366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 147

Panel from "Robin's New Secret Identity" in Batman #162 (March 1964), script by Dave Wood, pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Charles Paris, letters by Joe Letterese

Seven the Fun Way

Greetings, Beneficent Bully-Boosters! Pat yourself on the back because you've popped in on a special day...it's my Seventh Blogiversary! (Yes, I'm only six years old...what is your point?) Seven years ago today I read some comics and started this little puppet-town cow-blog, and here, seven years later, the fun is still all around! (But mostly in comic books.)

I want to thank you all for reading Comics Oughta Be Fun!, because without readers, what would a blog be but a dairy? I mean a diary. Sorry, important cow words getting mixed up there. Thank you everybody!

As usual, I'd like to look back on the past twelve months and 366 days and trot out a few of my favorite posts (in no particular order)! I loved writing 'em and I hope you loved reading them! (And here they are again!) Enjoy!


The New DC: There's No Stopping Us Now: If I ran DC, here's what the New 52 woulda been!




Patriotism Is Cool: Have you checked your freezer lately for super-soldiers?




Do Daleks Dream of Shaun the Sheep?: No. They don't. But here's what they do dream of.




Erase your summer thirst: Because I'll never get tired of this joke.




Magneto's crushing your head! He's crushing your head!: Then, he's going to become a girl-drink drunk.




Things Bully Got for Christmas: The Warriors Three: Making that Volstagg figure more realistic.




The Giant Public Art of Gotham City: Because I deeply care about giant architecture.




You Only Quarrel Twice: A James Bond movie that I made up just for you.




Things Bully Got for Christmas: A Ping Pong Set: Really, the whole reason for that post is the animated gif.




John and Randi got married!: And we got special rings!

And many more! (Seriously, look 'em up.) Why? Because we are seven! Yes we are! (By we, meaning my blog. I'm still six. Why do you ask?) So here's a Ten of a Kind for Seven Special Years!























So, that's about it for my sevenbration! Join me here this time next year when I'll surely be posting this:

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 146

Panel from "The Boy Wonder Confesses!" from Batman v.1 #81 (February 1954), script by David Vern, pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Stan Kaye, letters by Pat Gordon

Today in Comics History: Keanu Reeves is startlingly intelligent

Panels from Bram Stoker's Dracula #1 (October 1992), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by John Nyberg, colors by Mark Chiarello, letters by John Costanza

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 145

Panels from "Batman's Robot Twin!" in Detective Comics v.2 #239 (January 1957), pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Charles Paris

Today in Comics History: Batman forgets sometimes people don't change their calendars

Panels from Detective Comics #210 (August 1954), pencils by Dick Sprang, inks by Charles Paris

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 144

Panels from Batman #375 (September 1984), script by Doug Moench, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Alfredo Alcala, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Todd Klein

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 143

Page from Batman #351 (September 1982), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Tony DeZuniga, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Ben Oda

As Seen on TV: Superman #335

A young punk about to rob a laundrette relaxes by reading Superman #335, from the UK TV series Minder:


Screen shot from the first episode of Minder, "Gunfight at the OK Laundrette" (October 29, 1979)



Cover of Superman #335 (May 1979), pencils by Ross Andru and inks by Dick Giordano, letters by Gaspar Saladino

From our good pals at Wikipedia (accessed 5/2/12):

Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld...The show ran for ten series between 29 October 1979 and 10 March 1994, and starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, an honest and likable bodyguard (minder in London slang) and George Cole as Arthur Daley, a socially ambitious but highly unscrupulous importer-exporter, wholesaler, used-car salesman, and anything else from which there was money to be made whether inside the law or not....The series was notable for using a range of leading British actors, as well as many up-and-coming performers before they hit the big time, and at its peak was one of ITV's biggest ratings winners.

Here's a video of choice clips from the show that not only explains its concept and introduces its characters, but highlights the fine vintage '70s cars featured on the show!:

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 142

Panels from "Vanishing Village!" in Batman #31 (October-November 1945), script by Joe Samachson, pencils by Jerry Robinson, inks and colors by George Roussos, letters by Ira Schnapp

Ten of a Kind: Now is the hour of quitting / Twilight paints the town

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 141

The first two pages of the ten-page entry on Alfred from The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 1: Batman by Michael Fleischer (1976, republished 2007).

The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Batman is an amazing reference guide with hundreds and hundreds of entries on the characters, events, and tech of the every Batman story of the Golden and Silver Age, from 1938 to the early '70s. It may be dated by now, but this is still an amazingly entertaining reference guide; I find so many great delights in it, again and again. Fleischer published this book (and accompanying Superman and Wonder Woman encyclopedias) during a period when most of the "canon" had not been reprinted, so his chronological history and dedicated puzzle-assembly of the stories is groundbreaking: without the Fleischer encyclopedias, I don't think we would have had the authoritative works of internal comic book history like The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Who's Who in the DC Universe. And it inspires you to want to re-read all the original stories, which are now more easily available to us today through DC's Archives, Chronicles, and Showcase Presents reprint series. Two hooves up: I highly recommend it!

Today in Comics History: Commissioner Gordon wishes he'd gone to Hamburger University after all

Panel from Batman #405 (March 1987), script by Frank Miller, pencils and inks by David Mazzucchelli, colors by Richmond Lewis, letters by Todd Klein

Happy Birthday, Jane Wiedlin!

I am, as you know Jane Wiedlin's very best friend...



...so I want to wish her a very happy birthday! Yay, Jane!

In past years I have celebrated Jane's Birthday by showing you some of her music videos...



...but I figgered I'd do something different this year and show you her many and varied comic book appearances! Here she is as Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure:



Panel segments from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure one-shot (1989), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils and inks by Angelo Torres, colors by Barry Goldberg, letters by Jon D'Agostino

...and reprising the role in one of my favorite comic series of all time, Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic:


Panel from Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book #1 (December 1991), script and pencils by Evan Dorkin, inks by Stephen DeStefano, colors by Robbie Busch, letters by Kurt Hathaway

...a comic book that gave the effervescent Ms. Arc a totally happy ending!


Panel from Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book #12 (December 1991), script and pencils by Evan Dorkin, inks by Marie Severin, colors by Robbie Busch and Evan Skolnick, letters by Kurt Hathaway

Of course, who can forget Jane's very own comic book (and you can tell because her name's in it), Jane Wiedlin's Lady Robotika!


Page from Lady Robotika #1 (July 2010), script by Jane Wiedlin and Bill Morrison, pencils by Bill Morrison and Tone Rodrigues, inks by Bill Morrison and Dan Davis, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, letters by Tony Fleecs

And Jane should have been in the comic book adaptation of Star Trek IV, in this very scene, but they left her out (probably for fear that she would totally out-awesome Shatner):


Panels from Star Trek Movie Special #2 [Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home] (1987), script by Mike W. Barr, pencils by Tom Sutton, inks by Ricardo Villagran, colors by Michele Wolfman, letters by Agustin Mas

So there you gio. Happy Birthday, Jane Wiedlin! Please enjoy the day.

Then, get back to writing your comic book series, willya?