detective #27 graphic novel (December 2003), script by Michael Uslan, pencils and inks by Peter Snejbjerg, colors by Lee Loughridge, letters by Kurt Hathaway