Sugar And Spike Get In A Jam

As talking babies tend to do...

...Sugar Plumm and Spike Wilson find themselves in a jam, on these two classic covers (Sugar & Spike #4 of October-November, 1956 and Sugar & Spike #22 of April-May, 1959) with art by strip creator, Sheldon Meyer.

Flash In Crisis

Flash disappeared during the Crisis On Infinite Earths...but, where did he go?

These two issues explained what happened to Barry Allen...

Flash #350 (October, 1985)

First, the end of an era.  

The last issue of the Flash since the start of the Silver Age, by Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino and Frank McLaughlin (with cover inked by Klaus Janson).  Here, Barry Allen finally ends his trial for the murder of the Reverse Flash, fights the Rogues one more time, deals with Abra Kadabra...and gets a Silver Age happy ending, as Iris Allen, thought dead for 75 issues, was really rescued by her future parents (well, her parents, who lived in the future, Eric and Fran Russell).  

But, all this foreshadowed something ominous....

Crisis On Infinite Earths #8 (November, 1985)

After a few issues, where readers see Barry in the 30th Century, living his best life with Iris, the Crisis comes to his time, and Flash starts appearing to heroes, warning them of the Crisis.  

This issue, by Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Jerry Ordway, along with all the other dimensional confusion and hero gathering, has Flash, in the headquarters of the Anti-Monitor in the anti-matter universe, dealing with Psycho Pirate and the Weaponers of Qward, with Barry realizing that to help save the multiverse, he has to destroy the Anti-Monitor's Anit-Matter Cannon..

....and, as his speed increases, he travels through time (mostly back, a little forward) to deliver warnings to the heroes (and, had other circumstances not happened, a hint of how to bring him back....).

An incredible moment in comics (even with all the updates and changes that have happened since...), with the loss of the character that so visually started DC's Silver Age.

Why talk about this today?  Well, on the CW Flash TV series, this was the date the Flash disappeared according to the Central City Citizen...and read here for a little history of the Crisis On Infinite Earths. as well as here, for a little on the Flash of Two Worlds which kicked off Flash's place with the multiple Earths, as well as how Flash got to now here.

National Picnic Day

Celebrating National Picnic Day, and what better way than a quick peek into Jellystone Park, the home of Hanna Barbera's Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, who usually spend their days looking for a picnic basket, much to the consternation of park Ranger Smith.

Along with all his animated success, Yogi Bear had a comic book that lasted for 42 issues at Gold Key (even if the first three issues were under their Four Color title), with the series ending in October, 1970.

Covers above are from Yogi Bear #32 and #35 (April, 1968 and January, 1969), and the second batch of covers from Yogi Bear #34 and #42 (October, 1968 and October, 1970), with surprisingly few covers with picnic baskets.

Reggie And Me On The Beach

A little fun on the beach...well, fun on the beach for Reggie Mantle, as he insults Archie Andrews in front of Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge on these two covers for Reggie And Me (#74 and #90, October, 1974 and September, 1976).

Happy Anniversary Mustang

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Ford Mustang that debuted at the New York's World's Fair on April 17, 1964 with this photo cover to Archie #443 (January, 1996, with art by Bill Golliher), as Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica get ready to leave school in style, all under the watchful eye of Miss Grundy and Principal Weatherbee.

 

Happy Birthday Actress Jennifer Garner

A happy birthday to actress Jennifer Garner (April 17, 1972) with this issue of Mad Magazine (#441, May, 2004) with a cover for their parody of her spy series, Alias.

Tax Day 2024

In space, no one can hear you scream....but they sure want you to pay your taxes.

These intrepid astronauts thought they had a windfall, but the IRS was there...on this cover to Archie's Mad House #31 (February, 1964) by Samm Schwartz.

Happy Birthday Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar

A happy birthday to Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar (April 14, 1977) with this cover to Mad Magazine #367 (March, 1998) by Mort Drucker...

...as Buffy spikes a vampire version of Alfred E. Neuman.

Celebrating Artist Amanda Conner

Celebrating the birthday of artist Amanda Conner (April 12, 1967)...but which series to choose...Harley Quinn or Power Girl?

Well, no sense making a choice, as their was a 6 issue mini-series featuring both Harley Quinn and Power Girl, which included Vartox!

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #1 and #2 (August and September, 2015)

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Harley Quinn and Power Girl #3 and #4 (October and November, 2015)

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Harley Quinn and Power Girl #5 and #6 (January, 2016)

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Remembering Artist Mac Raboy

Remembering artist Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy on his birthday (April 9, 1914 - December 12, 1967)...but instead of giving you some of his (many) Captain Marvel Jr. covers, here, instead is his covers for Bulletman, of which he did four...

...with Jim Barr going into adventures with his girlfriend, Susan Kent as Bulletman and Bulletgirl!

Mac also contributed to a few covers for America's Greatest Comics and Master Comics, which allow Captain Marvel Jr. to be snuck in here, along with Fawcett's other great characters: Spy Smasher, Captain Marvel, Minute Man and Mr. Scarlett!

