Happy Birthday To...

Stan Lee!

Stan (the Man) Lee was born December 28th, 1922 in New York City, New York.

He will be celebrating his 85th birthday today!

Amazingly a lot of the 'mainstream' public only knows him as Stan Lee, Movie Cameo Super-Star!

Or they know him as the Super-Star Host of 'Stan lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero?' TV Show!!

However he was born as Stanley Martin Lieber to his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents. 

He took the pen name 'Stan Lee', saving his real name for his Great American Novel... but he achieved vast fame and success as The Man 'Stan Lee'!

Indeed, it was his run on The Fantastic Four with Jack Kirby that kept me interested in comic books for so long!

Our best wishes and many thanks for the years of enjoyment he has given us!

Happy Birthday!  

Carmine Infantino SDCC 2000

Carmine Infantino contributed in many ways during the years he worked in the comic book genre.

Carmine was born in 1925 and was an early freelancer in comics.

He worked for Timely Comics, Prize Comics (Joe Simon & Jack Kirby's publishing biz), drawing Charlie Chan.

He also worked for DC Comics, drawing westerns, mysteries and sci-fic stories.

It was in 1956 that he helped start the Silver Age of Comics. He drew the updated version of the Flash for Showcase #4 for DC Comics.

Later, in 1967 he became the art director for DC Comics.

In 1971 he became the Publisher of DC, and brought Jack Kirby over from Marvel to produce his Fourth World comics line there.

Carmine later stepped down from that position, and became a freelancer again, this time for Warren Publishing and Marvel Comics.

For Marvel he drew the popular Star Wars comics, Spider-Woman and Nova!

Carmine additionally attended several conventions afterwards, of which at one I was able to obtain his autograph as shown top left!

Benny Hill Attacked By The

 She-Hulk? 

The Benny Hill TV Show has several DVDs out on the market.

I was surprised to find the following description from scenes in an episode from 1981:

One of the most eagerly sought-for sketches is "Bus Stop She-Hulk", with several of Hill's Angels and the guys at the local bus stop.

The group give Claire Smalley a hassle and as she grows angrier her chest grows bigger!

Finally, she explodes and becomes the She-Hulk herself!

She tears off her clothes and hauls out her whip, giving all of the men at the bus stop a real thrill wearing her dominatrix leather outfit.

She roars and grabs the guys and they finally chase her. The She-Hulk is actually Alison Bell.

This was an ingenious sketch that probably had the censors upset! Somehow it made it to British television. 

That scene leads straight into the Closing scene titled "She-Hulk Chase"

I have not seen this episode with the two scenes before, so will be looking for it to possibly share more with you.

And yes... we do have She-Hulk comics for sale! Just click the photo at the top left!

Thanks for reading this popular culture - comics - comic books blog post!   

Michael

Art Adams And The

 NEW

Fantastic Four!

Back in the early 1990's Marvel Comics was looking to increase its' circulation, so it, as well as its' Darling Competitors, started all kinds of promos!

Including foil covers, die-cut covers, multiple covers for one comic book story, etc. etc.

However there was one promo that Marvel did in late 1990 to early 1991 that I did enjoy because it was only for a short period of time.

Marvel had the Fantastic Four team change its' membership!

And who were the new members?

How about the Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, the Incredible Hulk AND Wolverine!  Hoo boy!

Marvel did the right thing by having Art Adams do the covers and interior art in this story arc!

I later saw Art Adams at the 1993 SDCC and had him sign a copy to me, as shown at top left photo!