Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Weird Western Tales

Weird Western Tales spun out of the second run of All-Star Western at DC, and featured as stars during its run Jonah Hex (Confederate soldier turned bounty hunter) and Scalphunter (white settler boy raised by the Native Americans).

Here, a focus on covers drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, with the added bonus of one of the Scalphunter covers featuring Bat Lash (prairie con man who was a quick draw).


Weird Western Tales #32 and #38 (January-February, 1976 and January-February, 1977)

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Weird Western Tales #39 and #46 (March-April, 1977 and May-June, 1978)

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...and, all three characters appeared on the cover of DC Special Series #16 (Fall, 1978), otherwise known as the Jonah Hex Spectacular!

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Celebrating Artist Mike Ploog

 

Celebrating the birthday of artist Mike Ploog (July 13, 1940) with a spotlight on early covers he did for Marvel Spotlight...

...featuring the Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell) and Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)!



Marvel Spotlight #3 and #4 (May and June, 1972)

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Marvel Spotlight #5 and #6 (August and October, 1972)

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Marvel Spotlight #7 and #8 (December, 1972 and February, 1973)

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Marvel Spotlight #9 (April, 1973)

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Saturday, July 12, 2025

Celebrating Artist Phil Jimenez

Celebrating the birthday of artist Phil Jimenez (July 12, 1970) with a special treat from the Triangle Era of Superman titles, with four covers that Phil did for the December, 1999 issues of Superman...

...Superman #151, Adventures Of Superman #573, Superman: The Man Of Steel #95 and Action Comics #760!

 



Friday, July 11, 2025

Superman And Lex Luthor

Superman and Lex Luthor had a long feud going on...


...and, in the Silver Age, it started back when Superman was a boy (as was Lex) in the small town of Smallville...




How Luthor Met Superboy!

The story of how Luthor and Superboy met was in Adventure Comics #271 (April, 1960), with a story by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino, under a cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye.  It began when young Lex saved Superboy from a Kryptonite meteor.  Luthor then took him to his farm home, and showed him his Superboy rescue collection (as Lex was a big fan).  In gratitude, Superboy built Luthor a laboratory, so he could conduct the scientific experiments he wanted to do.  Alone, Luthor discovered a chemical way of creating life.  Then, to show his gratitude for Superboy, thought to make a formula to make Superboy immune to Kryptonite.  While doing that, Luthor knocked over a vile of acid, starting a fire.  

Superboy came by, extinguishing the flame but destroying the protoplasmic life Luthor created, and the chemical mixture caused Luthor's hair to fall out.  Luthor, consumed with rage, blamed Superboy for the loss of his experiment and his hair, and began to plot to outdo the Boy of Steel.  Luthor had two inventions that were suppose to help Smallville (a solar reflector to keep the town warm all year, and fast growing seeds) but both had unexpected consequences, with Superboy stopping the problem and the town turning against Lex.  Luthor then retrieved the Kryptonite meteor and tried to use it to kill Superboy, and would have, had Luthor not tempted Superboy with the Kryptonite immunity formula, which Superboy inhaled.  Though the immunity was only temporary, the animosity between Luthor and Superboy would last.

The Luthor Nobody Knows!

In Superman #292 (October, 1975), under a cover by Bob Oksner, in a story by Elliot Maggin, Curt Swan and Bob Oksner, with a thoughtful Superman, repairing an airport recently damaged during a battle with Lex Luthor and his new super suit, as Luthor had caused Superman to lose control of his muscles, so Superman himself had done much damage to the airport as he worked to defeat Luthor.

Superman reflected back on his many encounters with Luthor over the years, how even as a student before he lost his hair, Luthor was arrogant and self-absorbed, but that after losing his hair, it only got worse.  Luthor's obsession cost him his friends, family and pretty much everything.  

Superboy still offered to help, but Luthor only responded back with hate, which was the ultimate difference between Superman and Luthor, the different between the power of love and hate.


  


Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Johnny Thunder All-Star Western

As the adventures of Johnny Thunder in the west started to wind down (and Johnny got a change from brown western duds to brighter red and blue), readers got an origin for Johnny Thunder (teacher John Tane, who was the son of a sheriff and a school teacher, whose mother made him promise never to use guns).  So, John came up with the alter ego Johnny Thunder, which allowed him to defend Mesa City, Arizona from all sorts of nefarious menaces, including Madame .44 (Jeanne Walker) who took her own secret identity to take from the rich and give to the needy (and, as later established, the two found out each others secrets, and married), all with art by Gil Kane, who sometimes inked himself, or was inked by Joe Giella or Russ Heath! The stories started being by Robert Kanigher, then were by Gardner Fox.


All-Star Western #108 and #109 (August-September and October-November, 1959)

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All-Star Western #110 and #111 (December-January 1959/1960 and February-March 1960)

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All-Star Western #112 and #113 (April-May and June-July, 1960)

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All-Star Western #114 and #115 (August-September and October-November, 1960)

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All-Star Western #116 and #117 (December-January, 1960/1961 and February-March, 1961)

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All-Star Western #118 and #119 (April-May and June-July, 1961)

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Sunday, July 6, 2025

Celebrating Artist John Byrne

Celebrating the birthday of artist John Byrne (July 6, 1950), but which John Byrne should we celebrate....the Marvel Comics' version, who worked on the Fantastic Four, or the DC Comics' version, who had an influential run on Superman?


Well, how about both, with the covers of Fantastic Four #249 (December, 1982) where he had Gladiator of the Imperial Guard stand in for Superman, and Superman #8 (August, 1987) with Legion of Super-Heroes' members (Sun Boy, Blok, Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid) standing in for the Fantastic Four?


Saturday, July 5, 2025

National Bikini Day 2025

Archie seems to prefer blondes... 

...and bikinis...

...as shown on these two covers for Laugh (#330 and #331, September and October, 1978, likely both by Dan DeCarlo) as we celebrate National Bikini Day.