Today In History

May 18, 2009

Hitting newsstands exactly 70 years ago today, May 18, 1939:

  • Jan 18, 2010
  • Jan 11, 2010
     
  • Jan 04, 2010
        I don’t…   …I… …they seem to be making this out to be a more difficult decision than it really ought to be. Maybe I’m just puzzled that they seem determined that they absolutely must shoot SOMETHING. Is it just me?
  • Dec 28, 2009
  • Dec 22, 2009
  • Dec 21, 2009
     
  • Dec 14, 2009
           In one image, the entire history of my relationship with women.
  • Dec 07, 2009
           “Or lynching.” (Speaking of “hands are tied” and all….)
  • Nov 30, 2009
       He has a cigarette machine built into his arm. That’s kind of the total opposite of crimefighting, in a way.
  • Nov 23, 2009
       I don’t wanna know.
  • Nov 09, 2009
    Previously in “Great Moments In Comics”: Jimmy Olsen blew up an entire mountain. And himself with it. I can’t get away from this story. It’s just too rich not to milk. So, more. It’s all from SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #93, the first issue published after the Adam West BATMAN show proved to be a... more
  • Nov 02, 2009
    The only thing that keeps this from being the greatest Jimmy Olsen story ever is that it doesn’t end here. Let’s just pretend that it does. 
  • Oct 12, 2009
    So in 1978, DC Comics included a Reader Survey in some of its books. (It was clearly a regional thing; I’d never seen one until BOOM! publisher Ross Richie stumbled across one in an old FIRESTORM at the Long Beach Comicon last weekend.)     The questions were the usual sort of demographic-gathering... more
  • Oct 05, 2009
        Don’t worry.  He survives.    By circling Saturn and coming back home. True.
  • Sep 28, 2009
    This week, I’m being sincere: this is my favorite page of comic art I’ve seen all year. From last week’s POWER GIRL #5, art by Amanda Connor:
  • Sep 21, 2009
    I don’t even know where to start.
  • Sep 14, 2009
    Subcategory: When artists, writers, AND colorists are all working at cross-purposes:   Hint: the key words are “gloved hands.”
  • Sep 07, 2009
    “Mass hysteria!” — Peter Venkman, 1984.
  • Aug 31, 2009
    Batman’s broken heart: Wait. It gets better.
  • Aug 23, 2009
    I don’t consider myself to be unusually squeamish… …but if I had seen this when I was five, I would have wept the bitter, stinging tears of a vaporized childhood.
  • Aug 17, 2009
    Romance comics. So wholesome. So innocent.
  • Aug 10, 2009
    Bucky and a friend try to disguise themselves as the Red Skull:     Unsurprisingly, it does not go well.    This is from 1941’s YOUNG ALLIES #1.  I could sustain an entire blog on this one comic book.
  • Aug 03, 2009
    The panel that launched a thousand Grant Morrison scripts:
  • Jul 27, 2009
    Can’t decide whether you’d rather read a story about bears or a story about ghosts? I HAVE GOOD NEWS.  
  • Jul 20, 2009
  • Jul 19, 2009
    Thrilling, I tell you. Thrilling.
  • Jul 12, 2009
    Y Kant Superman Read?  
  • Jul 05, 2009
    Tell me you don’t want to read this story RIGHT NOW.  Go ahead.  Tell me.     You are a LIAR.
  • Jun 29, 2009
  • Jun 22, 2009
    Subcategory–Favorite Things Green Arrow Just Happens To Carry Around In His Quiver:
  • Jun 15, 2009
    Greatest Title for a Hulk story EVER:     To be fair, it is only a Hostess ad.  And Twinkies save the day.  But the title makes me laugh out loud every time. “This Monster–THIS DECISION!” 
  • Jun 14, 2009
    Earth-2 discovered by Flash. Don’t look at me like that, I don’t make this stuff up.
  • Jun 08, 2009
    Subcategory: Perfectly innocent ads.  From the Charlton comics of summer 1985:
  • May 25, 2009
          I would bet you everything I own that the sound effect was added by the editor, not the writer. I loved Julius Schwartz like a grandfather, but he was not a fan of the more subtle moments.  
  • May 18, 2009
    Hitting newsstands exactly 70 years ago today, May 18, 1939:
  • May 18, 2009
        Dream on, pal.
  • May 11, 2009
            Danger: Criminal masterminds at work.
  • May 04, 2009
          I’m pretty sure this is not how to act on a date.
  • Apr 26, 2009
    Favorite Legion of Substitute Heroes member? Easy. Fire Lad. Why? Because he was the one who was already wearing his costume even before he unexpectedly got super-powers.
  • Apr 20, 2009
     Slowest.  News day.  Imaginable.
  • Apr 13, 2009
     Man, what rotten luck.
  • Apr 10, 2009
    Drawn & Quarterly announced this morning that October marks the release of a collection of one of my favorite, least-remembered comics series: Thirteen Going On Eighteen by John Stanley. One of the more successful Dell Comics runs of the 1960s, Thirteen is (a) an absolute riot of (b) brilliant... more
  • Apr 06, 2009
        Waid:  “Someday, I want to get around to doing a compilation of all the times Luthor pretended to go straight.” Peyer: “There isn’t a book big enough to hold it.”
  • Mar 31, 2009
    Tonight is the night of March 31st. Be careful out there tomorrow. Anything could happen.
  • Mar 30, 2009
    Note the eyepatch.
  • Mar 23, 2009
        All aboard.
  • Mar 16, 2009
    Special Exhibition Tonight at the Metropolis Museum of Art: FAMOUS FARM ANIMALS OF HISTORY. Name TWO. 
  • Mar 09, 2009
    Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the least fearsome criminals in all of Gotham City: the Yellow Sweater Gang.
  • Mar 02, 2009
    September 9, 1994. No, I didn’t remove any balloons. I didn’t touch this, my hand to God. I don’t think I ever read another newspaper comic strip after this.
  • Feb 23, 2009
      It’s the “Featuring” blurb that just kills me.  Next issue: “I Make The Handcuffs!” WHO WAS BUYING THESE COMICS? Edited to add: What hell time is it?  One-thirty-o’clock?
  • Feb 16, 2009
      I don’t even think this one needs a caption.
  • Feb 09, 2009
      “Cuff him, boys!”
  • Feb 02, 2009
    The dream: to be able to write comics in 1957, when people were SO MUCH MORE EASILY ENTERTAINED.
  • Jan 27, 2009
      This is actually the OPPOSITE of suspense.