I’ve lost count of how many daffodils Irene and I have planted since we moved to West Virginia in 2004. At one point, it was around 6,000, but I’m no longer sure. And each year, the first daffodil of Spring has predictably popped sometime between March 13 and March 17.

But not this year. After an amazingly mild Winter, the first daffodil (and the second, and the third, and several more) bloomed today, about 2-1/2 weeks earlier than ever before.

Behold!

It’s wonderful to see some yellow in March, but what this portends for our annual Thank God It’s Spring Daffodil party we hold each April remains to be seen.

I bought a ukulele exactly three months ago today, and now that I’ve been noodling around with it for a bit, I thought I’d let you see how far I’ve gotten. (Though if you watch the video below, perhaps you’ll instead think of it as how far I haven’t gotten.)

I’ve been tempted by the uke for awhile now, and boingboing has been goosing me along, first with its write-up of Sophie Madeleine’s project to record 30 uke songs in 30 days, and then with its review of the extremely tempting Firefly banjolele. But what finally pushed me over the edge and made decide that yes, I must have one, was Amanda Palmer’s performance of “The Ukulele Anthem” at Occupy Boston. And so, when those Black Friday sales rolled around, I jumped, and bought a Mitchell MU-70 concert ukulele.

Surprisingly, when I asked the sales guy which books I should pick up to teach myself the ukulele, he shook his head and simply said, “YouTube.” And amazingly, there do seem to be tens of thousands of videos online from which you can learn almost any song you wish. And so that’s what I did, tracking down songs that spoke to me and clumsily following along with those YouTube teachers to learn some basic chords. But I soon realized I needed a kick in the pants in the form of someone who could critique my progress, and so I found a local teacher from whom I’ve taken four lessons so far.

Since he has to suffer, and my wife has to suffer, I figure it’s time you did some suffering, too. So here’s a sample of how I’ve been entertaining myself these days.

And so, with great trepidation, welcome to the “Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”

Be gentle.

And lo, there shall be an ending!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve shared scans from a folder of Marvel Comics character write-ups I found in 1975 wedged between drawers in a Bullpen file cabinet. They all included suggestions for which celebrities you should think of when reading the word balloons belonging to your favorite superheroes. One set (the X-Men) I published in an issue of FOOM, the others (Captain America, Thor, the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Iron Man) went unseen until I posted them on this blog.

Now here comes the final such write-up, on the Fantastic Four.

But before you click through to check it out, pause for a moment and try to imagine—who did Marvel think Reed Richards was supposed to sound like? And how about Ben Grimm and the rest? Got a name? OK, then go for it!

Did you come close? Whether you did or not, I’m sure you’re wondering—who wrote these? And why?

Because of the clues contained in these sheets, I was fairly certain they could not have been written any later than 1965, and therefore there were few possible culprits. I suspected Stan Lee, though my Bullpen peers offered up a few other names, such as Stan’s brother, Larry Leiber, or Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, who worked briefly for Marvel in the early days.

But why merely speculate, you might ask? Why not reach out to Stan himself?

And that’s exactly what I did. (more…)

It had never occurred to me that comic book sound effects would be different in other languages—I guess because I’ve always foolishly assumed sounds were sounds, right?—until I went to blow my nose the other day.

See, Irene had bought a box of Puff tissues, one with a superhero-themed design she knew would entertain me, and I’d been using it for months, only noticing the sides which had BOOM! and Zap! written on it.

But then I noticed that the remaining two sides, rather than BOOM! and Zap!, were emblazoned with the sound effects BOUM! and Vlan!, which would allow the box to also be sold in France. (more…)

Yesterday, I promised I’d share with you the Iron Man character write-up I found stuffed in the back of Marvel Comics file cabinet when I worked there in the ’70s, and even though you have much better things to do today than read this post and are off celebrating Presidents’ Day by buying a car or a mattress or a huge flat-screen TV, I’m a man of my word.

And so …

But wait!

Before you click on the scan below, first picture the characters of Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, and try to imagine which celebrity voices you’re meant to hear in your head whenever you read their word balloons.

