Tagged: Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday: Bouncing Boy

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Charles Foster "Chuck" Taine was an ordinary 30th-Century Earth boy who got a job running errands for a famous scientist. The scientist sent Chuck off one day to deliver his experimental super-plastic formula to the Science Council, but Chuck got distracted by a robot gladiator tournament and stopped to watch for a bit.

During the tournament, Chuck got thirsty and, in his excitement, he mistook the formula for a harmless soda and drank it! The drink transformed Chuck, inflating him like a ball and giving him the power to bounce like one as well. When doctors told him his super-bouncing ability was permanent, Chuck gave up his old job and joined the Legion of Super-Heroes as Bouncing Boy.

He later married his teammate Duo Damsel and retired from active service, though he remained in the Legion reserves.

Happy Birthday: Doll Man

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Darrell Dane was a research chemist working on ways to chemically condense matter. When his fiancee Martha Roberts was kidnapped, Dane downed a formula he had just developed and shrank himself to six inches tall while retaining his full mass and strength.

After rescuing Martha, he decided to continue his miniaturized adventures and donned a costume she created for him to become—Doll Man. Dane later became a member of the Freedom Fighters, a group of superheroes that, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, merged with the All-Star Squadron.

Unfortunately, spending so many years compressed warped Dane’s mind, leaving him mentally unstable. For a time, he was confined to a mental institution—presumably in a very small room.

Happy Birthday: Jay Garrick

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Born in Hibbardsville, Kansas, in the early 1920s, Jason Peter “Jay” Garrick had an uneventful childhood. It wasn’t until he went to Keystone City for college, studying chemistry and physics at Midwestern University, that fate singled him out for greater things.

Garrick was a junior in 1940 and working on an experiment to purify hard water and remove all radiation when a test tube dropped. The fumes knocked Garrick out and breathing the vapors all night somehow changed him, granting him the ability to run at super-speed (later evidence suggests Garrick always had this latent ability and the vapors simply activated it).

At first, he used his new powers for personal gain, becoming a college football star, but his integrity would not let him walk away from those in trouble, so Garrick donned a stylized winged helmet and a red shirt with a lightning bolt and began to fight crime as The Flash.

Garrick joined the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron and became a well-known and well-respected crimefighter. Though he briefly retired and focused on his scientific career in the 1950s, Garrick could not stay away, and returned to heroics in 1961, just in time to meet his Earth-One counterpart, Barry Allen.

He has been active ever since, and is once again a key member of the Justice Society of America. Most younger heroes consider Garrick the elder statesman of superheroes, and all of them admire and respect him and appreciate his calm manner and his sage advice just as much as his flying fists and speedy feet.

Happy Birthday: Mr. Mxyzptlk

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An imp from the 5th dimension, Mr. Mxyztplk is an inveterate troublemaker and jester. Because he’s from another dimension, Mxyzptlk is not bound by our universe’s laws and can produce a variety of magical effects with a single thought.

Shortly after arriving on our world, Mxyzptlk encountered Superman, and the the imp has delighted in tormenting the Man of Steel ever since that first meeting. The only way to get rid of Mxyzptlk is to trick him into saying his own name backwards—this sends the imp back to the 5th dimension for at least 90 days.

It never lasts long, though, and soon Mxyztplk is back to tease and confuse Superman yet again.

 

Happy Birthday: Liv Marie Alvey

Liv Marie was born to Brian and Niki Alvey at 3:46 PM today, making this her zeroth birthday. She is 9 pounds 0 ounces and 19.5 inches long. Liv joins two very excited brothers and three doggies.

In case you don’t read the fine print, Brian is co-founder of ComicMix, and we wish the family nothing but the very, very best.

Great way to start off the spring!

Happy Birthday: Marc Silvestri

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Born in 1958 in Palm Beach, Florida, artist Marc Silvestri joined Marvel Comics in the late 1980s, and became the penciller on Uncanny X-Men from 1987 to 1990.

In 1992 he and six other artists broke away to form Image Comics. Each artist had his own imprint, and Silvestri’s was Top Cow, which is best known for its major hits Witchblade, The Darkness, and Fathom. Top Cow has continued to be a major portion of Image, although Silvestri has spent less time doing his own art and more time publishing.

He has returned to Marvel a few times to work on various X titles.

 

Happy Birthday: José Luis Garcia-Lopez, Brian Bolland, and Mark Verheiden

dcp1g1-4128278Today is a popular birthday for comic book creators! Three very different comic book luminaries all share March 26.

José Luis Garcia-Lopez was born in Spain in 1948 but moved to Argentina in 1952. Growing up he worked on several Argentinian comic strips, and in the late 1960s he began doing romance titles for Charlton Comics. Garcia-Lopez moved to New York in 1974 to work for DC. He’s best known for his art on Superman.

Brian Bolland was born in 1951 in Lincolnshire, England, and began drawing at age 10. He went to art school and published work in various underground magazines, then met Dave Gibbons at a comic convention in 1972. Gibbons recommended him to Bardon Press Features and Bolland began drawing comics professionally. In 1977, he found work on the new British comic 2000 AD, and soon became a regular artist on Judge Dredd. In 1979 Bolland began working for DC Comics, doing both covers and shorts. Perhaps his most famous image is the cover to Batman: The Killing Joke.

Mark Verheiden was born in 1956. He started writing comics in 1987, creating The American for Dark Horse. The following year he wrote his first Aliens comic. Verheiden then wrote several Superman stories and a Phantom maxi-series for DC Comics. He also works in television and film, and has contributed scripts to Smallville and other series. He currently serves as co-executive producer of the popular Battlestar Galactica television series.

Happy Birthday: Night Girl

Lydda Jath was born on the planet Kathoon, a world that lives in permanent darkness. Her scientist father found a way to give her super-strength but didn’t realize it would only work at night or in deep shadows.

Lydda applied for the Legion of Super-Heroes but was turned down because they felt her power’s limitation made it impractical. She met Brek Bannin, Polar Boy, at the tryouts and together they formed the Legion of Substitute Heroes.

After the events of Infinite Crisis, it appears that future history has been rewritten and Lydda has become a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes instead.

Happy Birthday, Alan Rickman and C-3PO

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British actors Anthony Kingsley Daniels and Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman were both born today in 1946.

Daniels is famous for creating the memorable Star Wars ‘droid, C-3PO, and although Rickman is an accomplished thespian, his recent portrayal of Snape in the Harry Potter films earned him an entirely new generation of fans.

One interesting note about Daniels: He was the only Star Wars cast member to voice his character in all three National Public Radio dramatizations of the trilogy.

 

Announcing – The Big ComicMix Radio Contest!

They Say It’s Your Birthday…

As we celebrate the kickoff of Year Two, ComicMix Radio notes our own anniversary by bringing back our very first guest, the shy and retiring ComicMix editor-in-Chief Mike Gold, who is eager to share what’s next for the site in the clicks to come.

Meanwhile, we’ve got the details on how you can WIN copies of Exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variants of some of the hottest titles – FREE.

Plus —

  • World Of Warcraft continues to sell out at DC
  • At Last: Spectacular Spider-Man getting set to debut on The CW
  • CBS & NBC start the rolling on new episodes
  • The Hobbit goes to court!

(To be sung) "Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Please Press The Button, Happy Birthday To Us!" 

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