Before the fools and bunnies; before taxes and fireworks is Valentine’s Day. A day for flowers and flowery words; confection and affection.

It’s also a time for Marvel to march out some of its sweethearts, well and lesser known, to entertain and pass along a little wisdom.

Mary Jane and Peter spend a romantic day in a cocoon of webs and memories.

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While enjoying a text book and good weather, Peter sees himself. His teenage self when his future wife was still a set up date between their aunts.

Deciding to help, Peter gives the nebbish grad student fashion and dating tips.

The opening Valentine volley – My Fair Spidey – comes to a close when Mary Jane helps Peter realize it wasn’t who he was trying to be, but who he was she fell in love with. Donning his union suit, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, saves the day and the couple’s future.

Love Hurts is a much more serious look at love.

Daredevil and girlfriend Karen Page work to save a young woman’s life from an abusive boyfriend.

Venus and Goom return readers to more of a comfort zone in Atom-Age Amore. The story is a whimsical stab at world domination through a dating agency.

The Greatest Gift is another fun fable showcasing Absorbing Man and Titania.

Crusher Creel is caught in his past while trying to find the perfect gift for his wife. With her help, together they find what that is; one that doesn’t come in a box nor need wrapped.

Valentine’s Day is coming. Better start thinking of what your main squeeze would love most.

With the 2022 Winter Olympics starting today, hosted by Beijing, China; it’s only appropriate we present Spider-Man vs. the Hulk at the 1980 Winter Olympics held at Lake Placid, NY, 42 years ago.

The Olympic games can be traced back to competitions held in 776 in Olympia, Greece. Representatives from city-states and kingdoms were selected to participate in athletic and combat sports.

As the Romans came to power, the Greek-sponsored event fell out of favor. It wasn’t until 1821 interest was renewed after the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire. Greek-Romanian philanthropist Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, held in Athens.

He also funded restoration on Panathenaic Stadium. It housed the 1870 and 1875 Olympics. No attendance records exist for the 1875 event, but 30,000 are said to have attended the 1870 contests.

The International Olympic Committee was formed and the first Olympics under their auspices was held in 1896. The success of the games became the foundation for the current popularity of both the summer and winter Olympics.

The Olympics currently feature over 21,000 competitors representing 207 nations.

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The most expensive Summer Games were hosted by Beijing in 2008, costing an estimated $40-$44 billion. The most expensive Winter Games were held by Sochi in 2014 costing an estimated $51 billion.

How much Marvel’s 25^th Treasury Edition cost or recouped is unknown. Probably less than the created carnage caused by the Mole Man and Kala who unleash the “outcasts” at the 1980 Olympics. Olympians team with Spider-Man and the Hulk to stop the chaos.

What makes the book even more than a novelty – in addition to its size, a monstrous 10”x14” worthy of hosting the Olympics and Marvel’s two power houses – is it presents a new story. Most Treasury editions, beyond Howard the Duck and Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, consisted of reprint material. Even the Howard the Duck had just one original story.

Marvel’s 1976 Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag used new framing material provided by Roger Stern to set up reprints of Marvel Team-Up issue six, The Avengers 58, Tales to Astonish 93 and Daredevil 86.

Maybe the most memorable piece of Olympic lore from the 1980 Winter Olympics was U.S.A.’s upset of the Soviet Union in the hockey competition.

It’s February 1 and time for National Serpent Day.

Again.

Last year we celebrated the non-holiday by focusing on the first appearance of the Serpent Squad in Captain America 163 and the group’s history. This year we return with another tale of the slithering society, but in a much more kid friendly version.

Spider-Man teams with an awestruck Ms. Marvel and Lockjaw to teach the importance of not falling in with the wrong crowd.

The flashback story takes the wayward wallcrawler across state lines to New Jersey. There he finds The Serpent Society preparing to loot the dockyards for a cool million in cash.

This being Ms. Marvel’s neighborhood, the Joanny-come-lately leaps on the scene to help Spidey and teach new Society member Garden Snake she doesn’t need to follow where others lead.

Marvel Super Hero Adventures began as an animated series in an attempt to wrangle a younger audience for the Marvel franchise. It has aired for four seasons with 10 specials and the four-color version complimenting the series consisting of five number one issues written by Jim McCann and illustrated by Dario Brizuela.

