Just thinking of one of my favorite panels again.

Whoa, these all came out 40 years ago this week! (Watchmen #2 had been the previous week.)

Now playing: Bicentennial disco!

Our Fighting Forces, in the '70s, had some astounding cover art, and also a certain... lack of variety in cover concepts.

I mean, if you can resist these, you are stronger than I am.

Selling a complete reader set of Kamandi: #1-59, plus The Brave & the Bold #130 and Karate Kid #14. $180 shipped in the U.S. Beat but complete. So much glorious Jack Kirby weirdness. And check out the cover straplines:

It wasn't until years later that I saw the original "Shamed By Your English?" and cracked up all over again

Tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM, I'm running my annual "crazy hard comics trivia" game at @bkswpicspdx.bsky.social's free BwPCon! There will be prizes! It's gonna be fun! You should come if you're in the Portland area!

Just taught the final meeting of my “X-Men and the Uncanny” class at Portland State. My favorite course I’ve ever taught, I think—super-enthusiastic students who built on each other’s enthusiasm. And one of them made Xavier and Magneto cake pops for today!

Well, I didn’t win that “prove you’re the worst photographer in the world” competition Icelandair ran, but I sure had fun entering it. With apologies to Irving Berlin:

At SOAK this past weekend, I offered to play and sing a song for people if they chose the subject from this list. It worked out really nicely. Some notes:

Left a plate with pizza and salad on it unattended on the back porch table for TEN SECONDS

We were just talking in class today about how well it works here:

R.I.P. Gerry Conway. A little-known gem by him: Secret Hearts #147, one of his first comics--a clever formalist experiment that he wrote at the age of 17!

Or the entire city of Vinnytsia, a real place in Ukraine, with a current population of 430,000 in our world? (Immortal X-Men #10, 2023, Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck)

Or everyone for a kilometer around? (Excalibur #9, 2005, Chris Claremont and Aaron Lopresti)

Or everyone in the street? (X-Factor Annual #4, 1989, Ralph Macchio and John Byrne; this is Doctor Doom narrating, so take his perspective with a grain of salt)

So, what happened the first time Magneto deliberately used his powers? Did he kill the soldiers who beat him up and killed his daughter? (Classic X-Men #12, 1987, Chris Claremont and John Bolton)

A few people have asked what the students in my "X-Men and the Uncanny" class are reading, so I made a free post over at my Patreon that includes the reading list: www.patreon.com/douglaswolk

Even the bad expository dialogue and lampshaded hidden agendas are Moorean "bad expository dialogue" and "lampshaded hidden agendas":

You know, I've seen the rumor that Ellis ghost-wrote FFH 2, and I strongly suspect that's people playing telephone with "the real climax of the story is an issue Ellis wrote" and/or "Moore didn't even write the conclusion." Because Moore DEFINITELY wrote this:

ROMEO & JULIET & GODZILLA has the funniest premise I've seen in a while: "how little can we alter the text of Romeo & Juliet while incorporating Godzilla, Mothra and a giant Capulet mecha into its narrative?"

Really good new comics day. Some highlights so far:

Finally got around to reading Mimi Pond's Mitford-sisters meditation "Do Admit!" last night, and yeah, it really is absolutely fascinating and charming.

Yayoi Kusama, "Self-Obliteration," 1968

Chris Claremont has also talked about how this bit was an influence on him! I imagine this bit from X-Men #114 might have echoed it, too:

Getting psyched up.

Doing a little preparatory reading.