Got a few names? OK, then now you can click away!

Well? Did you get close on any of them?

Whether you did or not, I imagine the main thing you’re thinking is … Korea?

Tomorrow, you’ll get to see the final character sheets I found—two pages on the Fantastic Four.

Plus a few words from none other than Stan Lee himself!

Over the past week or so, I’ve shared scans of pages I found in a Marvel Bullpen file cabinet during the mid-’70s—so far, you’ve seen the X-Men, Captain America, Thor, the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, and the Hulk—and along the way I mentioned I had a feeling based on the content that these were written no later than the mid-’60s.

Today’s sheet will give you more of an idea of why I think this. Take a look at Spider-Man and his supporting cast and tell me what you see.

Or rather … what you don’t see.

Well? Did you not see what I thought you might not see? (more…)

Yes, I know Curt is no longer with us, but he would have turned 82 the other day, and since he was THE Superman artist of my youth, I figured I should take note. His is the face of Superman I see when I close my eyes, though you’d think, based on my age, that face could have easily belonged to Wayne Boring.

As far as I know, I only met Curt once, back in 1973 at a National Cartoonist Society Ruben Awards banquet held at the Waldorf Astoria. I was just a fanboy then, my job in the Marvel Bullpen still in the future. I was the guest of cartoonist Bill Kresse, whom I’d met thanks to a high school class trip to the New York Daily News.

I wore a old tuxedo which had belonged to a family friend, and as is true for all fanboys back then, I carried a sketch pad tucked under one arm. And to the embarrassment of my host, I interrupted the artists as they tried to eat their rubber chicken, and asked for drawings. (At least I assume my actions had to embarrass Bill. He never said. Who knows? Maybe he found them amusing.)

Here’s what Curt graciously drew for me. (more…)

As I said in my previous post, I’m confident that there’s simply no way you’ll be able to guess the celebrity voice meant to run through your head once Bruce Banner Hulks out.

OK, this is your last chance to take a crack at it. Got your candidate in mind?

Then click away to read the character description I found stuffed in a file cabinet in the Marvel Bullpen back in the mid-’70s.

Well?

Admit it—you didn’t even come close.

Next up—Spider-Man, accompanied by a supporting cast of characters that’ll explain why I believe all of these pages were written in the ’60s.

Over the past week, I’ve shared some superhero descriptions I found hidden between drawers in a filing cabinet back in the ’70s when I worked in the Marvel Bullpen—descriptions some of us who worked there at the time think were written by Stan Lee.

So far, you’ve seen write-ups of the X-Men, Captain America, Thor and the Sub-Mariner, complete with suggestions of what voice you were meant to imagine while reading the adventures of each character.

And today we come to Doctor Strange.

But before perusing the scan below, take a moment and think—who should the sorcerer supreme sound like?

Got a name? OK, then click away!

So? Were you in the ballpark?

Well, even if you were, I’m 100% positive that tomorrow, you’ll be stumped. Because there’s simply no way you’ll be able to successfully guess which celebrity’s voice you were meant to hear running through your head while you sounded out the word balloons of the incredible Hulk. It’s a name that totally surprised me.

Give it a shot if you think you’re up to it, but I promise—you’re going to lose!

I’ve already shared a few ancient superhero character descriptions with you that were written decades ago by someone at Marvel Comics—presumably Stan Lee, though until there’s some evidence that’s more than just the opinions of me and a few fellow former Bullpenners, we’ll leave that word “presumably” in there.

So far, you’ve seen the X-Men, Captain America, and Thor. (Who knew that the Thunder God was supposed to sound like Richard Chamberlain AND Richard Burton?)

Yesterday, I asked you to try to guess which famous actor Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, was meant to sound like in the word balloons of your mind. Did you come up with one? Give the scan below a read and see if you were right.

So … how far off were you?

Now it’s time to give some thought to whose voice comes out of Doctor Strange’s eldritch mouth. Tune in tomorrow to see how close you come!