The Avengers Sticketh Around!

Wayyyyyyyyyy back in 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had yet another hit on their hands in the pantheon of heroes in the Merry Marvel Manner!

Granted this was a hit that came with a built in set of already established heroes.  Thor! Iron Man!  The Hulk!  and when Ant-Man became Giant-Man...well they just couldn't loose.

Dig in to the true Kirby fun as we count down the days to when the Avengers movie comes out on Friday.

The movie looks awesome, but it's hard to beat pure unadulterated Kirby!

Talk to you soon!

"The Coming of The Avengers!" - Nuff said!

I don't know if you've heard or not...they're keeping it kind of hush hush and not marketing it much at all...but there's a movie coming out this week based on Marvel Comics' "The Avengers".

No...seriously...I'm not making it up.  I'm not surprised you HAVEN'T heard of it.  Kind of a small indie film, I guess.  

It looks pretty good through...I hope some people hear about it and maybe go see it.

In the meantime, here's how Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby brought the whole ever-lovin' blue-eyed thing into being 49 years ago!!!!!!!

Yep..even back in 1963, Loki was a thorn in their sides!

Dig in!

This book is cover dated September 1963.  Understanding how comics were post dated so they'd stay on the stands longer...that means it came out about May or June of '63.  And seeing how I wasn't born until August of that same year, I guess you could say I've been waiting for this movie to come out since before I was born.

I am drooolin', kiddoes!!!  My ass is tinglin' to see this'n!!!

So please...have mercy on the poor producers of the film who couldn't afford an advertising budget.  Tell a friend to go see it.

Here's hoping it's as good as they say...which is better!

Talk to you soon.

"Gasoline Valley!" - Bill Elder - Mad Mondays!

Mad Monday again and time for "Mad" (THE COMIC BOOK) #15 from September of 1954.

This is one of my very first memories of Mad.  I read this story (in a reprint digest in the '60's) long before I was ever exposed to the newspaper comic strip that it parodies.

"Gasoline Alley" (is it still running?) began in newspaper syndication in the 1910's and was originally a "gag-a-day-one-panel" about a group of folks who spent their weekends puttering on their new fangled automobiles.  Eventually it became a multi-panel focusing on one character in particular, Walt Wallet.  What set the strip apart (and does to this day) is that the characters aged in real time.  People met, married, had children...and miraculously THEY AGED!  I believe only Lynn Johnstone's "For Better or For Worse" has done this since.

If it's out there today (and I think it might be) Walt is surely going on 120 years old and his generations of offspring are out there too.  Who knows what their up to, I haven't picked up a newspaper in 20 years.

Until I find out, here's Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's take on what was already a venerable strip..."Gasoline Valley!".

Dig in!

Talk o you soon,