Monday Night Murals: Four Horsemen Came Riding

Are there any three words more beloved by comic book fans than To Be Continued? (Well, maybe "Batman versus monkeys".) There's nothing quite like the thrill of a well-written cliffhanger that leaves you eagerly panting for the next month's issue, hangin' around Pop's Sodium Shop with your quarter in yoru hot little hand, bugging the soda jerks about when the new comics will be in. ("Are they in yet?" "No." "Are they in yet?" "No." Are they in yet?" "Get outta here, kid!") After all, how else will you find out whether Spider-Man will escape the fangs of the Hungry Hungry Hippo, or if Superman will manage to foil Lois's plan to crush the universe under her Jimmy Choos? Why, with a month-long wait like that...maybe they might die! (Probably not.)

My point...and I do have one...is that sometimes it's not merely the story that's to be continued but also the cover of the comic book. Welcome to the very first installment of Monday Night Murals, the new Bully-feature that spotlights, once a week, and prob'bly on Mondays (if not, then see you on Muesdays or Mhursdays), multiple comic book covers that form a single image when put together. Why, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle, except without weird jaggedy edges, and you have to wait a month between putting down each piece!

Except for this one! I wanna start with one of my favorite mural-covers, a quartet of DC comics from 1988 tying into "Week 4" of the big Millennium crossover, the line-wide event that gave us those superstars of the DC Universe, The New Guardians! That popular supergroup defined DC for the eighties and consisted of...um...er, the Floronic Man was one of them, right?...everybody remembers the flamboyant gay guy, don't they?...and then there was...er...well, hey, the Eskimo guy with the really racist nickname! He was in it, wasn't he? And, hmm, Snapper Carr, and Alfred Pennyworth, and Rick Jones, and Tawny Kitaen.

At the time, I thought it was pretty cool that Millennium coincided with the Harmonic Convergence, but what impresses me now is a convergence of a different sort: the four-comic mural formed by the Week Four crossover between Captain Atom, Firestorm, Batman, the Suicide Squad, and the Spectre...and I think it would go something like this:

L-R: Captain Atom #11, Suicide Squad #9, Detective Comics #582, The Spectre #10, art by Jerry Bingham (January 1988)

(Click picture to millenni-size)

I've matched 'em up as best I can so that you can see all four comics have their characters approaching, ready to team up at the drop of a cowl. (Fittingly, Batman's gonna get there first.) For a few moments when I was putting them together tonight I nearly had my little stuffed brain blown by the mistaken thought that The Spectre would connect with Captain Atom, turning it into a ring of adventure! It doesn't, although I bet if Jerry Bingham thought about it, he woulda done so.

I like this DC mural not merely because it combines four different comic titles into one picture (most murals occur within a single title), but that it's the pictorial definition of the storyline: it's a crossover waiting to happen. Long after I've forgotten the plot of these books and of Millennium (and I think it may be best forgotten), I look fondly on these four covers...laid out on the floor in a row so I can gaze at 'em.

Next week: another exciting comic book mural! Which one will it be? I don't know yet! (But it'll be a cool one.) As they say in the comic books, kids...to be continued!

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 327

Panel from Marvel Two-in-One #10 (July 1975), script by...who else?...Chris Claremont, pencils by Bob Brown, inks and colors by Klaus Janson, letters by John Costanza

Ten of a Kind: Is he tough? Listen, bull...he's got a bright red Spidey-Signal!

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 326

Panel from What If Doctor Doom Had Become the Thing? one-shot (February 2005), script by Karl Kesel, pencils and inks by Paul Smith, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Randy Gentile

Separated at Birth: Don't go in the water for one hour after after dying

L: [Uncanny] X-Men #101 (October 1976), art by Dave Cockrum
R: Avengers West Coast #71 (June 1991), art by Tom Morgan and Danny Bulandi

(Click picture to Titanic-size)

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 325

Panel from What If? v.2 #11 (March 1990), script and pencils by Jim Valentino, inks by Hilary Barta, colors by Tom Vincent, letters by Phil Felix

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Mr. Magoo for Stag Brew

1960s Mr. Magoo animated commercials for regional midwest beer Stag Brew, commercials created by United Productions of America

Wolvie needs food badly.

