Just Married

Just Married, a romance comic from Charlton, that lasted for 114 issues from January, 1958 to December, 1976...

...here, with a couple of covers from Luis Avila (#61 and #84, from November, 1968 and April, 1972).

Archie Knows Football

Archie Andrews knows football (as show by Archie #250 of February, 1976, by Dan DeCarlo and Rudy Lapick)...or does he (as shown by Archie #268 of February, 1978, with unidentified artists). 

Remembering Artist Rich Buckler

Remembering artist Rich Buckler on his birthday (February 6, 1949 - May 19, 2017) with a couple of his covers for Secret Society of Super-Villains (#13 and #14, March and April-May, 1978), where Captain Comet, the hero dedicated to fight the villains, gets thrown off the dimensional path, so instead of following them to Earth-2, ends up on Earth-3, where he fights the villains who looked like heroes, the Crime Syndicate of America, specifically Johnny Quick, Superwoman and Power Ring.

Celebrating Artist Val Semeiks

Celebrating artist Val Semeiks on his birthday (February 5, 1955) with a couple of his covers to The Demon (issues #23 and #24, of May and June, 1992),  where the reader is reminded that Etrigan lives in Gotham, as Robin and Batman get involved in his adventures with the Howler, yet it ends up being Jason Blood's girlfriend, Glenda Mark, who solves the problem.

The Wedding Of Karate Kid and Queen Projectra

After a whirlwind romance, and a long period of courtship, Karate Kid and Queen Projectra finally got married.

But, where did this love affair start?

A quick look below....

Adventure Comics #346 (July, 1966)

With "One Of Us Is A Traitor" by Jim Shooter and Sheldon Moldoff, with a cover by Curt Swan and George Klein, the Legion welcomed four new members to their ranks...Karate Kid (Val Armorr) from Earth, Princess Projectra from Orando, Ferro Lad (Andrew Nolan) from Earth and Nemesis Kid (Hart Druiter) from Myar.  These four had to prove themselves to the other Legion members, and did.  

They joined right in time, as Earth and the United Planets were menaced by a new warlike race called the Khunds...and it seems Earth's defenses were being destroyed by a member of the Legion...Karate Kid.

That was not true, and the real traitor was reveal, and the other three remaining on the team...with Val and Jeckie falling in love.  Val had to endure many trials to eventually wed his Princess...but was only finally able to after the death of her father, when she became Queen of Orando.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2 (September, 1983)

Under a cover by Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt, with a story by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen and Dave Gibbons, Val and Jeckie were finally married in "Whatever Gods There Be...". 

Legion wedding are usually big affairs, and this one was as well, with the full Legion membership gathering from their busy adventures...

...as the team had just fought off Darkseid, and was busy restoring Daxam from the damage he did to Mon-El's homeworld, and another group (including Supergirl) just fought the Emerald Empress of Fatal Five.

Strangely enough, the wedding was relatively uneventful on Jeckie's home planet of Orando, but a team of Legion members (including Dream Girl and Ultra Boy) were accidentally sent back in time to ancient Greece, where they encountered aliens who were pretending to be the Greek gods.

Still, the marriage happened, and the two could live on her planet in peace (well, for a too short time....).

Celebrating Artist Ron Frenz

 

Celebrating the birthday of artist Ron Frenz (February 1, 1960) with the American Dream...

...a heroine from Earth-982, a near future approximation of the Marvel Universe, with the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson as Spider-Girl, and a next generation of Avengers)....who is Shannon Carter, the cousin of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, who idolized Captain America, trained in his combat techniques, and eventually got Captain America's shield.  Debuting in A-Next #4 (January, 1999) to join those Avengers, Shannon then had her own 5 issue mini-series.

A-Next #4 (January, 1999) and American Dream #1 (July, 2008)

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American Dream #2 and #3 (July and , August 2008)

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American Dream #4 and #5 (August and September, 2008)

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Star Trek On Android

More schenanigans from Q...this time around, Q turns the Enterprise-D crew into Soong type androids like Data, and they learn while Data has incredible abilities, he also lacks the humanity of the crew, in this two part story from Star Trek: The Next Generation #79 and #80 (January and February, 1996) by Michael Jan Friedman, Gordon Purcell and Terry Pallot, with Gordon and Terry providing the covers.

Celebrating Artist Steven Butler

Celebrating the birthday of artist Steven Butler (January 29, 1965) with a couple of his covers for Nightwatch (#5 and #6, August and September, 1994), wherein the hero (the Spawned Nightwatch) faces off against Venom.

Celebrating Artist Frank Miller

Celebrating artist Frank Miller on his birthday...here, with a couple of his earlier efforts at Marvel, drawing two Star Trek covers (#5 and #10, August, 1980 and January, 1981), as the crew of the Enterprise had just come out of their movie debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Celebrating Artist Sal Buscema

Celebrating artist Sal Buscema on his birthday (January 26, 1936) with a couple of his Sub-Mariner covers (#34 and #35, February and March, 1971), wherein Sub-Mariner joins forces with the Hulk and Silver Surfer (setting the stage for the Defenders, though Doctor Strange would replace Silver Surfer for a time).

Remembering Artist John Romita

Remembering artist John Romita on his birthday (January 24, 1930 - June 12, 2023) with a couple of his covers to Amazing Spider-Man (#66 and #67, from November and December, 1968) featuring the master of illusion....Mysterio!

