TURNING POINTS by Maggie Thompson
Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles and ends, this time for August 30-September 5, 2013…
105 years ago August 30, 1908 Fred MacMurray is born. Though he is best known for many starring roles in film and the TV series My Three Sons, savvy comics fans know that his face was the model for that of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel.
100 years ago September 4, 1913 Golden Age and Silver Age artist Syd Shores is born. He begins his career at the Chesler studio and goes on to Timely, eventually becoming Marvel’s art director before he begins to work freelance.
90 years ago September 3, 1923 Writer-artist Mort Walker is born. He serves as president of the National Cartoonists Society and creates Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Boner’s Ark, and Sam’s Strip. He writes Backstage at the Strips and sets up a comics museum.
70 years ago August 30, 1943 Cartoonist Robert Crumb is born. He pioneers underground comix with the Zap Comix anthology title and such characters as Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. His work also includes a full illustration of Genesis.
65 years ago September 2, 1948 First Comics Publisher Rick Obadiah is born.
60 years ago September 4, 1953 Ocean comics editor in chief and colorist Cathy Palin is born.
60 years ago September 4, 1953 Artist Paul Smith is born. He is known for such projects as Leave It to Chance and The Golden Age (both with James Robinson) and Kitty Pryde: Shadow and Flame.
50 years ago September 3, 1963 Cartoonist and colorist Joe Matt is born. He is known for Peepshow and collects Gasoline Alley.
40 years ago September 2, 1973 John R.R. Tolkien dies at age 81. The “father of high fantasy” wrote Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
And spanning the whole month…
75 years ago September 1938 Centaur’s Funny Pages Vol. 2 #10 introduces costumed hero The Arrow, drawn by Paul Gustavson.
75 years ago September 1938 Fiction House’s Jumbo Comics #1 introduces that comics company – and jungle comics themselves and Sheena (not to mention Will Eisner’s Hawks of the Seas). (How did Sheena avoid getting her legs scratched by all those jungly branches, anyway?)
70 years ago September 1943 DC’s Action Comics #64 introduces Toyman in “The Terrible Toyman!” by Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka, and George Roussos.
60 years ago September 1953 St. John’s Three Dimension Comics #1 introduces 3D comics, starring Mighty Mouse; it comes with “3-D Mighty Mouse Space Goggles.”
60 years ago September 1953 Harvey’s Little Dot #1 introduces Little Lotta and Richie Rich.
60 years ago September 1953 St. John’s One Million Years Ago #1 introduces Joe Kubert’s Tor. (Tor and his monkey Chee-Chee also star in 3D adventures.)
55 years ago September 1958 Ruff and Reddy come to comic books in Dell’s Four Color #937 in stories drawn by Harvey Eisenberg. (The first broadcast of the Hanna-Barbera series had aired Dec. 14, 1957.)
50 years ago September 1963 Marvel’s X-Men #1 introduces Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Professor X, and Magneto in a story by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Paul Reinman.
50 years ago September 1963 Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #4 introduces Sandman [Flint Marko], Betty Brant, and Liz Allen in “Nothing Can Stop … The Sandman!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
50 years ago September 1963 DC’s Action Comics #304 introduces The Black Flame in the Supergirl story “The Maid of Menace!” by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney.
50 years ago September 1963 “A Skrull Walks among Us!” – and so it is that Super Skrull is introduced in the tale in Marvel’s Fantastic Four #18 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers.
50 years ago September 1963 Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man, and The Wasp first get together as a team in Marvel’s Avengers #1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers.
50 years ago September 1963 Jack Miller and Nick Cardy introduce Mera in “The Doom from Dimension Aqua” in DC’s Aquaman #11.
45 years ago September 1968 DC’s Showcase #77 introduces Angel and the Ape by E. Nelson Bridwell, Al Jaffee, Bob Oksner, and Tex Blaisdell.
45 years ago September 1968 Marvel Super-Heroes #16 introduces the Silver Age Phantom Eagle in a story by Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe.
45 years ago September 1968 DC’s Brother Power the Geek #1 introduces Brother Power the Geek in a story written by Joe Simon and drawn by Al Bare.
40 years ago September 1973 Marvel’s Ghost Rider #1 introduces Daimon Hellstrom (Son of Satan) in “A Woman Possessed!” by Gary Friedrich, Tom Sutton, and Syd Shores.
40 years ago September 1973 Marvel’s Strange Tales #169 introduces Brother Voodoo in a story by Len Wein, Gene Colan, and Dan Adkins.
40 years ago September 1973 So, wait a minute… Jonah Jameson has a son? And he’s a what? “The Mark of the Man-Wolf” by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Romita, and Tony Mortellaro appears in Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #124 to introduce the alter ego of John Jameson.
30 years ago September 1983 John Byrne writes and draws Marvel’s Alpha Flight #2, changing Vindicator into Guardian in “Shadows of the Past.”
30 years ago September 1983 DC’s New Adventures of Superboy #45 introduces Sunburst in a story by Paul Kupperberg, Alex Saviuk, and Kurt Schaffenberger.
20 years ago September 1993 Marvel’s 2099 Unlimited #1 introduces Hulk 2099 in a story by Gerard Jones and Dwayne Turner.
