Happy Birthday Supergirl

Today is considered the birthday of Supergirl, Superman's cousin, Kara Zor-El.

    

To celebrate, here is her first appearance and a major turning point in Supergirl's life!

Action Comics #252 (May, 1959)

Under a cover by Curt Swan and Al Plastino, with a story by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, debuted "The Supergirl From Krypton!".  Supergirl's rocket crash landed on Earth, and Superman was there to greet the young girl in a costume styled like his, who also had powers as he did.

Sent to Earth from Argo City (a section of Krypton that had survived the destruction of the planet, for a while) by her father, Zor-El, Kara came to Earth. 

Vowing to keep her safe and give her time to get used to Earth, Superman kept her as his secret weapon, with Kara not revealing herself to the world, and living as Linda Lee in Midvale Orphanage.

That status quo lasted for a while, with Linda getting adopted by the Danvers, but Supergirl was still a secret to the world at large until...

Action Comics #285 (February, 1962)

Under a cover by Curt Swan and George Klein, with story by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney, Superman finally reveals Supergirl to the world as "The World's Greatest Heroine!".  with many of her friends acknowledging it, including merboy Jerro, Linda's adoptive parents Fred and Edna Danvers and her friend from Midvale, Dick Malverne.

In a double sized story, Supergirl even faces the Infinite Monster alone after her big reveal, as well as getting a little help from her friends from the Legion of Super-Heroes (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5).

From here, the world looked a little brighter with Supergirl in it.

Remembering Artist Joe Kubert

Remembering artist Joe Kubert (September 18, 1926 - August 12, 2012) on his birthday.  Known more for his work on DC characters like Sgt. Rock, Hawkman and Viking Prince, here, a look back to the 1950s, with a fantasy caveman named Tor, and his pet monkey, Chee-chee; work done for the St. John company.

Even more fun...the first issue was named One Million Years Ago, while the second issue 3-D Comics, with 3 variant covers and sizes (and, the third even had additional material)....before the title of the book became Tor.

One Million Years Ago (September, 1953) and 3-D Comics #2 (1st comic, October, 1953)

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3-D Comics #2 (2nd magazine, October, 1953 and 3rd comic, November, 1953)

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Tor #3 and #4 (May and July, 1954)

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 Tor #5 (October, 1954)

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Tor lived in a prehistoric fantasy world, filled with dinosaurs and sabretooth tigers...a fun and fertile playground for an artist like Kubert.

Even DC and Marvel (and more!) had runs with Tor later...over multiple decades!

A pretty big achievement for just a caveman, but very worthy with that incredible Kubert art!

Still, because you might want to see Kubert at some of his usual haunts, a little Hawkman art is here, a covering of Ragman is here, and, a team up of Sgt. Rock and Viking Prince is here!

Batman Day 2023

Celebrating Batman Day in 2023 with a more recent classic cover, this, the Darwyn Cooke variant of Detective Comics #37 (February, 2015), with a very tired Bruce Wayne, resting after a hard night's work, being taken care of by his friend and butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Celebrating Artist Mike Grell

Celebrating the birthday of artist Mike Grell (September 13, 1947), with a look at his Batman covers from the 1970s.

Better known for his work with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, "Iron Mike" did do a small batch of work on Batman at the time with two 2 issues battles (one facing the Penguin, the other against Skull Dugger)...but, his commitment to his new series, the Warlord, stopped Grell from having a longer run on the series.

Batman #287 and #288, (May and June, 1977)

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Batman #289 and #290, (July and August, 1977)

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Bonus!  Extra Grell!  

Detective Comics #455 (January, 1976) and Batman Family #1 (September-October, 1975)

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Batman vs the vampire was covered here, and that Batgirl/Robin team up should get some love as well!

Happy Anniversary Super Friends

50 years ago, on this date, the Super Friends cartoon premiered on ABC, introducing the world to Marvin, Wendy and the Wonder Dog, who worked alongside the World's Greatest Super Heroes....Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, who had been in animation before (but not paired as the Super Friends).

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice (or, DC Comics), always on the lookout for more comics to produce, decided to make comics based on the Super Friends animated series, with the first issue of Super Friends cover dated November, 1976, and the title lasting 47 issues to August, 1981.

Along the way, the comics gave some back story to the animated series (Marvin White was the son of Daniel and Diana White, Diana being the lady who gave Wonder Woman her Diana Prince identity, while Wendy Harris was the niece of detective Harvey Harris, who helped train Batman).  The comics even facilitated the change from Marvin/Wendy to the Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna from Exor, with their monkey, Gleek).  

The comic also had the Super Friends operating as a subset of the Justice League of America, though the whole team did appear (at least up to Hawkgirl), as well as other heroes like Plastic Man, Supergirl and Black Orchid, as well as new international heroes like Green Fury, Ice Maiden, Rising Sun, Jack O'Lantern, Tasmanian Devil and more (who became the Global Guardians).

They also faced established DC villains not in the cartoon (like the original Toyman, Poison Ivy, Human Flying Fish, Grax, Time Trapper, Chronos, Hector Hammond and Queen Bee), a few solo villains who made it into the cartoon (like Penguin and Mirror Master) and even some of the members of the Legion Of Doom (though not together...individually, Cheetah, Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Grodd, Giganta and Sinestro), as well as villains only for the comic, like Menagerie Man and the Overlord.

