Probably my favorite issue of this run. #BatmanDay Cover by Bob Kane and inked by Charles Paris. Expanded origin story inside by Bill Finger, Kane, and Paris with letters by Ira Schnapp.

Happy Days #453, June 20, 1903 Frank Tousey, Publisher. Jack Wright's "Sky-Scraper" Or, After the Lost Balloonists by Luis Senarens The Sky-Scraper is clearly inspired by the highly publicized Langley Aerodrome. Langley made unsuccessful manned tests later that year.

New York Weekly v30 #3, Nov 23, 1874 Street & Smith Mezzoni the Brigand Lieutenant Murray is a pen name of Maturin Murray Ballou Mezzoni was perhaps inspired by Italian soldier and brigand Carmine Crocco, though the engraving is reminiscent of Giuseppe Garibaldi images of the era.

Recently realized that part of Kid Eternity's origin story, his untimely death, is directly inspired by a 1942 German U-boat offensive against merchant shipping along the U.S. East Coast, which is called Operation Drumbeat by historians. This campaign was still ongoing when this story was created.

Police Gazette, July 14, 1894. Despite seeing a spirit grow from child to adult at a Buffalo NY seance, Mrs. J.P. Lyle became sceptical of the proceedings and attempted to seize the supposed spirit. Chaos ensued among the 40 paying attendees, as the fraud was exposed. #phantomsfriday

Police Gazette, Oct 21, 1882: “The spectre of a wealthy miner murdered at Fryer’s Hill, Colo., scares off a rough party who seize the property.” #phantomsfriday This miner's death received brief national attention, but a local paper later concluded the remains had been misidentified.

I recently realized that the one-page promotional Human Torch comic in the pulp Marvel Stories Nov. 1940 contains a reference to the legendary Human Torch vs Submariner battle in Marvel Mystery Comics #9 (or more accurately, issues #8-10), which ended about 3 months prior.

Police Gazette, Jan 1, 1881 For #PhantomsFriday, the saga of the controversial and historically important NYC theater manager and actor Thomas Hamblin, who had died nearly 30 years prior to this in 1853. It was said that his and his company's ghosts continued to rehearse in the Bowery Theater.

Police Gazette, Jan 21, 1882. Chicago spiritualist Henry Lee claims to have been married again with the blessing and aid of his deceased first wife at the ceremony. #PhantomsFriday

Golden Hours #683, March 2, 1901 Mystery of the Frozen Head: Or, Most Puzzling of New York's Great Crimes.

Etcetera & The Comic Reader #87, July 1972 Published & edited by Paul Levitz Cover by Alan Kupperberg Levitz reports that DC's acquisition of Fawcett's Captain Marvel had just been announced by Phil Seuling on New York TV show Midday Live on WNEW Channel 5. Wonder if that footage exists somewhere.

Punch (London) Nov 2, 1861 The facing page contains a verse supporting the idea that Britain should break the Union blockade of Southern ports for the sake of the British economy. (They didn't. Though there were blockade runners.) A number of U.S. papers ran a strong reaction to this cartoon.

Detective Weekly #193, October 31, 1936 A British story paper published by Amalgamated Press George E. Rochester was a prolific author of the era, probably best remembered for his science fiction work, which this one has elements of.

Boys of New York #530, Oct 110, 1885. published by Frank Tousey. The Little Wonder by William Howard Van Orden (Howard de Vere was one of his pseudonyms) Another spectacular Boys of New York cover. Van Orden wrote a number of science fiction stories for Tousey.

Ingersoll Lockwood was also one of the lawyers involved in the fight over dime novel publisher Frank Tousey's empire after his death. The saga involved the unusual deaths of Tousey's wife, his mother-in-law Margretta Todd, and arguably his brother, as well as some wild legal shenanigans.