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Hasbro provided a toy line.

Some quick snakey facts include:

Only 1/8 of the known species are venomous,

Snakes eat their prey whole,

Most snakes are nocturnal,

They smell with their tongue,

Snakes are cold-blooded and sun themselves to regulate body temperature, and

While most snakes lay eggs, some give live birth.

To learn more about today’s celebrants, research them with the normal methods and use #NationalSerpentDay to post info on social media.

It seems so unfair to pack away the lively colors of Christmas during the blandest time of the year. To liven the month up a bit, let’s celebrate Kiss a Ginger Day.

Only two-percent of the world’s population can claim to be natural red heads. The shock of red tresses has been lauded and mocked, but always stand out in a crowd.

Maybe the most famous red head in comicdom, at least in the Marvel Universe, is Mary Jane Parker, formerly Mary Jane Watson.

MJ’s first appearance is technically Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 25, but normally considered Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 42.

In issue 25, the wily Steve Ditko, then penciling the book, hid her visage behind a plant. It was former romance artist John Romita, Sr., who immortalized her look in issue 42. In later interviews, the elder Romita admitted he patterned her after Ann Margret as she appeared in the movie Bye Bye Birdie.

Mary Jane would become Peter’s best girl until he could persuade Gwen Stacy to leave friend Harry Osburne. Following Gwen’s death at the hands of the Green Goblin, MJ and Peter entered a tumultuous relationship.

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By Amazing Spider-Man 182, Peter had asked Mary Jane to marry him.

She declined the offer.

The pair would drift apart for several years only to reunite. In Amazing Spider-Man 257 MJ admitted to knowing Peter’s secret identity.

They would continue to date and Peter would pop the question again in Amazing Spider-Man 290. This time Mary Jane would accept and the two were married in Amazing Spider-Man annual 21.

Married life was no less troubled than their previous dating one. MJ became pregnant, but complications due to the Clone Saga and editor’s whims left the baby stillborn.

Further marital problems ensued and Mary Jane left for the west coast. Eventually they reconciled only to be caught up in the Civil War storyline.

That was followed by the One More Day story arc in which Mary Jane accepts Mephisto’s offer to disappear from Peter’s life for the return of Aunt May who was killed during the previous marathon of a story.

This was followed by A New Life, Spider-Island, Ends of the Earth, Dying Wish and The Superior Spider-Man. MJ returned, but as a friend.

Peter and Mary Jane are reunited under Marvel’s Fresh Start relaunch event.

Mary Jane has been part of the Amazing Spider-Man landscape and Peter Parker’s life in every incarnation of the character. Her opening line for their introduction in Amazing Spider-Man 42 has proved truer than Stan Lee or John Romita, Sr., could have ever known,” Face it, Tiger, you just hit the jackpot.”

So did we.

Welcome to Kiss a Ginger Day.

If you are fortunate enough to know one, plant a wet one on their cheek and let ‘em know they are appreciated.

About 46 million people around the world are blind. Today is a day we can remember and honor their independence with World Braille Day.

Through a sequence of interrelated events, Louis Braille invented the series of raised dots named after its creator allowing the blind and vision impaired the ability to read.

Braille lost his sight following an accident at his father’s harness shop when he was three. While attending the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, he cultivated an interest in music. That interest, combined with code communication developed for Napoleon’s army, were the basis for what is known as braille today.

He died in 1852, two years before France’s Royal Institute for the Blind Youth adopted a braille curriculum.

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Representing the comic community for today is Blind Al, or Althea or Blind Alfred, of Deadpool fame.

Blind Al’s origin is murky at best, but at some point Deadpool took the geriatric gal hostage, keeping her as a companion/housekeeper/victim. Though his most intimate companion, Deadpool is incredibly cruel toward her. To punish Blind Al, Wade would put her in the Box, a small room filled with sharp objects. She was forbidden visitors, though she has become familiar with Deadpool’s other human tool, Weasel.

She was eventually released from his imprisonment, though she remained in contact with Deadpool over the subsequent years. Her last contact, to date, with the Merc with a Mouth was an invitation to he and Shikklah’s wedding. A misprint in the braille invite sent her to a gang funeral instead.

