Today in Comics History, January 14, 1911: Famous Polar explorer frees Willy

"Pioneers of Science: Roald Amundsen, Discoverer of the South Pole" and from Classics Illustrated #76 (Gilberton, October 1950), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 14, 1971: Hitchcock ordered to assassinate Tudor naval warship

from Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense (NBM, March 2022), script by by Noël Simsolo, translation by Monatan Kane, art by Dominique Hé, lettering by Ortho

Today in Comics History, January 13, 2020: Puerto Rican earthquake survivors indifferent to robot handing out paper towels

from "Legados" in Marvel's Voices: Community #1 one-shot (Marvel, November 2022), script by Amparo Ortiz, pencils and inks by Caio Majado, colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara, letters by Ariana Maher

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1943: Soldiers go to war armed with little sound effects

from "General Jacques LeClerc" in Real Life Comics #26 (Pines, November 1945), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1993: Passersby Were Amazed by the Unusually Large Amounts of Blood

cover of The Punisher War Zone (1992 series) #13 (Marvel, March 1993), pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Mark McKenna and Mick MGray

Today in Comics History, January 11: Happy birthday, Sam Kieth!

Born on this day: comics artist and writer Sam Kieth (remember: I before E after Sam K)! Sam's the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl and artist on many, many books including Batman: Secrets, Batman: Through the Looking Glass, Sandman, Lobo: Highway to Hell, Marvel Comics Presents, Wolverine/Hulk, Scratch, and much more!

I couldn't find a comics appearance of him (there's one in Dark Horse: Mavericks, but I don't have it!), so here's a page where he's he's meta-represented:


from Harley Quinn (2014 series) #0 (DC, January 2014), script by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, pencils and inks by Sam Kieth, colors by one'a these guys, letters by John J. Hill
Happy bierthday, Sam!

Today in Comics History, January 11, 1951: Goofball history is made as first man becomes hopped up on them

from Providence #11 (Avatar, March 2017), script by Alan Moore, pencils and inks by Jacen Burrows, colors by Juan Manuel Rodriguez, letters by Kurt Hathaway

Today in Comics History, January 10, 1897: Christina's World...sucks.

from The Dreaming (1996 series) #41 (DC/Vertigo, October 1999), script by Caitlín Kiernan, pencils and inks by Al Davison, colors and color separations by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Ellie de Ville

Today in Comics History, January 10, 1945: MacArthur sends his heartfelt tanks

from General Douglas MacArthur one-shot (Fox, 1951), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 10, 1776: First book signing at Messrs. Chas. M. Barnes and Gilb. Noble, Booksellers, gets out of hand

from "The Story of the War of Independence" in Picture Stories from American History #2 (EC, 1946), script by M. C. Gaines and W. W. D. Sones, pencils and inks by Allen Simon

Today in Comics History, January 9: Hideous tropical shirt results in man's death, even in black-and-white

cover of Extra! (1955 series) #1 (EC, March 1955), pencils and inks by Johnny Craig

Bisy backson

See ya soon, folks!

Today in Comics History, January 8, 1952: Cell phones not yet invented, so dining together is awkward

from Fantastic Four (2023 series) #1/694 (Marvel, January 2023), script by Ryan North, pencils and inks by Iban Coello, colors by Jesus Aburtov, letters by Joe Caramagna

Today in Comics History, January 6, 1935: Frankie settles the age-old question of whether it's called a carport or a carhole

from "Frankie the Pug" in Gangsters Can't Win v.1 #4 (D.S. Publishing, August 1948), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 6, 1854: Look, Henry, just admit you're lost

from "Ghost Ship!" in Crypt of Terror (1950 series) #19 (EC, August 1950); script, pencils, and inks by Al Feldstein, letters by Jim Wroten

Today in Comics History, January 6, 1988: Happy birthday, Dave Speakman!

Hope you survive the...oh, it's a Carnage story.

Never mind.


from Carnage (2022 series) #1 (Marvel, May 2022), script by Ram V, pencils and inks by Francesco Manna, colors by Dijjo Lima, letters by Joe Sabino

Today in Comics History, January 6, 1956: Happy birthday, Tina Lacey!

Hope you survive the...oh.


from "A Very Private Hell!" in Tales of Ghost Castle #3 (DC, September 1975), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Frank Redondo
Yes indeed, that's Lucien, later a cast member of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Today in Comics History, January 6: Lenny continues to teach us the true meaning of Christmas

from Simpsons Comics #79 (Bongo, February 2003), script by Ian Boothby, pencils by John Costanza, inks by Howard Shum, colors by Art Villanueva, letters by Karen Bates

Today in Comics History, January 6, 2021: Assholes gonna asshole

from New America #1 (Comixology, August 2022), script by Cury Pires, pencils and inks by Luca Casalanguida, colors by Mark Dale, letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Today in Comics History, January 5, 1945: Happy birthday, Mary Shaw! Hope you survive the...oh.

from "Out of This World" in The Phantom Stranger (1969 series) #4 (DC/National, November 1969), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Werner Roth and Neal Adams, inks by Murphy Anderson and Bill Draut, letters by Milt Snapinn (?) (or Ben Oda?)
Still, tune in on April 3 to find out what happened then!

This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Thanks, Blam!