Bulletman #2 and #3 (Fall 1941 and January 14, 1942)

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Bulletman #4 and #5 (March 11 and May 13, 1942)

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America's Greatest Comics #1 and Master Comics #22 (1941 and January, 1942)

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Caveman Bob Hope

Just a couple of covers featuring funny man, Bob Hope...

...as a caveman.

Adventures Of Bob Hope #43 (February-March, 1957) with art by Owen Fitzgerald and Graham Price, has Bob making time with a prehistoric hottie....and Adventures Of Bob Hope #88 (August-September, 1964) with art by Bob Oksner, shows Bob on the run, likely because of the trouble he always finds himself in! 

Remembering Artist Joe Orlando

Remembering Italian-American artist Joe Orlando on his birthday (April 4, 1927 - December 23, 1998).

Usually known for his horror art and editing, as well as dabbling in humor comics, he occasionally did super heroes, such as the covers and insides for Metamorpho #5 and #6 (March-April and May-June 1966).

April Fools With Vertigo Ambush Bug

As it is April Fools' Day, one could actually spend a whole month (and then some) focusing on Ambush Bug as done by Keith Giffen, but instead, just a peek at his Ambush Bug Nothing Special #1 (September, 1992), from a time when comics were very serious, especially DC's Vertigo line.

So, of course, as DC's continuity cop, Ambush Bug came along and had a little fun with Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Sandman and Death in Keith's 9 panel style.  

Because, why not?

Ambush Bug meets Swamp Thing and the Doom Patrol 

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Ambush Bug meets Sandman and Death

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Harley Quinn Scrambles Easter

To be fair, not sure Harley Quinn plans any violence to this Easter egg on this Frank Cho cover to Harley Quinn #72 (June, 2020)...

...but, knowing Harley and with Batman's symbol on it...that egg is likely scrambled by now! 

Secret Origins Of The Blue Beetle

At some point, heroes fall, and are replaced by other heroes.  That is now a frequent occurrence in comics, but it had gone on before.

Even before Blue Beetle reached DC Comics, back when he was a character at Charlton, there was a replacement of the original super powered Blue Beetle to a non-powered tech driven hero.

In cooperation with the Super Blog Team-Up, now the story of that switch can be told!

The Original Blue Beetle

Dan Garrett was an archeologist, premiering (at least this Charlton version) in Blue Beetle #1 (June, 1964) by Joe Gill, Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico.  On an Egyptian dig with his friend, Luri Hoshid, Dan ran afoul of a local warlord, General Amenhotep, who fancied himself a descendant of the original pharaoh.  Heading back to the excavation, there the duo went into the crypt of Kha-Ef-Re, with Dan seeing an azure scarab on the tomb.  Touching it put him in contact with an Egyptian god, who, seeing Dan was an honorable man, gave him the power of the Blue Beetle when Amenhotep had the tomb bombed.  As they tried to escape, Dan summoned the power of the scarab with the phrase Kaji Dha.  

Now as the Blue Beetle, Dan was ready to face the reawoken Kha-Ef-Re (brought back to life by the radiation in the General's bomb).  

Fighting off the mummy, Dan and Luri escaped the collapsing tomb, with Blue Beetle dealing with the General and leaving Luri, to pursue a life as an adventurer.

What an adventure it was, where Blue Beetle faced Communists unleashing a prehistoric thread (#2), the electric villain Mr. Thunderbolt (#3), the Preying Mantis Man (Hunter Mann) (#4) and the Red Knight (Lew Coll) (#5), then a slight hiatus, coming back with much higher issue numbers to fight Mister Crabb and his Scorpion machine (#50), the robot Mentor The Magnificent (#51), the Magno-Man (Dr. Louis Forte) (#52), the return of the Preying Mantis Man (#53) and the Eye Of Horus (#54, written by Roy Thomas).

But then Dan was gone again.  When Blue Beetle returned again, it was a new man, Ted Kord, with a more acrobatic, non super fighting style and a giant vehicle that he called the Bug.     

The Replacement Blue Beetle

Ted Kord was an engineer, premiering as a back up in Captain Atom #83 (November, 1966) by Steve Ditko with dialogue by Gary Friedrich.  Taking down the thug Killer Koke in his first appearance, Ted continued the fight against crime in his next appearance, taking down the Masked Maruader (#84) (Count Von Steuben, while avoiding his secretary Tracey, and Lt. Fisher (who was looking for missing archeologist Dan Garrett, whom Ted was a student of).  Facing a spy in a submarine and getting in trouble (#85), dealing with Tracey asking about Dan's disappearance (#86), then getting his own title with (another) Blue Beetle #1 (June, 1967) and facing a group of thieves called the Squids.