Here's a few places that Super Friends tales were reprinted in....

Best Of DC #3 (January-February, 1980) 

This Digest, with cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Bob Smith, reprints Super Friends #3, #4 and #10...

...as well as Justice League of America #57 and Teen Titans #18.

Super Friends (July, 2001)

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This trade, with cover by Alex Ross, reprints Super Friends #1, #6, #7, #8, #9, #14, #21, #27 and the Toth stuff from the Limited Collector's Edition.

...and, in two volumes, all 47 issues were reprinted here, along with the Alex Toth Limited Collectors' Edition wraparound for two JLA tales!

Gorilla Labor With Jerry Lewis

Celebrating Labor Day, and in the bygone days, that would mean the MDA Telethon, hosted by Jerry Lewis, as he and his friends would monkey around on stage performing and having fun.

So. what's more fun that issues of Adventures Of Jerry Lewis, wherein Jerry faced a gorilla!

Adventures Of Jerry Lewis #41 and #86 (November 1957 and January-February, 1965)

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Art by Owen Fitzgerald/Graham Place and Bob Oksner.

Adventures Of Jerry Lewis #103 and #123 (November-December, 1967 and March-April 1971)

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Art by Neal Adams and Bob Oksner.

For more on the Adventures Of Jerry Lewis comic, check here!

Celebrating Artist Walter Simonson

Celebrating the birthday of artist Walter Simonson (September 2, 1946).  

It was a Herculean task finding which of his varied covers to highlight today....and that in itself suggested some of his earlier work, that of Hercules Unbound (the story of Hercules, let loose in a post-World War III world!).

Hercules Unbound #8 and #9 (December-January, 1976/1977 and February-March 1977)

Hercules Unbound #10 and #11 (April-May and June-July, 1977)

Hercules Unbound #12 (August-September, 1977)

For more on DC's world After Disaster (along with OMAC and the Atomic Knights), check here!  

And, thrill to Walt's Dr. Fate epic here!

Celebrating Edgar Rice Burroughs And Joe Jusko With Tarzan

Celebrating adventure, science fiction and fantasy writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and adventure, science fiction and fantasy artist Joe Jusko on their shared birthday of September 1 (Burroughs born in 1875, Jusko in 1959).

These two men intersected (though never met) as Joe Jusko supplied the art for the 20 authorized versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, examples of which are provided below, and you can purchase them (as well as Joe Jusko's Art Of Edgar Rice Burroughs) at ERB's website, where awaits adventures in the jungle, and beyond!

Tarzan Book 1 and 2

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Tarzan Book 3 and 4

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Tarzan Book Five and Six

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Tarzan Book Seven and Eight

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Tarzan Book Nine and Ten

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Tarzan Book Eleven and Twelve

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Tarzan Book Thirteen and Fourteen

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Tarzan Book Fifteen and Sixteen

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Tarzan Book Seventeen and Eighteen

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Tarzan Book Nineteen and Twenty

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Monster Kirby Diablo And Blip

Monsters were coming fast and furious to the Marvel Universe, as it lacked any heroes to protect it in the pre-Iron Man and pre-Ant-Man age, but again, average humans arose to meet the challenge of the unknown...

...and, here are two more monsters that faced humanity at that time (doubling up this time, as they both only had one appearance before the Fantastic Four).

Tales Of Suspense #9 (May, 1960)

First, "I Saw Diablo! The Demon From The Fifth Dimension!" (with a little help from Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers).  Diablo was a smoke demon from another dimension who came to Earth, simply looking for room (as his dimension was overcrowded).  Diablo landed in Mexico, and here, he was confronted by Ulysses Bloodstone (though this character wasn't invented until later, it was just a generic monster hunter in this issue).  Bloodstone lit a cigarette lighter and blew it out, making Diablo think humans could easily defeat him, so he went home.

Diablo seemed to have had enough of Earth.

Though all evidence shows he has not returned to Earth, Diablo was one of many aliens duplicated by Xemnu (including Goom, Taboo and our next monster) that Hulk faced in Hulk Annual #5 (November, 1976), and Bloodstone debuted in Marvel Presents #1 of July, 1975 

Tales To Astonish #15 (January, 1961)  

With this issue, "I Learned The Dread Secret Of The Blip!" as told by Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.  As Diablo was sentient smoke, Blip was living energy.  Going home from exploring another galaxy, Blip got trapped in a spacewarp and exhausted his energy getting free, and ended up on Earth to recharge.  As Blip did, he caused electrical outages for Oakville, attracting the attention of a radar operator who wasn't getting any signals.  He found Blip, learned of his story, but the pair were confronted by an angry mob.  Blip, horrified by the humans, attacked them, and then left, letting them know that their savagery convinced him not to share his secrets of the universe with humans.

Blip hoped humans would advance the next time he saw them.

There were a few other members of Blips race who encountered the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, and he too was duplicated by Xemnu, but Blip himself did return to help humanity against the Leviathons during the Monsters Unleashed 5 issue event of 2017.