Cover of Marvel Comics Presents #93 (December 26, 1991), art by Todd Foxx

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 324

Panel from The Thing: Freakshow #1 (August 2002), script by Geoff Johns, pencils by Scott Kolins, inks by Andy Lanning, colors by David Self, letters by Randy Gentile

All these comics and not one Dark Reign tie-in.

Marvel Comics subscription ad, as seen in Werewolf by Night #29 (May 1975)

So you think there's a lot of Marvel Comics to buy each month in 2009...check out 1975! Sure, there's no multiple Avengers or X-Men or Spider-Man titles, but look what you would get: classic cancelled comics like Arrgh! Frankenstein! War is Hell! Our Love Story! Chamber of Chills! (That last one, by the way, was just a refrigerator.)

If you look at that subscription list carefully, can you count the number of titles that are still around today without having been rebooted to a new #1 at some point? Go ahead, start counting...I'll wait for you right here...keep counting...write down the numbers if you need to...

That's right...NONE! Not a single one of these titles had an uninterrupted run; every single one of them was either cancelled or renumbered to start a new series, and only a handful (Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Thor) have resumed their regular numbering. In fact, there's only one title currently being published by Marvel that still retains its original numbering without having been rebooted...and it ain't on the list, not quite. Give up? Uncanny X-Men, very nearly cancelled but not quite, was in reprints until 1975. Giant-Size X-Men, which is on this list, would herald in a new age of confusing crossovers, Chris Claremont's fetishes, and, eventually, Gambit.

Speakin' of Giant-Size X-Men #1, wouldn't you have loved to pick that up at its 1975 price of 50¢? Or for that matter, any book on this list...or why not...all of them? Just for fun, I computed that if all of these books came out in one single month (they didn't, but work with me here)...they'd cost you a total of $31.50. You'd get eighty-six comics for your money. And one of them would be



Comic: 35¢.
Spidey fighting the Mole Man while the multi-ethnic pop group The Short Circus perform their new hit "Jelly Belly" above him? Priceless.



From The Electric Company: Morgan Freeman as DJ Mel Mounds introduces The Short Circus (including Irene Cara!) sings their #1 hit single "Jelly Belly." Hey, Rita Moreno digs it!

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 323

Panel from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #48 (June 2009), script by Paul Tobin, pencils and inks by Denis Medri, colors by Soto Color, letters by Nate Piekos
(Click picture to retweet-size)

Spider-Ham, Spider-Ham/Does whatever a Spider can/Gets into lots of scuffles/Catches thieves just like truffles

Cast of characters from the Marvel/Star comic book Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham, full-page by Steve Mellor from Marvel Age Annual #3 (1986)
(Click picture to ham-size)

I'm very fond of Marvel's attempt at the venerable funny-animal parody comic, Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham...it was one of the few kid-oriented Star Comics that actually had an appeal to pre-exsiting Marvel fans. Populated by characters whose names were groan-inducing, delightfully-bad animal puns on Marvel's super heroes (Deerdevil! The Fantastic Fur! Goose Rider! Ducktor Doom!) and some distinctive fluid and delightfully cartoon-inspired art (mostly by Joe Abelo, Mark Armstrong, and Steve and Mike Mellor), I frequently hope for a Marvel trade paperback...heck, I'd settle for a crayon-it-yourself Essential Peter Porker. After all, it doesn't need to be in color and nobody will get confused...I'm sure every Marvel fan will be able to understand what the pig meant.



Spider-Ham came back relatively recently in an almost universally lambasted Civil War one-shot appearance, I'm betting the little bacon-ball still has a lot of friends out there: Marvel fans voted him the Spider-Guy they wanted to see on the Mike Wieringo alternate cover of Amazing Spider-Man #528:



Hey Joey Q! With the rest of the Star original characters reappearing in this year's X-Babies miniseries, isn't it time to bring Your Friendly Neighbor Spider-Ham back to comics? C'mon...don't hog all the fun! Look, we'll even let you bring back this guy:

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 322

Panel from Ultimate Fantastic Four #8 (August 2004), script by Warren Ellis, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Wade Von Grawbadger, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Chris Eliopoulos

You know of course this means war.

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 321

Splash page from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #47 (June 2009), script by Paul Tobin, pencils by Vincenç Villagrasa, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, letters by Nate Piekos

(Click picture to Mister-Green-Genes-size)