Blind Al was featured in both the 2016 and 2018 Deadpool feature films. She was portrayed by Leslie Uggams.

To participate, pay more attention to the braille and other accessible items available for the blind and vision impaired. In addition, learn more about its creator and famous people who were blind or visually impaired.

For a real treat, take in Deadpool (1997) issue 11, With Great Power Comes Great Coincidence, in which he is transported back in time to parody the events of Amazing Spider-Man issue 47. Blind Al plays Aunt May. It’s a classic.

The one constant in comic books was the death of Captain America’s sidekick, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes.

That was until 2005 when writer Ed Brubaker returned the youth from the dead by explaining he had been knocked unconscious, found by the Russians and trained to kill.

To maintain his youthful appearance and abilities, Bucky has been kept in cryogenic stasis between missions. Much like he was found by General Vasily Karpov and crew of the Russian submarine.

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Captain America helped Bucky regain his lost memories, but the former sidekick remains elusive to his former friend.

In Winter Kills, Bucky is given the opportunity to enjoy Christmas for the first time in 63 years. His festivities are cut short when Nick Fury asks him to wrangle the Young Avengers in their pursuit of Hydra.

Bucky is able to herd them to a victory with enough time to relive past wounds at the gravesides of Jack Munroe and Toro.

Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Bucky first appeared in Captain America Comics issue one. He would accompany Captain America throughout World War II.

When super heroes became passe in the late 1940s and early 1950s, both Cap and Bucky faded from the spin racks and memories…until Stan Lee revived Captain America in the early 1960s in Avengers issue four.

Bucky would appear in flashbacks in Tales of Suspense during the Sixties. It was in the title readers learned of his fate at the end of the war.

In the 1970s, Rick Jones would don the blue and red costume and play second fiddle to Cap for a time.

Winter Solider has become a major force in the Marvel Universe, even making the break to the silver screen as played by Sebastian Stan.

Marvel Comics trumpeted its Marvel Value Stamps in the debut of the latest in-house promotional machine, the Bullpen in comic books covered dated March 1974.

Touted as an early holiday present the now (in)famous Marvel Value Stamps, an off-beat promotion mirroring the main stream’s Green Stamps or other bartering badges, readers were regaled with the wonders to come.

The article went on, in true Marvel idiom, “…one of these glitzy mini-posters—each featuring a different Marvel star or starlet—will appear in virtually every one of our mixed-up original-material mags—and in many of our collectors’-item reprints, to boot!”

Marvel Value Stamps ran in two series. The first offered renderings of readers favorite heroes and villains. The second, series B, were smaller pieces of a larger image to make up 10 different posters. Each were spread through various Marvel Comic Book titles.

Both series consisted of 100 pieces. The first could be pasted in an official 16-page Marvel stamp album offered in-house for 50 cents, to cover postage and handling. Included was a free, full-color poster.

What made the promotion so sinister was the fact anyone wishing to participate would need to cut up their comic books. Maybe the most infamous instance is Incredible Hulk 181. Philatelists traded the grade of their Hulk 181 to clip a Shanna stamp. Basically, the choice cost collectors an estimated 80-percent of what the unscathed book would be worth normally.

When all 100 stamps were collected, the album could be returned to Marvel Comics for a discount for entry to various comic book shows around the country. In addition, completists could take 10-percent off official Marvel merchandise sold by the company. This could be done in perpetuity.

And, in theory.

The two promotions ran from 1974 to 1976.

Visit Marvel Value Stamps The Unofficial Index for more information.

Marvel Stamp Album

For anyone who forgot what the mid-1990s were like, this is the book that resurrects the ghosts of misadventures past.

The first of those three spirits comes wrapped in the title Pull My String.

Beavis and Butt-Head believe participation in the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade will bring them the sexual pleasures they desire. What dawns is a spot at the back of the line and intestinal distress.

Chokin’ Th’ Turkey takes the dullard duo to Stewart’s for Thanksgiving Dinner. Normally the two would avoid their uncool school mate, but the lure of pay-per-view sex takes them inside middle-class suburbia. Poor table manners then leave them out in the cold.

One last turkey day tale takes the two to a pre-Christmas fashion show in Fashion Sucks.  This prepubescent sex-fantasy turns into a sorrowful cosplay of sorts with Beavis and Butt-Head each taking a turn on the catwalk.