The November 15, 1884 Police Gazette contains the story of Wells Fargo express agent Aaron Ross, who killed a would-be train robber near Monticello, California, and was thereafter said to be regularly haunted by the ghost of the man he killed, reenacting their gunfight. #phantomsfriday

L’Amant de la Mort 1895: A legend of the Kalina people of French Guiana, told by explorer Henri Coudreau A son of one of their gods wished to live on Earth & became mortal. He fell in love with the spectral figure of a beautiful woman, realizing too late he was seeking Death herself #phantomsfriday

Puck #1425 June 22, 1904 "Waiting" by Joseph Keppler. This cover is about the deadly difficulties encountered when digging the Panama Canal. The project officially began just prior to this on May 4, 1904.

The Days Doings, November 25, 1871 "Startling appearance of a monster sea-serpent off Kilkee, on the Irish Coast. From a sketch by an eye-witness."

Le Petit Journal Supplement Illustre, April 14, 1895 A derisive commemoration of the 80th birthday of Otto von Bismarck, architect of the Franco-Prussian War, and more. As the skeleton lingering at von Bismarck's shoulder implies, he was close to the end. He died in 1898. Art by Henri Meyer

Happy Days #455, July 4, 1903. published by Frank Tousey Al and the Air-Ship Gaston Garne is another pen name for the incredibly prolific Francis W. Doughty. I love the unusual design of the airship here.

Journal des Voyages #37, March 24, 1878 In its second year, published by Maurice Dreyfous and Georges Decaux by this time.

I hadn't heard about this film version of Mayne Reid's Headless Horseman. Fascinating.

NY Dime Library #8, 1878 The Headless Horseman by Mayne Reid Not inspired by Sleepy Hollow. Set in Texas in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, this is inspired by Texas Ranger Creed Taylor's story of El Muerto, giving rise to the legend of a headless, spectral ghost rider. #phantomsfriday

The Comic Reader #13, Nov 8, 1962 published by Jerry Bails Busy month for comics news: "Stan Lee is introducing a new character in TALES OF SUSPENSE -- Iron Man!" "Also on sale Dec. 10th -- an entire mag devoted to THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN!" Also: "A new war mag in the making -- SERGEANT FURY..."

For #phantomsfriday, a seemingly successful attempt to communicate with spirits shown in the Dec 30, 1871 issue of the weekly Every Saturday From my "lost history scrapbook", a non-sequential bound vol. of mysterious events from American periodicals 1859-1881 put together by some unknown researcher

Police Gazette, April 23, 1892 "She Surprised the Conductor. C. Louise Dowse discards her dresses for male attire in a Grand Rapids, Mich., passenger train."

Boys of New York, November 14, 1888 published by Frank Tousey Bats in the Wall or The Mystery of Trinity Church Yard Another cover I like.

Boys of New York, September 10, 1887 published by Frank Tousey The Black Diver A cover I like.

In 1993 I sold Oliver Stone a comic book at Chicago Comic Con. He was with Stan Lee. I had no idea it was Stone until someone told me later. Postscript: Lee told THR in 2016 that he filmed a cameo for Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). Far as I know, if that footage exists it has never surfaced.

Some Types of Men That Hate Cartoons In the late 1890s, politicians & other public figures started to get their feelings hurt by editorial cartoons. Legislation called "Anti-Cartoon Bills" was floated in NY, PA, & actually passed in CA, starting in 1899. (attached not my copy, just old research)

During some routine research recently, I was surprised to find a fictionalized account of William Hale's 1920s Oklahoma "Reign of Terror" against the Osage, history brought to greater attention recently by Killers of the Flower Moon, in the comic book Crime-Fighting Detective #19.

Something I wrote a few years ago after finding printer/publisher Samuel Hall's 1786 warning about safeguarding the free press in an issue of the Massachusetts Gazette in my collection. bleedingcool.com/comics/the-i...

The Pomfret Ghost, complete story for #PhantomsFriday, from The New Century vol 2 #8, Feb 24, 1877. Cover page included for context. E.C. Allen's The New Century is an extremely obscure and undocumented title, and it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only extant copy.

