But the Plush Dog went on a three-day binge and we had to bail him out of the drunk tank.
Actually what happened was that a few weeks ago he was running happily across the floor, then started limping. He’d torn his CCL tendon which happens in older dogs, even if they’re not doing anything unhealthy.
We’ve scheduled surgery but he’s adapted surprisingly well to his bum leg, helped by generous quantities of pain meds. Unfortunately adapting includes deciding that he can jump off things, run down stairs, run across the floor just fine. While this is good, it necessitates keeping him caged. Between long naps he’s barking to the point he’s getting hoarse; I sit in the cage with him sometimes to help.
The logistics of giving Plushie his walk, plus extra exercises every day, coupled with other factors, have slowed down my posting. Hopefully I’m back on schedule now. We’ll see. For today’s post, have some eye candy. First Jack Kirby, from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134, where we first see the Mountain of Judgment —
Following on from Kirby’s debut issue on the book, it has Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion investigating the Wild Area, unaware that Jimmy’s new boss, Morgan Edge, has booby-trapped their news camera to blow up that ginormous vehicle on behalf of someone named Darkseid (hmm, he sounds ominous). It’s fun and imaginative though this scene is bizarre.
Seriously? Jimmy’s going to be this chill about his best friend getting blasted with kryptonite? No way do I buy that.
Next, Alex Toth from “Double Edge” in Witching Hour #12.
Toth’s art never really works for me but that’s a very cool page. So is this Herb Trimpe page setting the Hulk in WWI.
The story, from Hulk #135, has Kang tricking the Hulk into going back in time to kill the WWI superhero/pilot the Phantom Eagle, who’d made an unsuccessful debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #16.
I’m guessing him showing up in Hulk (part of a scheme by Kang to alter history and prevent the Avengers existing) was Herb Trimpe’s idea rather than writer Roy Thomas’s. Trimpe co-created the character with Gary Friedrich and I’ve read that drawing a WWI comic was a pet project of his. The guest appearance didn’t advance the daring pilot’s comics career any; never making anything other than once in blue moon guest appearances, he’s the definition of a C-lister. However the ending did take Kang off the board for close to four years before his return in the Celestial Madonna saga (if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me in comments).
Finally we have Green Lantern #81 by Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil, “Death Be My Destiny.” Following the Old-Timer’s lapse in judgment in the previous issue — at least in the opinion of his fellow Guardians — he’s exiled to their original homeworld of Maltus. Turns out since they last checked in on it, population has exploded.
This is something of an outlier in late Silver Age relevant stories. While the threat of overpopulation was a big concern at the time, leading to movies such as The Last Child (good) and ZPG (not), and of course Star Trek: The Mark of Gideon, I can’t think of any other comics that tackled the topic. Things like racism or drug-dealing come with a villain to punch; who do you punch for having too many babies? Though in this case there’s a cloning master who’s behind the population boom so there you are.
