56.
So as I was busy being born in an Oxnard hospital on this very day 56 years ago, some newsstand owner somewhere was putting the new issue of Daredevil, #52, on the racks:
But not before stamping the arrival date on the cover, of course:
I acquired this in a collection not long ago, and it’ll go nicely with my similarly-stamped Amazing Spider-Man #73!
(And a happy birthday as well to my blogging brother-in-arms Andrew!)
Happy 56th, Mike!
Cool to have covers with the date stamp of your day of birth!
I always found that Daredevil cover interesting in that it was drawn by Barry Smith (before the Windsor-) when he was a fledgling comics artist trying his best to pull a Jack Kirby–yet it was also inked by the old EC Comics veteran Johnny Craig; so, it kinda has a blending of the old guard and the new guard, before the shapes of Conan yet to come…
Re: JLA no. 200, and Detective no. 500, it would be fun if DC released facsimile editions of those ’80s classics.
Here is an interesting link about Zody the Mod Rob
https://podbay.fm/p/one-shot-wonders-with-adam-philips-704098/e/1643737066
Happy birthday, fellow 313’er!
Happy birthday!
Mike, Happy Birthday to you.
Hapopy birthday, you young whippersnapper.
Happy birthday, Mike, you old man! (<– was born in 72)
Happy birthday, Mike! WOOOOO
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to a fellow Pisces. We are lucky enough to get to quote Kurt Cobain to any significant other (“Eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak”).
Happy happy birthday, Mike! Thanks for being awesome!
I thought Smith’s apeing of Kirby looked terrible, but he was still only in his late teens. Plus he was a British kid who flew to New York and scored himself steady work at Marvel, and that’s far from nothing.
The figure work is aping Kirby, but I’d say the composition is more copying Steranko.
Now our revels commence! Bring out the hamdingers!
Happy birthday!
Happy 56th birthday, Mike!
Happy Birthday!
@ Oliver
Good point! The ankles on DD and the Panther do look wonky–but Windsor-Smith’s drawing ability improved fairly rapidly from “Kirby-aping” to an Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau aesthetic. Keith Giffen would probably be the next comics artist of note to embrace the Kirby-clone ideal before morphing his style.
@ Matthew Johnson
Agreed that young Barry Smith was going for a Steranko-type composition. It is a bit confusing as to whether the figures are on top of a building or running and leaping and swinging through a maze. Or have the grey figures been turned to stone?
Happy birthday to you!
I can’t say that Daredevil cover makes much sense, but I can’t say that I dislike it, either. It’s hypnotically strange.
@ Thom H.
It’s a “Marvel Pop-Art Production.” ;)
Happy birthday young man!
Happy Birthday, Mike!
Happy Birthday, Mike! Wishing you good health, happiness and another great year!
Happy birthday Mike!
Happy Birthday, Mike! You’re born a year ahead of me(and a few months and days)
@Sean Mageean
I believe they look like they’re almost falling down the sides of typical New York city buildings, except the tops of the buildings seem weird, so some kind of maze(or blocks of some kind) seems more likely to me.
“to pull a Jack Kirby”
HOLY BALLS! I thought that WAS Kirby!
“but I’d say the composition is more copying Steranko.”
Yeah, I can see that, I think. That flat floor background that just goes on forever. The RANDOM poses of the supporting characters.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy belated birthday(by a day)!
Happy 56th, Mike!
HBD!!!
And what a lovely Winsor-Smith (channeling Steranko) cover to celebrate with!
Damn, you’re old. Happy birthday man.