Saturday, May 16, 2015

Teniversary Countdown #10: You finally made always make a monkey out of me


Panel from "Jungle Jimmy Olsen" in Jimmy Olsen #10 (February 1956), script by Otto Binder, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Ray Burnley

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 136: Darth Vader is Handy Around the House


Panels from Darth Vader #4 (June 2015), script by Kieron Gillen, pencils and inks by Salvador Larroca, colors by Edgar Delgado, letters by Joe Caramagna

Friday, May 15, 2015

Teniversary Countdown #11: The one guy shoulda bought a yellow suit


Panel from Green Lantern (1960 series) #10 (January 1962), script by John Broome, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Joe Giella, letters by Gaspar Saladino

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 135: We're boned


Panels from Star Wars (1977 Marvel series) #87 (September 1984), script by Jo Duffy, pencils and inks by colors by Michael Higgins, letters by Rick Parker

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Comics News for May 14, 2015


Top: from "At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin!" in Batman #241 (May 1972),
script by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Irv Novick, inks by Dick Giordano
Middle: from Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe one-shot (November 1995); script by Garth Ennis; pencils by Dougie Braithwaite; inks by (choose one of the following) Robin Riggs, Michael Halbleib, Sean Hardy, Martin Griffith, Don Hudson, or John Livesay; colors by Shannon Blanchard and Tom Smith; color separations by Malibu; letters by Bill Oakley
Bottom: from "With My Hammer In Hand…!" in Journey into Mystery #120 (September 1965), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 134: Up creek without paddle am I


Cover of Star Wars #20 (June 2004); pencils, inks, and colors by Tony Millionaire

Teniversary Countdown #12: The Greatest Green Lantern of Them All


from Justice League International (1987 series) #10 (February 1988), plot and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, script by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Al Gordon, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by Bob Lappan

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Wonderful World (-616) of Color

Children of the atom! Students of Charles Xavier! Mutants! Feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect! These are the strangest heroes of them all: The X-Men! Or, if you're Spanish, Patrulla-X! (That's the X-Men with paella on the side, and your choice of flan!)

Of course, the early overseas editions of Marvel comics occasionally suffered from...shall we say...some odd interpretations on their covers. As exhibit A, I give you: Los 4 Fantásticos!

But even when comic companies publish licensed Marvel Comics and use the original cover art, things sometimes get a little...colorful. May I present a Technicolor look at Marvel's Merry Mutants as seen in Spain: Los Weirdly-Colored Hijos del Átomo!

For instance, here the X-Men face off against the menace of...The Blue Magneto!





And the daisy-colored peril of Yellow Juggernaut!







Not to mention Red Polaris!





Can the X-Men survive The Christmas Sentinels? They'd better watch out!





And this is either The Red Beast or Wolverine with a Suntan! SPF, Logan! SPF!





But none of this can prepare you for the Sensational Character Find of 1980, Caucasian Blonde Storm! She's the mutant superhero even Nigel Farage can love!





Yes, Caucasian Blonde Storm! And her team-mate, Caucasian Blonde Nightcrawler!





And their team-mate, Emerald Colossus!





And they're all fighting against Blonde Jean Grey! Okay, okay, I'll admit this one's kinda pushing the joke. But she's Jean Blonde!





Yes, yes, yes, we laff and laff at Patrulla-X's weirdly colored X-Men. Still, it's not quite as bad a stretch as what Australia's Newton Comics did to the X-Men. Not only is Magneto color-coded by a six year old, but the original yellow-and-blue X-Men costumes have been recolored to try to look like their post-X-Men #39 new costumes! And not only what the Sam Scratch is up with the Beast's skin color, but is that monkey bar really hanging from the Avengers logo?!?





Here's an only slightly better attempt to match the original X-Men with their redesigned costumes. Makes you long for that free inside super color poster, doesn't it?





Yes, Newton Comics: home of Black Light Captain America!





And Yellow Daredevil!





Whoops. Well, here's Yellow Daredevil!





There's a lesson in all of this, and that lesson is: foreign comics sometimes get the coloring wrong, and we should laugh at them for that! Though, to be fair, Patrulla-X did eventually come out in a correctly colored version. Except they set the whole scene on a dirt road somewhere outside Hooterville.





Still, they even colored Samuel L. Jackson as a white man.


Teniversary Countdown #13: Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Hey kids, comics! Fun, delightful, laugh-inducing comic books!


Panels from "Superman Goes to Prison" in Action Comics (1938 series) #10 (March 1939), script by Jerry Siegel, pencils by Joe Shuster, inks by Joe Shuster and/or Paul Lauretta, letters by Paul Lauretta

Whoa! That's some pretty serious brutality in our comical book there. Let's turn the page. I'm sure it will be much better there...


Oh dear! oh my oh my. Let's hurry along where I'm sure here will be a light and funny bit featuring Clark Kent and his co-workers...


AIEEEEE! This funny book is makin' me scared! Protect me, Superman! Help me, Man of Tomorrow! Do something heroic!


S-S-S-S-S-Superman? Did you really just say


Superman! Adventure champion of children the globe over!


365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 133: Taken…in Space!



Panels from Star Wars Episode I: Qui-Gon Jinn one-shot (May 1999), script by Ryder Windham, pencils by Robert Teranishi, inks and colors by Chris Chuckry, letters by Vickie Williams

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Teniversary Countdown #14: Because of course that's what happens in an Aquaman story


Panel from Aquaman (1962 series) #10 (July-August 1963), script by Jack Miller (?), pencils and inks by Nick Cardy

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 132: Threepio had that sinking feeling


Panels from Star Wars: Starfighter: Crossbones #1 (January 2002), script by Haden Blackman, pencils by Ramon Bachs, inks by Raul Fernández, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Steve Dutro

Monday, May 11, 2015

Teniversary Countdown #15: Remember back when they'd give a villain her own series? Oh wait


Panels from Harley Quinn (2000 series) #10 (September 2001), script by Karl Kesel, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson, colors by Alex Sinclair, letters by Ken Lopez

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 131: One of these rebels will die at the hands of Darth Vader! Can you guess which one?

Whoops! This shoulda been yesterday.


House ad for Star Wars #2 (August 1977), pencils and inks by Steve Leialoha, printed in The Invaders (1975 series) #19 (August 1977)

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Teniversary Countdown #16: Quiet or papa spank


Panels from "The Isle That Time Forgot!" in Batman (1940 series) #10 (April-May 1942), script by Joseph Greene, pencils and figure inks by Jerry Robinson, background inks and letters by George Roussos

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 130: Now she back in the club in a tight dress / With dreams of someday wearing a white dress

Never forgot: now that Leia Organa is a Disney Princess, she gets all sorts of fabulous fashions and accessories and probably a Princess Song but we all heard her sing in that Holiday Special so no thank you Carrie Fisher!





Panels from Star Wars (1977 series) #95 (May 1985), script by Jo Duffy, pencils by Cynthia Martin, inks by Steve Leialoha, colors by Glynis Oliver-Wein, letters by Rick Parker

Today in Comics History, May 10, 1962: Clams on Wilted Lettuce go on strike


Panel from C.O.W.L. #4 (Image, August 2014), script by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel, pencils and inks by Rod Reis, colors by Stéphane Perger, letters by Troy Peteri