FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Yep, time once more for that most unruly of internet memes, FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS! At the behest of Spacebooger, following in the hallowed footsteps of the mighty Bahlactus (who is gone but not forgotten, from the Net anyway), it's up to those of us who care to participate to post something which depicts mayhem and fisticuffs in whatever form or fashion we deem appropriate. My entry tonight, my One Panel of Pain if you will, comes courtesy of the Groovy Agent, who recently posted the Prankster backup feature from a long-ago issue of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (Issue #60, August/September 1967 to be exact) whimsically scripted by Dennis O'Neil in his Sergius O'Shaughnessy pseudonym, and impeccably drawn by Jim Aparo, in the early stages of his comics career. Hat tip to the Jim Aparo Fan Club blog for the heads-up.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight's single-panel exercise in brutality comes courtesy of circa-1975 Howard Victor Chaykin, or to be more specific from the first (and only, I believe) issue of a 1975 Marvel Magazine entitled Marvel Super Action, which featured, besides an Archie Goodwin/Tony DeZuniga Punisher solo story (his first such outing since his debut in Amazing Spider-Man, unless I'm mistaken), a tryout for a female spy named Huntress (later changed to Mockingbird and inserted into West Coast Avengers), and an episode of Doug Moench and Mike Ploog's poor-man's Tolkein saga WeirdWorld, the second adventure of Chaykin's attempt to refine his retro-adventurer Scorpion (Atlas Comics, you remember) concept, now named Dominic Fortune. In this panel, that surely must get the Chris Sims Seal of Approval, Dom dispatches a hired goon with a swift kick to the head, which sure do look mighty painful to me.

Funny how the bad guy in this tale is named "Flagg"...

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Yep, I'm back in the ring after a short break with another FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS "One Panel of Pain". Tonight's single pane of punishment features Quality's hoodoo man Ibis the Invincible landing a haymaker on this surly acolyte of...the Turtle. Yep, apparently there's a whole city of small, sentient turtles who are riding piggyback on the back of a giant sea turtle, who snoozes, oblivious to his freeloading subjects. Boy, they don't write 'em like that anymore, do they? Anyway, Ibis gets his trusty Ibistick back and sorts everyone out in due fashion in this story that the mighty Fortress Keeper posted only yesterday and which I ganked with thanks.

Script by god knows, Otto Binder perhaps? Art by the underrated Kurt Schaffenberger, from Whiz Comics #99.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Time once more for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS! Tonight's frenetic one-panel round-two fracas comes courtesy of Mike Mignola, from Hellboy: Wake the Devil, in which he lays a haymaker on the evil goddess Hecate- one of the multitude of menaces he had to face off with in that epochal miniseries, which saw print waaaay back in 1996.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

New round, new theme from Spacebooger this time out, and I can't think of a better example of a one-panel punch-out than the one you see above, by the undisputed master of such things, Gil Kane. Found at Strange Ink, and taken from Justice League of America #200, so succinctly summed up by the Amazing Colossal Mike Sterling waaay back in 2004.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight's Friday night fracas is a special Valentine's Day-themed one; ringmaster Spacebooger hath decreed that it shall be called Valentine Saturday Edition: Love Tap!, with an emphasis on lovers' quarrels. At first, I didn't know if I was going to be able to come up with anything or not, but suddenly, inspiration struck like a bolt out of the blue, and I remembered a comic I had when I was a kid, in which the Wonderful Wasp found herself needing to battle Giant-Man. Or to be honest, an impostor, "Second-Story Sammy" by name, who (through a complicated series of circumstances) manages to steal Hank Pym's costume and size-changing abilities, then sets out to rob and pillage, oblivious to the story's other menace, a rapidly-spreading plant, which Pym accidentally unleashed and was knocked unconscious before he could do anything about it. Anyway, this leads to the Wasp encountering and having to subdue the bogus GM, and while I suppose it's technically not a "lover's quarrel" per se, it's still Giant-Man versus the Wasp.

