"It wouldn’t do to have a naked Hulk running around."
Some of you folks who’ve been reading my dumb weblog for a while may remember when I was looking for a particular house ad for DC’s Hex series (the series that took the Old West character of Jonah Hex and made him all sci-fi ‘n’ stuff, in case you didn’t remember). Well, I didn’t find the one I thought I remembered, but it’s a similar one that commenter Layne had mentioned:
It was in Jonah Hex #89 (Feb ’85), and why it didn’t occur to me back then to go through the latter Jonah Hex issues to find the ad, I don’t know. And yeah, I know I mention in the comments section that I have a “cunning plan” for all this Hex stuff, and I still sorta do, but it’s going to have to wait until I get more of that “free time” I keep hearing about.
And as long as I’m just throwing up random scans, here’s one from Dynamite Magazine #3 (1974):
That’s just a lead-in to a reprinting of a couple pages from Hulk #1 (1962), and, alas, no actual heavy rapping with the Hulk is involved. The closest you get is a one page FAQ on ol’ Jade Jaws titled “Handy Hunks of Hulk History to Hold Over Your Friends” (“Until They Beat You Up For Talking About The Hulk All The Time” being the unstated conclusion of that phrase). For example:
No, that just wouldn’t do at all.
A couple days back, that rascally Chris Sims posted the Most Silver Agey word balloon in the entire Silver Age, and, yeah, that pretty much takes the cake. But since reading that post, I’ve found myself spotting panels and bits of dialogue here and there that make me say, “Yeah, that’s it, that’s the Silver Age!” Here’s one of them:
I love you, Robot Jimmy Olsen. That panel is from Superman #218 (July ’69), in a story reprinted from Action Comics #273 (Feb ’61).
I’m only presenting this next sequence (from Superman #225, April ’70) because it made me laugh for no good reason:
Yeah, I know, it’s Superman keeping another Superman in a cage…it’s a long story, and not entirely worth the trip. But really, what the heck is Super-Chess? Superman made up his own chess variant, and named it after himself? Man.
Okay, now I’ve seen the cover (of Superman #216, May ’69) for this next story dozens of times at the shop…Joe Kubert covers always catch the eye, but never did I look inside the comic until this weekend. So there’s this U.S. soldier in Vietnam, grown to massive size and apparently fighting for the other side, which leads another soldier to dub him thusly:
KING CONG. Oh good Lord.
And should you ever find yourself in a similar situation, fighting an apparent turncoat who’s been turned into a giant and now fighting for the Viet Cong, and Superman isn’t around to help, here’s a useful piece of advice:
Yeah, put those politicians to work for once.