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Mike Judge is the brain-child behind Beavis and Butt-Head. MTV commissioned the series after the pair debuted on Liquid Television. The show aired from march 8, 1993 to Nov. 28, 1997.

The pair and their antics were met with mixed reviews. The target audience lapped up the lewd comedy and video critiques. Mainstream critics panned the series overall.

The on-screen violence was brought to question by adults and the Ball Breakers episode was believed to be partially to blame for the death of an eight-month-old. Calvin Settle, an 18-year-old, was said to have been influenced by the show when he tossed a bowling ball from an overpass resulting in the death.

Beavis and Butt-Head was also blamed for the accidental death of a two-year-old after her brother set fire to the family’s mobile home while playing with a lighter.

The show was rescheduled for 11 p.m. and a disclaimer added telling viewers the two were not real and not to try their antics at home.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is a feature-length animated movie released in theaters in 1996. Siskel and Ebert gave the film two-thumbs up, as did movie goers who helped it earn $60 million on a $12-million budget.

Judge created an eighth season 14 years after the series ended, airing from Oct. 27 to Dec. 29, 2011.

A second revival may be in the works.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Mixed Blessings doesn’t sound like much of a Thanksgiving story, but that’s what each of the X-Men are doing.

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Issue 308 ties up some extended story arcs allowing both players and readers some breathing space. Taking time to catch up on some personal matters or menial tasks, the book is broken down into relationships.

When they do come together, it’s for an impromptu football game mutant style. The book culminates with the announcement Scott Summers and Jean Grey are getting married.

This was also a time of great change in the comic book industry. The X-Men, long celebrated within the comic book field, were becoming sought after by investors. Readers were jumping bandwagons and most mutant properties were targets. Histories were retconned and characters plunged into chaos to keep the comics selling.

As the 1990s continued, much of what made the X-Men – and so many others – special waned. Gimmicks took precedence over character as companies attempted to grab as much money as they could.

The X-Men survived and continue to captivate and capture new readers having weathered reboots and fan’s fancies.

Maybe that’s what the comic book industry has become: a mixed blessing. Those of us who have been around for any length of time have weathered our share of knocks, but we still have hope every Wednesday.

Get ready to give more thanks. Tomorrow is a day for family, friends and football. Dig out the elastic waistband pants and polish that fork and knife.

The cover is the only thing with a Thanksgiving theme as Alf roasts the network that spurned him.

ALF, or Alien Life Form, aired on NBC from Sept. 22, 1986 to March 34, 1990. By the time the cover-dated April, 1991, Alf 40; issue hit specialty shops and newsstands, the network had already cancelled the series.

Marvel would keep the title going for another 10 issues before ending Alf at number 50.

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While primed with a holiday cover – of sorts – already, the book could also fall into St. Paddy’s day category with Leprechaun Job as the first story.

The Tanner’s Uncle Seamus comes to visit, giving ALF visions of a pot of gold in his dreams. Whether a waking dream or real life, ALF is unable to restrain Seamus and secure his possible fortune.

ALF is left with a parting gift that only causes the Tanners more trouble.

That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles is a Melmacian history lesson tempered with a dash of Zorro. The tale does little to lessen the ire of Lynn who finds her homemade treat has vanished.

ALF was the brainchild of Tom Patchett and puppeteer Paul Fusco. The four seasons produced 99 episodes including three one-hour episodes, one of which was ALF’s Christmas Special.

A sequel to the final episode entitled Project: ALF (aka Project: ALF, Part 2) aired in 1996 as a made-for-television science fiction film. Though NBC was the home of ALF during its initial run, ABC hosted the furry cat lover in the United States and the CHCH-TV in Canada on February 17.

Only puppeteer Fusco and Beverly Archer appeared from the original series. With the Tanners absent, viewership was down.

When NBC took ALF off the air, it did so with a cliff-hanging:  To Be Continued on the screen. Initially NBC had promised an extra episode to tie up loose threads, but decided against a 100^th show. Viewers were left with ALF under a Melmacian spaceship as the series faded from television.

By the end of the second-part of Consider Me Gone, ALF has been awarded ambassadorship to Earth, giving the series the closure denied it originally.