Yankee Notions #1, Jan 1852. The launch of an early and one of the best and most influential quarto-format American comic papers. This is actually the back cover here, but it always makes me laugh with that giant "#1" call-out there.

Political cartoon on the front page of the Saturday Globe Utica, New York. May 2, 1903. "The International Menagerie Is Disturbed"

Police Gazette, July 9, 1881 Beauty and the Beer "How the dashing daughter of a brewer supplied the place of one of her father's striking employees." NYC and Brooklyn brewers went on strike June 6, with limited success. They ultimately won a reduction of hours from 96 to 90 hrs/wk.

Boys of New York #639, Nov 12, 1887 Frank Tousey, Publisher The Haunted Belfry Another pseudonym for Francis W. Doughty. BNY was a newspaper-sized paper, much larger than a magazine or bedsheet pulp. When they did a nearly full-page illo like this, it's spectacular to see in person #PhantomsFriday

Frank Leslie’s Boys and Girls Weekly #560 July 14, 1877 The Hobgoblin of Devil’s Hollow Oscar A. Gwynne is a pseudonym for the prolific Edward S. Ellis, remembered today for early science fiction Steam Man of the Prairies, and one of the most important dime novel authors of his era. #PhantomsFriday

The Lone Wolf of Boston, who is included in that issue, was a media-friendly masked thief who terrorized Boston and taunted police in 1925. Upon his capture, he told papers he was inspired by the play "The Bat", the movie version of which is said to be influential on Batman.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper #1102, Nov 11, 1876 Cartoonist James Albert Wales depicts the specter looming over the Presidential Election of 1876, which took place just days prior to this weekly hitting the newsstands. This disputed election would soon trigger a constitutional crisis.

Still one of my favorites for how Lovecraftian it is. There's a student with a gift for the occult, there's a book of ancient, forgotten, forbidden knowledge, and there's an old, old university in which one might find such a book, if you know where to look. #PhantomFriday

Pluck and Luck #201, April 9, 1902 Frank Tousey, Publisher Pluck and Luck was the longest-running American color-covered fiction weekly (that didn't convert into pulp format), running for 1605 issues 1898-1929. Richard R. Montgomery is a pen name for the incredibly prolific Francis W. Doughty.

Murdered Mary Seneff's Ghost Police Gazette April 16, 1887. "Poor Mary Seneff was murdered nearly ten months ago by Mrs. Eilen E. Athey, at Stone Creek, Ohio. According to stories, her ghost seems to be giving some of the people thereabouts a vast amount of trouble." #PhantomFriday

Wild West Weekly #145, July 28, 1906 Frank Tousey, Publisher An underappreciated American fiction series in the scheme of things, Wild West Weekly was launched by Tousey, acquired by Street & Smith in 1927 and published in pulp format thereafter. In total, it ran 1902-1943 for 822 issues.

Ghost Stories v1 #5, November 1926 published by Macfadden Contains the first publication of Agatha Christie's "The Woman Who Stole a Ghost," which is better known under the title "The Last Seance."

New York Weekly, Vol. 30 #10, July 13, 1874 The Two Avengers; or, Masked Robber of the Death Ranch by Francis A. Durivage The Masked Robber has a special advantage in the form of Carmen the Clairvoyant, a young psychic woman who can see the future, the past, and has a spectrum of other abilities.

Back cover Frank Leslie's Boys and Girls Weekly -- May 20, 1879: "A flying monster— Miss Bigly's Thilling Adventure" "The peril of Miss Martha Bigly, attacked by a giant specimen of the Argonauta, or winged Devil-Fish, on the Florida Coast, Near St. Augustine"

Film Fun, May 1930. Published by Dell by this time. Cover painted by the great Enoch Bolles. Actress Marion Nixon was the cover model. I'm a big fan of Bolles' work.

Frank Reade Library #94, No. 16, 1894. published by Frank Tousey Over the Andres with Frank Reade Jr. in his New Air-Ship; Or, Wild Adventures in Peru by Luis Senarens A cover I like.