Celebrate Thor's Day With Him

Fresh from his hatching out of his cocoon in Fantastic Four #67 (October, 1967, with cover by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott), the creature created by the Enclave, known as "Him", faced Thor and Sif in Thor #165 and #166 (June and July, 1969, covers by Kirby and Vince Colletta)...and would then later return in Marvel Premiere #1 (April, 1972, covers by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins) as the man called Adam Warlock!

Celebrating Artist Joe Staton

Celebrating artist Joe Staton on his birthday (January 19, 1948), here with his last two issues of Green Lantern Corps...#221 (February, 1988), featuring a Millennium crossover, and #222 (March, 1988), featuring what looked like a final end to Sinestro (which actually led to the end of the Green Lantern Corps!).

Joe was also busy at this time, drawing all eight issues of Millennium!

Celebrating Artist Frank Quitely

Celebrating the birthday of artist Frank Quitely (January 18, 1968) with the covers to his 4 issue mini-series featuring Flex Mentallo...

...with some surreal reflections of a comic book character and his interactions with the real world.  

Flex Mentallo #1 and #2 (June and July, 1996)

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Flex Mentallo #3 and #4 (August and September, 1996)

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Star Trek Dax's Comet

Jadzia Dax discovers a comet headed toward the wormhole, which causes a religious sect to proclaim doom coming to Bajor.  Major Kira Nerys has to deal with her people as Jadzia and the Deep Space Nine crew deal with the comet in these two issues of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (#14 and #15, September and October, 1994. with covers by Leonard Kirk and Terry Pallot, and stories by Jerry Bingham, Tim Eldred and Bruce McCorkindale).

Happy Anniversary To The Bionic Woman

On January 14, 1976, the Bionic Woman debuted as her own show, spinning off from the Six Million Dollar Man, and featuring Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers, the titular hero, who had a skydiving accident, resulting in the replacement of her legs, one arm and one leg with bionics.  Enhanced, she went on missions for the OSI under Oscar Goldman for 3 seasons (occasionally working with Steve Austin).

The show ended on May 4, 1977...but Dynamite comics gave readers a season four, a four issue mini-series, with covers by Sean Chen, where she faces Fembots.

Bionic Woman: Season Four #1 and #2 (September and October, 2014)

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Bionic Woman: Season Four #3 and #4 (November and December, 2014)

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Holy Anniversary Batman

Yes, citizen, on January 12, 1966, kids across the country thrilled to the debut of the Batman TV show, with Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and as his first villain....Frank Gorshin as the Riddler!

The show would last 3 seasons and a movie, introducing many villains as well as Batgirl to the TV audience.

But, DC was finally nice enough in March, 2014 (with cover by Amanda Connor) Batman: The TV Stories, which featured the issues below, highlighting stories and villains from the series such as the Riddler, the Penguin, the Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze (then called Mr. Zero in the comic) and the Joker, as well as later addition, Batgirl (and the LACK of a Catwoman story is a crime!).

Riddler - Detective Comics #140 (October, 1948) and Batman #171 (May, 1965)

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Joker  - Batman #53 (June-July, 1949) and #73 (October-November, 1952)

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Mad Hatter and Mr. Zero (Freeze) -  Detective Comics #230 (April, 1956) and Batman #121 (February, 1959)

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Penguin and Joker - Batman #169 (February, 1965) and Detective Comics #341 (July, 1965)

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A death trap and Batgirl - Detective Comics #346 (December, 1965) and #359 (January, 1967)

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For more information, check here on Adam West, and here for more on Batman's rogues!

Star Trek Klingons

Q has put the crew of the Enterprise-D through a few traumatic events, but nothing like when he turned the human members of the crew into Klingons!  In Star Trek: The Next Generation #33-#35 (Early July, Late July and Early August, 1992, with first two covers by Jerome Moore and the third by Jason Palmer, and stories by Michael Jan Friedman, Ken Penders and Pablo Marcos), a slightly more hostile Enterprise crew makes their way through the final frontier...

Celebrating Artist Boris Vallejo

Celebrating the birthday of noted artist Boris Vallejo (January 8, 1941), with a couple of his covers to Savage Sword Of Conan (#7 and #10, August 1975 and February, 1976).

Boris did much work for Marvel, including tales featuring Ka-Zar, vampires and zombies!

Remembering Artist Bruno Premiani

Remembering artist Bruno Premiani on his birthday (January 4, 1907 - August 17, 1984) with My Greatest Adventure....the earliest appearances of the Doom Patrol, where he, Arnold Drake and Bob Haney created the Chief, Robotman, Elasti-Girl and Negative Man, and their vilest villain, General Immortus.

Bruno didn't do the cover to #85, but the Doom Patrol took over the title with #86 with the introduction of the Brotherhood of Evil.

My Greatest Adventure #80 and #81 (June and August, 1963)

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My Greatest Adventure #82 and #83 (September and November, 1963)

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My Greatest Adventure #84  (December, 1963)

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Star Trek Covered By Jim Starlin

A couple of Star Trek covers from the time between Star Trek III and Star Trek IV, when DC had the license.  Here, in issues #24 and #25 (March and April, 1986), Kirk and the Enterprise crew faced off against waring races, the Ajir and the Grond...all under covers by Jim Starlin, with interiors by Diane Duane, Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran.

Remembering Artist Don Heck

Remembering artist Don Heck on his birthday (January 2, 1929 - February 23, 1995) with a couple of covers from his Flash run....here, facing a little gorilla warfare, fighting against Gorilla Grodd in Gorilla City from issues #294 and #295 (February and March, 1981).