Monday Holiday Madness PRESIDENTS' DAY...the Holiday that Combines Two REAL Presidents' Birthdays!

Before they combined Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays into a "floating" holiday...

...Washington's Birthday was always celebrated each year on Feb 22nd...

...and Lincoln's Birthday was always on February 12th!

Why the change?

USA Today has an explanation HERE!

Since this is a comics blog, let's get back on-topic!

These two features appeared in a 1956 comic called "Every Day's a Holly Day"

(No, it's not a typo...as you can see!)

Why was it called that instead of "Every Day's a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by long-time comic illustrator John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!

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Cartoon History of the United States

Monday Madness OUT OF THIS WORLD "Xondu the Eternal"

A never-reprinted 1950s sci-fi tale by legendary Black artist Matt Baker...

..with a Twilight Zone-style twist ending!

OK, it's more a "Third from the Sun" than "To Serve Man" ending, but still, it's fairly effective!

(And kudos to those who didn't have to click on the links to understand what I was talking about!)

Penciled by Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta, this tale from Charlton's Out of This World #15 (1959) unfortunately suffers from both Colletta's rushed inking and the poor printing Charlton was notorious for.

(Unlike other comics companies, Charlton had their own printing press, which had been designed for packaging...including breakfast cereal boxes...not newsprint!)

The writer is unknown, but many believe it to be Joe Gill, who was rapidly making a name for himself with an impressive, and varied, body of work.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!
He's also our featured artist this month in the Baker Reading Room at Atomic Kommie Comics, spotlighting his amazing cross-genre versatility!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour
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Monday Madness CALVIN: Marvel's FORGOTTEN Black Headliner!

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!

He wasn't even the second!

He was the third!

First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...

...and was the star of his own Netflix series!

Note: Though the series ended, three of the stars have gone on to headline other shows...

Simone Missick (Misty Knight) on All Rise, Mike Colter (Luke Cage) on Evil and Rosario Dawson (Clare Temple/Night Nurse) on Ahsoka!

(BTW, Luke Cage is now available on Disney+!)

The second character was...

WHO???

Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book, Jungle Action, and began a memorable series that served as part of the plot of the billion-dollar blockbuster movie...

...this character took over another reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!

But you can read every never-reprinted tale featuring Calvin and his buddies by clicking HERE!

What makes the strip even more fascinating, beyond the vaudeville-level humor, is the identity of the writer-artist behind it!

"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym for an already-established creative, but an editorial staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s who received his "big break" with this strip!
Trivia: Kevin was the first (and so far, only) Marvel creator to have a head shot illustration on an on-going series!

Even ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What did Banks did after working at Marvel?
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
To date, we don't know!

Do YOU???

Monday Madness FLASH GORDON COMICS "The World You WILL Live In"

In 1950, what amazing advances did we think the 21st Century would bring?

As shown in this uncredited (and never-reprinted) feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #1 (1950), all five predictions have, in fact, come to pass...albeit in modified form.

Unlike the predictions from #1, most of these from #2 have not come true!

Only the wristwatch one has occurred, and only on expensive, high-end timepieces!

In 2025, we do have laser scalpels (in limited use, mostly for eye surgery) and lasers are used to remove tattoos.

The mobile telephone one can be interpreted as cell phones, but radiophones in cars were a popular item among the rich (and spies/superheroes) in the '60s to early '80s.

(Batman, James Bond, Honey West, Matt Helm, The Avengers [Steed and Peel, not the superheroes] and The Green Hornet all had them!)

Extensive mining of minerals from the ocean floor has yet to occur, and the sun's going nova billions of years from now has been predicted since the 1800s.

So, 4 out or 5 for this never-reprinted feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #3 (1950) is pretty good, eh?

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

Let's take one final look at this never-reprinted strip...

Of the five predictions in this one-pager from Harvey's Flash Gordon #4 (1950), the first is a possibility, the second and fifth have yet to occur, and the third and fourth have come true.

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

This was one of three different new one-page features that appeared in all four issues of the series which reprinted the Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip by Alex Raymond, reformatted for the comic book page, and with new covers (not by Alex Raymond).

The others were "Stories Behind the Stars" (about the myths behind constellation names) and "Know Your Planets" (about the other worlds in the solar system).

Monday Madness UNQUOTABLE TRUMP

As the government prepares to certify the questionable results of the election...

...let's take a look back at some of the examples of Don da Con's actual quotes, put into graphic form...

...and my personal favorite, showing Don da Con with his BFF. Vladdy!

Click HERE to see the original posts featuring both these covers, plus info about the original comic covers these are adapted from!

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Drawn & Quarterly Special Edition

Unquotable Trump

by R. Sikoryak

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Monday Madness STUART TAYLOR IN WEIRD STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL "Faustus"

Despite the title, the series is actually sci-fi about a time traveler and his machine...

...who occasionally run into mystical menaces.

IIRC, The Time Tunnel TV series did the same thing, encountering Merlin, the ghost of Nero, and others along with the usual silver-skinned Irwin Allen aliens...

This series started in Jumbo Comics #1 (1939) as Diary of Dr Hayward, illustrated by Jack Kirby under the house pseudonym "Curt Davis" (which was used for every story in the series).

With #5, Lou Fine assumed the art chores, and several issues later the title changed to Weird Stories of the Supernatural as lab assistant Stuart Taylor took center stage and old Doc Hayward became a supporting character.

(In fact, the series title sometimes listed "Stuart Taylor" above the "Weird Stories..." logo, playing up the action-hero aspect, as it does here.)

As of #15, a rotating lineup of artists contributed art but no other "big names" worked on the series which continued for almost the entire run of Jumbo, ending at #140 (1950).

This particular never-reprinted story is from Jumbo Comics #111 (1948) and was produced by the Iger Studio, which supplied almost all of Fiction House's comic material during this period!

Monday Holiday Madness SANTA'S CHRISTMAS COMICS "Coo Coo in 'Christmas Capers' "

Our Final Yuletide Entry is Quite Mad...

...as in "cuckoo", since that's exactly what he is!

This never-reprinted story from Nedor/Pines' one-shot Santa's Christmas Comics (1952) by artist Milton Stein and an unknown writer features a character almost totally-unknown to comics fans today!

Coo Coo the Bird-Brain was an irrepressible, anarchic cuckoo bird along the lines of Daffy Duck, who was named after the title of Nedor/Pines' Coo Coo Comics funny-animal anthology...but he didn't actually appear until near the end of the book's run beginning in #47, in 1949 and running through the final issue, #62, in 1952!
This is his only appearance outside of Coo Coo Comics, and none of his stories has AFAIK, ever been reprinted!

Monday Madness SANTA CLAUS PARADE "Benny Brown Bear's Christmas Sleep!"

Like Any Kid Before Christmas...

...Benny Brown Bear just can't wait!

But, since bears hibernate, he'll miss Christmas...unless someone wakes him up!

This never-reprinted story by Bill Walsh from Ziff-Davis' Santa Claus Parade (1951) didn't have a sequel, so we'll never know if Benny ever actually saw Santa!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

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