Saturday, June 06, 2009

Separated at Birth: The DC Heroes Fight Plaque

The Best of DC #50, 62, 69
L: The Best of DC #50 (July 1984), art by Kurt Schaffenberger
M: The Best of DC #62 (July 1985), art by Joe Brozowski and Larry Mahlstedt
R: The Best of DC #69 (February 1986), art by Joe Staton
(Click picture to Oscar-size)


Say, just how do DC choose which stories are collected in their "Best of the Year" digests?

Best of DC #71
Cover of The Best of DC #71 (April 1986), art by Keith Giffen and Karl Kesel



365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 157

MAD #456 cover
cover of MAD #456 (August 2005), art by Mark Fredrickson

What I am having for breakfast this morning.

What I am having for breakfast this morning



Saturday Morning Cartoon: The Beatles "Got to Get You Into My Life"

In lieu of showing you clips from the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game that was announced this week, let's slip into our Yellow Submarines and zip back to the 1960s for some vintage Beatles animation!:


The Beatles "Got to Get You Into My Life" (1967), directed by Jack Stokes and featuring the voices of Lance Percival and Paul Frees
Read more about The Beatles cartoon here



Oh, what the heck:

Trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band, coming 9/9/9 from Electronic Arts


Whoa...looks fab! I'd buy it...but it's kind of hard to play the riffs in "I Am the Walrus" when you don't have any thumbs.

Rockin' out with my electric guitar



Friday, June 05, 2009

Los 4 Fantásticos Friday

Whoa, it's been a busy, busy week, so excuse the image-heavy content. But what better excuse than to wrap up the working week with a visit from those most amazing superheroes of Spain: Los 4 Fantásticos! ¡Ay, caramba!






















365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 156

What If? #26
Panel from What If? v.1 #26 (April 1981), (inhale) idea by Mike W. Barr, Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin script and creative contributions by Roger Stern & John Byrne, breakdowns by Herb Trimpe, finishes and inks by Mike Esposito, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Michael Higgins (exhale).



Thursday, June 04, 2009

Hercules, Player

Francois Boucher's 'Hercules and Omphale'Lo! And in those days, did gods walk the earth! Smiting! Fighting! Annihilating! And...loving!

And as Kevin Sorbo would tell us, the most pitching-woo-iest of the ancient gods was the Lion of Olympus, Hercules! (A slight change to the program: the part of Hercules in tonight's post will be played by the mid-nineties metrosexual version of Hercules.) Let us poor mortals now watch the wooing tactics of Mighty Hercules! (ules ules ules ules...)

Avengers Annual #23
Panels from Avengers Annual #23 (1994), script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema, colors by John Kalisz, letters by Susan Crespi
(Click picture to Steve Reeves-size)



Shucks, what with his arm candy of Tori Spelling and Shannon Doherty, us ordinary guys could take a lesson or two in picking up girls from Herc, huh?...And when Herc picks up girls, he picks up girls! (rimshot) But that old Greco-Roman temper is something he has to watch, because as Carrie Bradshaw might remind him in her popular weekly column syndicated in the Olympus Plain Dealer (it's Hera's favorite section of the paper, which always ticks off Zeus because it's on the back of the daily discus game sports section):

Are we all just looking for a Mister Big, a He-Man, holding our for a hero till the edge of night? And what happens when that super man turns into a super-jerk just because you happen to make a joke about the time he murdered his wife and kids? Is that a no-no in today's dating game? Are we all just in love with a hero who's really a zero?

Avengers #23
Avengers #23


Smooth move, Jerkules.

But that's crazy mulleted Hercules of the nineties, and I'm pretty sure his adventures have been rendered non-A-Canon by the events in Secret Civil Houses of the 198 Dark World War Hercs. For a look at how the real Herc would make the sweet, sweet kissy-ness, you oughta check out this or this or this or this...or you could just make with the clickety-click and check out this Herc, Prince of Passion:



Yes, millennium from now, humanity will have forgotten such mythical heroes as Knight Rider, Squirrel Girl, and Lou Grant, but forever shall we sing the praises of the man who can swoon himself a dozen lady-persons at the drop of a Grecian urn. What's a Grecian urn? About ten drachmas a...oh, I'm not gonna do that joke.


365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 155

What If? #34
Panel from What If? v.1 #34 (August 1982), script, art, and lettering by Fred Hembeck



Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Charley Weaver!

Charley Weaver!

Charley Weaver
Advertisement from Captain America #133 (January 1971)


Charley Weaver!


Charley on What's My Line


Charley Weaver!

\
The famous Charley Weaver bartender wind-up toy. Fun for the whole family!


Charley Weaver!



"I'll take Charley for the win, please, Peter": Charley Weaver on Hollywood Squares

Still hankerin' for some more Charley? Here's Charley's Myspace page. And here's a lovely little biography and salute to Charley and Cliff Arquette, the man who portrayed him.

Also, he's Patricia Arquette's grandfather and the original Mrs. Butterworth. Put that in your corncob and smoke it!

But I still don't know what his secret to making millions was. Perhaps the world will never know.


365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 154

Thing #3
Panel from The Thing v.1 #3 (September 1983), script by John Byrne, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Hilary Barta, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Rick Parker



Tuesday, June 02, 2009

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 153

MTIO #77
Panel from Marvel Two-in-One #77 (July 1981), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by7 Chic Stone, colors by George Roussos, letters by Michael Higgins


Say, let's take a closer look at Ben's get well cards, shall we?

MTIO #77

Wow, real nice of the rest of the FF to not even bother to sign the card with "Reed, Sue and Johnny." And of all the people to call Ben "Orange Skin," Captain America is the one I'd least expect. Still, nice of Stan to send a card. And hey look, Jim Shooter "niiids" the Thing!


Monday, June 01, 2009

Jack Russell, Player

Sure, Werewolf by Night, you may turn fuzzy, furry and feral every month at the dawning of the full moon...

Werewolf by Night #11
Panels from Werewolf by Night #11 (November 1973), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by Gil Kane, inks and letters by Tom Sutton, colors by Petra Goldberg


...but that doesn't mean that the fine, fine, ladies won't be ambushing you in their teeny-weeny polka-dot bikinis...

Werewolf by Night #11


...mackin' on your poor fuzzy werewolfy self like you rolled around in a puddle of Axe, Tag, Bod, or any other of the three-lettered body sprays..."Jet," "Ahi," "Cud," "Log," and "Pie" come to mind...


Werewolf by Night #11


Suddenly this becomes the swingin'est werewolf comic ever, right? Wrong! Like all nerds, Jacky boy is frightened of girls and follows the wisdom of Monty Python...RUN AWAY!



Werewolf by Night #11

It's too bad, because if the Hilton sisters back there in panels two and three had thought he was a real animal before, wait'll they get a load of Jack now!

Werewolf by Night #11


So, take it from Werewolf by Night...and for that matter from Hank McCoy and Wolverine...the 616 ladies loves them the furries.

Yep...you too, Rahne.

New Mutants Graphic Novel



365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 152

FF #543
Page from Fantastic Four #543 (March 2007), script by Dwayne McDuffie, pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Andy Lanning, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Rus Wooton

(Break a leg at your new job, Mr. O'Brien!)



Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ten of a Kind: Born to a mountain slide/You're gonna learn to take a dive


Charles Addams New Yorker cartoon, January 13, 1940



















(More Ten of a Kind here.)


365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 151

Captain Marvel #26
Cover of Captain Marvel #26 (May 1973), art by Jim Starlin and Frank Giacoia