The Mega Marvel Calendar & Marvel Anniversary Appreciation

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I've been contemplating this idea ever since I saw someone using their vintage Bronze Age Marvel Calendar last year. Apparently, the days fall on the same days of the week for 1975 and 2014. Likewise, the 1976 calender can be used for 2015. Those vintage calendars had lots of Marvel info and fun on most of the dates, including the birthday of creators. Here's an example, for January 1976 & 2015.




And then I stumbled on the Comics Calendar at Grand Comics Database, which expands greatly on the creators, and a few other things -- but it's not restricted to Marvel creators. Sorry, I'm a Marvel Zombie at heart.

http://www.comics.org/calendar/

And here's an example of what they list for today -- and TBH, I really don't recognize any of these folks. Have any of them worked for Marvel?

January 1

Alfred (Lionel Papagelli) b.1976
Beroy (José Maria Beroy Garcia) b.1962
Bill Cole b.1973
Bill Woggon b.1911
Carlo Cossio b.1907
Eiichiro Oda b.1975
Federico Del Barrio b.1957
Guillaume Guerse b.1971
Jack Enyart b.1950
Jerry Robinson b.1922
Leonardo Gori b.1957
Melesio R. Esquivel b.1912
Steven Lejeune b.1981
Tony Weare b.1912
Walter Antonio McDaniel b.1971
Zata (Manuel Zatarain) b.1928

Harvey Awards debut 1988



Anyway, what I'd love to do in this thread is three things.

1) Find equally OCD folks who would like to share info and create a calendar of Marvel creators and info. What is the birthday (years aren't required) of your favorite modern writer or artist?

2) Chat about specific Marvel creators when they show up on the calendar. For example, looking at the above vintage calendar, it appears January is the birthday month of :

Klaus Janson
Johnny Romita Sr.
Don Heck
Sal Buscema

These are great Marvel artists, well worth appreciation this month. What are your favorite books, pages, panels, interviews, websites, stories, etc about these particular legends?

3) Chat about any specific events or anniversaries that appear on the calendar. While folks might not want to chat about the Liberty Legion week, they might want to reminisce about picking up The Amazing Spider-Man #1 on January 2, 1963, or Howard the Duck #1 in January 1976, amongst other things.

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Reserved for Jan Feb Mar

http://www.andertoons.com/cartoon-bl...-calendar.html

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Reserved for Apr May Jun

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Reserved for Jul Aug Sep

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Reserved for Oct Nov Dec

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Reserved for Comicbook Anniversaries

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And here's the list for tomorrow. I do know a few of these folks worked at Marvel.

January 2

Alessandro Del Conte b.1955
Buck Danny debuts 1947
Denis Calero b.????
Don Heck b.1929
Elmer Simms Campbell b.1906
Enzo Lunari b.1937
Ernie Stiner b.1958
Frederick Burr Opper b.1857
John Heebink b.1958
Jukka Murtosaari b.1963
Kevin Bricklin b.1965
Lank Leonard b.1896
Lax (Christian Lacroix) b.1949
Malik (William Tai) b.1948
Manuel Vázquez b.1930
Michel Janvier b.1954
Naoki Urasawa b.1960
Neil Swaab b.1978
Salvatore Deidda b.1953
Stephen Reed Benson b.1954
Timothy T. Markin b.1968


As for DON HECK, I know not everyone appreciates his art. When I was younger, he wasn't one of my favorites. But he's grown on me. And of course, he was one of the earliest artists on both the Avengers and Iron Man.

[Reviresco]

As I mentioned yesterday, today, January 2, is the birthday of DON HECK. If you've got any favorite panels or issues or characters or memories, please feel free to post them.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Heck





I wasn't buying comics when Don Heck was working on his first classic run of the Avengers, but I was in the Bronze Age, and remember Heck's specifically on the Sub-Mariner #64-68, the stories written by Steve Gerber. I have read those issues to death, especially when they first came out. More on that later.

But Heck also did the Avenger issue, with the double wedding of Wanda and Vision and Swordsman and Mantis (two characters he co-created).




Speaking of co-created ... Heck's list of characters is impressive. Starting with these two now famous movie characters.



Plus, these characters.

Mandarin
Count Nefaria
Swordsman
Atlas
Collector
Bill Foster
Living Laser
Mantis
Lorna Dane
Havok

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Happy Birthday to the late Dazzling Donny Heck!
I have him to thank for the look of Anthony Stark, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan
What a shame his co-creation Clint Barton lost his way cool look as Hawkeye

[Hypestyle]

why isn't marvel producing calendars anymore? Oh well.

[Reviresco]

Happy Birthday to the late Dazzling Donny Heck!
I have him to thank for the look of Anthony Stark, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan
What a shame his co-creation Clint Barton lost his way cool look as Hawkeye

Yes, I was confused about who gets credit for Iron Man, as apparently so were the creators, but when I think of classic Iron Man, I do usually think of Don Heck. I just didn't realize how much he co-created on the book.

why isn't marvel producing calendars anymore? Oh well.

There are Marvel calendars out there now, but no, they aren't producing them in house anymore, like the vintage ones I posted above. I guess they think folks nowadays want to have blank spaces to write things in, rather than simply knowing the date and things that happened on that day.

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Here's today's dates from GCDB. This project is making me feeling like a real ignoramus. LOL! I only know JRR Tolkien from this list, and I don't think there's any Marvel adaptations of his work. Does anyone know if any of these folks have done Marvel work?

EDIT: Marvel creator


JANUARY 3

Andreas Martens b.1951
André Franquin b.1924
Cheryl L. Ferraro b.
Henk Sprenger b.1919
J.R.R. Tolkien b.1892
Tom Artis b.1956

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And the promised 'more on Don Heck's Namor' -- from another thread.


Don Heck's Namor from his classic run on the Avengers.




And from the Sub-Mariner issues he drew, the famous costume change issue in #67.




I agree with the person who posted this pic, that Namor's head in that first panel seems to have been drawn / copied from Johnny Romita's cover, rather than pure Don Heck. There always seemed to be a rushed quality to Heck's work, which could have been due in part to inkers (he complained he always got stuck with the newbies), but he always got the story telling across clearly. Here's one of Namor literally drilling through a 'coral reef,' to avoid a bunch of ... whales??? Okay, these books were better when I didn't watch so many nature shows. LOL!




Pics came from Bronze Age Babies, and there's more, as well as a review of this issue here: http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com/...ariner-67.html

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Dennis Calero has definitely done some Marvel work, and a bit of everything. He's a writer, a penciller, an inker, a colorist, and even has done some lettering. But mainly, he's known as an artist, I believe. The first thing I remember seeing of his were these cool variant covers for the Noir books. He also did the interiors for both X-Men Noir mini.




Plus, he was the beginning artist on Peter David's previous X-Factor run.




And he did several covers, like this one.

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And here's today's dates from the GCBD calendar. And a couple more Marvel creators I recognize!

JANUARY 4

Arno b.1961
Bob Almond b.1967
Chic Stone b.1923
Chrisany (Francis Taptue Fogue) b.1978
Dario Guzzon b.1926
David Roach b.????
Denis McFarling b.1954
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson b.1890
Miguel Quesada b.1933
Takumi Nagayasu b.1949

Also, according to the vintage Marvel Calendars:

• Agatha Harkness makes her debut on this day in FF 94, on January 1970.
• Spider-Man was at Carnagie Hall on this date in 1972. I've no idea what exactly that entails.