An interesting Comic Book Thread!! (Hopefully)9768

Originally Posted by wiki
(Sergio Aragones) ... has a featured section in every (Mad magazine) issue called "A Mad Look At...", typically featuring 4–5 pages of speechless gag strips that are all related to a single subject, such as "Gambling," "UFOs" or "Pizza." Aragonés became famous for his wordless "drawn-out dramas" or "marginals" which were inserted into the margins and between panels of the magazine. The drawings are both horizontal and vertical, and occasionally extend around corners. Prior to Aragonés' arrival at Mad, the magazine had sometimes filled its margins with text jokes under the catch-all heading "Marginal Thinking." Aragonés convinced Feldstein to use his cartoons by creating a dummy sample issue with his Marginals drawn along the edges. The staff of Mad enjoyed his marginals, but did not expect him to be able to maintain the steady stream of small cartoons needed for each issue.[9] Aragonés has provided marginals for every issue of Mad since 1963 except one (his contributions to that issue were lost by the Post Office). Associate Editor Jerry DeFuccio said, "Writing the 'Marginal Thinking' marginals had always been a pain in the butt. Sergio made the pain go away."

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
On March 12th, 1951, two iconic cartoon characters debuted. One came out in the UK, the other in the USA, but they shared the same name - Dennis the Menace!!!

In the UK, Davey Law was the driving force behind the creation of that Dennis. There, Dennis appeared in the March 17th, 1951 edition of "Beano". That edition hit the newsstands on the 12th.

In the USA, Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace appeared in 16 newspapers across the country on March 12th, 1951.

Neither artist was aware of the other. When it was discovered what happened, all parties agreed to not pursue any type of legal action and just to keep going. Both characters are still being published today.

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
Based upon a comment in another thread, I decided to start an interesting Comic Book thread!!! Let's put interesting notes here on the history of comic books and their creators. Let's try to keep this factual and not opinionated. Basically, if it is related to comic books and interesting, feel free to share it here!!

I'll start with a "On this day in comic book history" type of post. It has just turned August 8th, 2019 here. So, on August 8th, 1961, a very pivotal comic book hit the newsstands!!! It introduced us to new types of superheroes and started what is known as the "Marvel Age"!!! FANTASTIC FOUR #1

From wiki - "The first issue of The Fantastic Four proved a success, igniting a new direction for superhero comics and soon influencing many other superhero comics. Readers grew fond of Ben's grumpiness, Johnny's tendency to annoy others and Reed and Sue's spats. Stan Lee was surprised at the reaction to the first issue, leading him to stay in the comics field despite previous plans to leave. Comics historian Stephen Krensky said that "Lee's natural dialogue and flawed characters appealed to 1960s kids looking to 'get real'"."

Originally Posted by X51
Based on that, I'll whip out my Li'l Willie with the Marvel Comic emblem on it. All the comics I've seen with this mark are from 1949.

Originally Posted by Spiderman Reviews
David Michelinie originally intended for Venom to be a woman, as he explained in Comics Creators on Spider-Man:

"I originally wanted the character to be a woman. She was pregnant and about to give birth. Her husband is rushing to get her to a hospital. He runs into the road to flag down a cab, but the cabbie is looking up at Spider-Man fighting someone - I think it might have been the Living Monolith from my graphic novel. The cabbie doesn't see the husband and accidentally hits and kills the guy. The woman sees her husband splattered in front of her and goes into labour. She loses the child and her mind at the same time, and is institutionalised.

Though she eventually gets her mind back, she blames Spider-Man for the death of her husband and child. The alien costume, which has also been hurt by Peter Parker, is drawn to the woman because of her intense hatred of Spider-Man. The costume then bonds with her to try to kill Peter.

When I was switched to Amazing, Jim Salicrup told me that he wanted to do something special in issue #300, and he suggested I introduce a new character. I hit him with my idea of using the alien costume. Though he liked it, he wasn't sure the readers would see a woman as a physical threat to Spider-Man, even a woman enhanced by the alien costume. At that point I came up with the Eddie Brock angle and tied it in with the Peter David Sin-Eater/'Death of Jean DeWolff' story that had appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110."

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
G.I. Joe #21 is known as the "Silent Issue". It is the first appearance of Storm Shadow. It was written by Larry Hamas and drawn by Steve Leialoha. It is also, the first comic book printed without any dialogue. There are a few words (on a screen and on a grenade for instance) but no word balloons. It is a landmark issue and many comic book writers cite it as an inspiration.

But what inspired Larry Hamas to do this?? Nothing less than another ground breaking comic drawn by the incredible Jim Steranko. In Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 Steranko did not use any words for the first three pages as the reader watched Nick Fury infiltrate a fortress. It was the first time that anyone had left the first three pages completely void of words. Steranko says he was inspired by a movie that he saw when he was 15 called Rififi which is entirely silent for the middle third of the movie while a robber is pulling off a heist.

It makes me wonder, which writers were influenced by Hamas and what did they do in tribute to G.I. Joe #21???