Script by Smilin' Stan Lee, art by Capricious Carl Burgos and Devastatin' Dick Ayers. That's what it says in the credit box anyway. From Tales to Astonish #62, cover-dated December of 1964.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Yes, it's time once more for the final round (for now) of FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS! Tonight's entry is from Dave Roman's Agnes Quill, which features the young supernatural sleuth in battle with a possessed teddy bear, which she dispatches with a "swoosh" and a "whack". Art and story by Roman.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

My contribution to tonight's Friday Night Fights comes courtesy of John Glenn Taylor's Easily Mused blog- to commemorate the inaguration Mr. Taylor posted a Herbie story, from the 11th issue to be exact, and I stoled this page because it ties in to the sound-effect theme of this bout- the last panel, to be precise, in which Herbie does his legendary lollipop-bashing thing to not only a bear, but a rattlesnake as well as his clueless Dad tells him a story about Abraham Lincoln. Script by the deathless Sergius O'Shaughnessy, art by the mighty Ogden Whitney.

SPACEBOOGER SAID PICK YOUR NOSE KNOCK YOU OUT!

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

After a break of a few weeks, I'm stepping back in to Spacebooger's virtual squared circle. The theme this time is onomatopoeia, and I think the above is a fine example of that in spades as Robin kicks obscure bad guy booty. Credit Where Credit is Due Dept.: This page is from 2002's Legends of the Dark Knight # 151, writing by J.M. DeMatteis, pencils by Trevor Von Eeden, and inks by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and originally was scanned by LJ user Zegas as part of his ongoing Von Eeden appreciation series on scans_daily, something I can certainly get behind.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

After a one-week hiatus, I'm back with another entry in the Webwide smackdown event. Tonight's Round 3 clobberation comes from the far-flung future via 1952, the 5th issue of Jetta, to be precise. I don't know a damn thing about this title, but it seems to be mixing Archie with The Jetsons, a good ten years before the Jetsons even existed. In this story, poor Zoomer Brown wants to join a college fraternity, and the fratboys are really putting him through the business, so to speak, here getting him in deep doo-doo with his cute girlfriend. Said girlfriend makes her feelings known with a whizzz and a clunk.

Artist and writer unknown; found via the Nedor-A-Day website.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

It's a whole new day at Friday Night Fights; the mighty Bahlactus has passed the torch to the somewhat curiously-named Spacebooger, and after a short break we're back and in effect. The theme this time is onomatopoeia, defined by Mr. Webster as "the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it " or "the use of words whose sound suggests the sense". I think the fifth panel, and its attendant visual sound effect, qualifies in the case of the second definition- unless you're fond of Kevin Smith Green Arrow comics, you won't find too many examples of people shouting out "BAM" or "POW" as the slug someone. Anyway, I found this page at CSBG this morning; it's from Hulk #142, and it's one of those "you gotta see it to believe it" type stories (click on the CSBG link to read the pertinent pages) that only could have been conceived at the dawn of the 1970's, featuring a cameo from Tom Wolfe and the use of his "Radical Chic" stories as the springboard for a superhero slugfest. Weird.

Anyhoo, script by (who else?) Roy Thomas, pencil art by Herb Trimpe, inks by John Severin.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight's the final round of Friday Night Fights: Ladies' Night, and for this momentous occasion I present three pages of Vixen, doing that thing she do. This is from the first issue of her ongoing miniseries Vixen: Return of the Lion, on sale in finer comics selling establishments everywhere. Writin' by G. Willow Wilson, artin' by Cafu. Gesundheit.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

It's still Ladies' Night at Bahlactus' four-color squared circle, and my offering tonight is a scrap involving a character of which I knew a whole bunch of nothing: MISS MASQUE. She appeared in comics published by a company of which I was equally ignorant, Nedor Comics. I think a lot of the characters published by this company, including the Fighting Yank and the Black Terror, have been revived for modern audiences at least twice, the most recent being Alan Moore's America's Best Comics, in the pages of Tom Strong and I also seem to recall a one-shot or series of minis or something. Anyway, Miss M is secretly Canadian socialite Diana Adams (why were Golden Age heroines always socialites? Guess they had more time on their hands, I dunno), who solves mysteries and fights crime- even risking getting shot at by the Devil! Aw, OK, it's not really ol' Beelzebub, but it is a compelling visual, eh? Anyway, the names of the writer and artist of this little opus have been lost to the sands of time. But, thanks to the fine folks at Nedor-A-Day, we can still enjoy her, and her compatriots', exploits.

BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

After a one week hiatus, Bahlactus is back with another call for four-color fracases (fracasii? What is the plural of fracas?), involving the ladies of the comics world, called FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS! My submission for tonight, pun mostly intended, is every fanman's wet dream- from the recently completed Batman Confidential story arc that featured Barbara Gordon's Batgirl and Catwoman teaming up, if you want to call it that, to fight Russian mobsters as well as each other over Babs' dad's notebook. In this seven-page scene, which surely answers the prayers of those who yearned to see Babs and Selina in a naked catfight, if you will, Batgirl has been forced to follow Ms. Kyle into a Gotham underground sex club in which clothing is not allowed...and of course chaos ensues. From the very enjoyable (and not always for prurient reasons) Batman Confidential #18...written by Fabian Nicenza, of all people (successfully channeling Giffen and DeMatteis' bwah-ha-ha style) and illustrated by the incomparable Kevin Maguire. Oh, and click to see the images all embiggened.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Yes, it's Friday night again, and that means Ladies' night on Bahlactus' fight card. Tonight's altercation is from Monkeyman and O'Brien #3, from waaaay back in 1996. I rather liked this series, and it's a shame that Art Adams doesn't seem to be able to get back to it.

Script and art by Adams, of course.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight's Femme Fracas is a good one, I think, featuring the supa dupa fly MISTY KNIGHT and her Daughters of the Dragon cohort Colleen Wing in the climactic tussle with the detestable Riccadonna from their hugely entertaining miniseries of the same name, which came out in 2006. It led, of course, to the less-entertaining and now cancelled Heroes For Hire ongoing, which utterly failed to capture the funky feel of its predecessor. Oh well, water under the bridge. As always, click to embiggen the pics.

Script by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Khari Evans and Palmiotti.

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Ladies' Fight Night continues at the behest of the mighty BAHLACTUS! Tonight's mayhem comes from the mind and pen of Milton Knight, Jr., who plied his Terrytoons-influenced style in several indie comics series back in the wild and crazy 1980's. His most well-known comics work is probably Fantagraphics' Hugo, but unbeknownst to me he's been active throughout the last couple of decades doing illustration work and the like. The above sequence comes from his 1985 series Midnite the Rebel Skunk, which was released via the auspices of Blackthorne Comics. Glad to see he's still making a go of it- until I saw the above story posted at Comicrazys, I had forgotten about him.

BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

The ladies' bouts continue after a one week recess! Tonight's exercise in feminine fisticuffs comes from 1974's Shadow #5, written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated by the late, great Frank Robbins. Here, (click to see at full size) Shadow agent and society gal Margo Lane has found herself aboard a luxury liner that is hijacked by the nefarious Captain Sodom, a Nazi (even though he's not identified as such) rat who has been committing all sorts of acts of sabotage, trying to keep the US out of World War II. Margo overcomes one of Sodom's goons (I suppose he called his followers "sodomites", heh heh), but is cold-cocked (oy the puns) by Sodom himself. Still, taking out two Kinda-Nazi goons by herself is pretty good for Margo, who generally didn't indulge in the rough stuff.

It's funny- when these were coming out, I hated Robbins' funky, kinda awkwardly posed drawing style (very Caniff and Sickles influenced, although I didn't realize it at the time) and yearned for more Mike Kaluta. Now, as a theoretical adult, I enjoy Robbins' take almost as much as I did that of Mr. K. Funny how that works, isn't it?

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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!



Tonight's Female-centric exercise in brutality comes from issue number 2 of VINYL UNDERGROUND, the sadly canceled DC/Vertigo series I just discovered, late for the party, as usual. Administering the beating to these two Neo-Nazi bruisers is Leah King, the morgue attendant/slash internet porn star who knows how to bring the pain with panache. She's one of the British Scooby Gang that makes up the main cast of VU, which is a book that I'm right in the middle of writing about even as we speak! Click on the images to see them all bigger. Script by Si Spencer, art by Simon Gane and Cameron Stewart.


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FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!








Yes, it's still Ladies Night and the fighting's right, or something like that. Tonight's scrap comes from Avengers #83, cover dated December of 1970. This features, unless I'm mistaken, the first appearance of the Valkyrie- or WAS it? Anyway, she coerces the other female Avengers (Medusa, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow) into banding together as the "Lady Liberators", to overcome the male Avengers (and a group of hapless bad guys who happened to be in the neighborhood) and take over Avengers Mansion. Yeah, it's a hamfisted attempt to work the then-novel Women's Lib movement into a superhero story, and it's just as goofy as you'd expect. Still, it's a fun if dated little tale, and you gotta love that last panel. Again, ganked from scans_daily, and if you want to read the whole thing go here.

Script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.