With Blue Beetle #2 (August, 1967), it is finally revealed what happened to Dan Garrett.  Ted went to Dan for help, as his Uncle Jarvis called Ted to help build robots.  But, those efforts stopped when Jarvis; lab blew up, supposedly killing Jarvis. Ted, going through his uncle's papers, found a map to Pago Island and plans to create a robot army.  Going to Dan for help, Ted accompanied Dan to Pago Island, where the duo saw their boat destroyed by a robot army, who took them to...the living Uncle Jarvis!  Jarvis planned on taking over the world with his robots, but, Dan turned into Blue Beetle.  During the melee, the lab exploded, wounding Dan, who asked Ted to carry on for him as Blue Beetle, but another explosion separated them.  Leaving the island, Ted took up the mantle of Blue Beetle, but his way, creating the ship, the Bug, as well as a strobe light gun and metallic mesh cowl, Ted would fight crime as a mortal man, doing the best he could.

His next cases included facing the Mad Men (#3), the Men of the Mask (#4) and the Destroyer of Heroes (#5) in his last published issue (though a planned #6 was done by the CPL Gang in a pair of issue, and later included in DC's Action Heroes Archive, where Ted faced the Specter (Amos Fend).

Ted had a few more appearances in Charlton Bullseye #1 (June, 1981), Americomics #3 (August, 1983 and Americomics Special #1 (August, 1983) before showing up with other Charlton heroes on Earth-4 in the Crisis On Infinite Earths, then in Secret Origins #2 (May, 1986) by Len Wein and Gil Kane....which led to his own DC title, and eventually to the Justice League, and, unfortunately, Ted's death, which kicked off the Infinite Crisis!

Another Blue Beetle?

Jaime Reyes was an ordinary student in El Paso, Texas, until an alien scarab bonded to him, turning him into the Blue Beetle. 

Sucked up in the events of Infinite Crisis by Booster Gold, but later, was able to find and work with Ted Kord.

The Rest Of The SBTU

Here, from an unreplaceable group of bloggers...

...the Super Blog Team-Up members...

...are a few more cases of times identities were filled by replacements!

Between The Pages Blog: 

I Am Groot! - The growth of Groot from a seed of an idea to the world's most beloved tree.

Source Material Comics Podcast:

WE KILLED JASON TODD!

Super-Hero Satellite:

The Reign Of The Supermen

Asterisk 51:

Not-So-Giant-Size X-Men

The Telltale Mind:

Replacement Heroes - When Marcus Johnson finally became Nick Fury

Newsprint Commando:

Monolith of the Elementals

Remembering Artist Steve Dillon

Remembering British artist Steve Dillon on his birthday (March 22, 1962 - October 22, 2016) with some of his very last covers...

...the covers for Convergence: The Atom #1 and #2 (June and July, 2015), featuring a team up of two Atoms...Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi.

Though he only did the covers for those two issues, Steve did the cover and interiors for The Atom Special #1 (May, 1993), which dealt with Ray Palmer starting to lose his grip on time, dealing the aftermath from his Sword of the Atom and Power of The Atom series, with an attack on his friend, Professor Hyatt, as well as his time foe, Chronos.

Happy St. Patrick's Day From Veronica

A Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all!

Celebrating here with Veronica #23 (September, 1992, with art by Rex W. Lindsey), wondering what's more valuable at the end of the rainbow, Veronica Lodge or the pot of gold?

Celebrating Artist Graham Nolan

Celebrating the birthday of artist Graham Nolan (March 12, 1962) with a look back at his work on a mini-series featuring Metamorpho.

Bringing the Element Man back to his basics, with him travelling the world to save the life of his son, Joey, looking for the Orb of Ra which gave him his powers.  Featuring the usual battles with Simon Stagg and adding female adventurer Jillian Conway to the mix, the game was ready to go as the billionaire was none too happy that Rex Mason married his daughter, Sapphire.

Metamorpho #1 and #2 (August and September, 1993)

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Metamorpho #3 and #4 (October and November, 1993)

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Time Runs Amok

Time, like Chronos, runs amok...as Daylight Saving Time is upon us again as an hour is stolen from our weekend.

Here, Blue Beetle fights the time thief (and Atom foe) in Blue Beetle #10 (March, 1987) in a Legends crossover with a cover by Paris Cullins and Bruce Patterson...

...setting the stage for a return battle in Blue Beetle #22 (March, 1988) with cover by Chris Wozniak and Keith Wilson.

Celebrating Artist Al Milgrom

Celebrating the birthday of artist Al Milgrom (March 6, 1950), born in Detroit, Michigan.  

Al was the co-creator of Firestorm (with both Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein), as well as his most fearsome foes...

..being Multiplex, Killer Frost and the Hyena, in Firestorm's first five issues that came out in the 1970s.

Firestorm #1 and #2 (March and April, 1978)

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Firestorm #3 and #4 (June and August-September, 1978)

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Firestorm #5 (October-November, 1978)

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Millie The Model Goes To London

Millie the Model was usually a wholesome, American model, but, for two special issues of her title, blonde bombshell Millie and her friend, redhead Chili Storm, went to London to take advantage of the mod scene...first in Millie The Model #147 (March, 1967) with a cover by Bill Williams, and the second in Millie The Model #153 (September, 1967) with a cover by Ogden Whitney.

Millie got a bit of a make over after that last issue as well, changing format and art style, to become more of an Archie style humor comic as opposed to romantic soap opera, with art by Stan Goldberg, up until her final issue (#207) in December, 1973.