Happy International Dance Day!

April 29 has been designated as International Dance Day by UNESCO. It also happens to be the birthday of of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. Ann Miller and friends wants everyone to cut rug, jump with joy, and otrherwise move to the music on this day!

It's Earth Day!

Here's a sketch artist's rendering of Mother Earth. If you see her, approach with caution. She has a tempestuous bearing, and often explodes with fiery rage. Unconfirmed reports indicate that she also has adverse reactions to immodest women.

By Amy Clark

Happy Easter!

I hope you have as much luck at finding Easter Eggs as Ann Miller did. She found the bunny that lays them!

The Milla Jovovich Quartery

It's laundry day, and Milla is waiting for the dryer cycle to finish. But the Milla Jovovich Quarterly must go on!

March 20: It's the first day of Spring...

... and Ann Miller is jumping with joy! Could there be a more Picture Perfect Wednesday?

At least once each month for all of 2014, Ann Miller will show up here in Shades of Gray to mark a special day. Keep checking back, or you may miss her!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Hey, look! She's Irish!

Picture Perfect Wednesday: The Return of the Purple Tigress!

In 1944, the mysterious Purple Tigress was capturing hearts and breaking heads throughout Guardian City. Who was this mysterious woman? No one knew, and when her crime-busting exploits came to an end, still no one knew. But if you click here you can learn all her secrets, as they will be revealed by Steve Miller in the soon-to-be released e-book Golden Age Oddballs.

The Purple Tigress adventures are among the six stories featured in Golden Age Oddballs. As we wait for the book to be released by NUELOW Games, here are some modern visions of the mysterious crime fighter.

The Purple Tigress, as seen by Terry Beatty

The Purple Tigress and Friend, as seen by Butch.

(Despite what you might assume from Butch's drawing, and her striped bikini, the Purple Tigress is not a cat-themed superhero. In fact, she draws her name from the Purple Tiger Beetle of all things.)

Diana Danger, Space Girl!

Incarna Comics publishes several "retro" titles... and one which is in the early stages of development is Diana Danger, Space Ranger. Here are some portraits of the title character, who keeps alive the tradition of space-faring women in tight suits and fishbowl-like helmets!

By F. Newton Burcham

By F. Newton Burcham

By F. Newton Burcham

For up-to-date info on Incarna Comics, visit their Facebook page here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's hoping no one tears through your heart the way Ann Miller has gone through the one in the picture.

'Ginger and Snap' : Coming from NUELOW Games

Early in 1948, Eastern Color Printing published the first issue of Club 16, a humor anthology series focused mostly around high-schoolers and young professionals. The quarterly title lasted four issues, and it was gone again by year's end.

 From the first issue ot the last, one of the features was "Ginger and Snap." Ginger and Snap were fraternal twins and each story saw them trading places or otherwise impersonating each other. Since Ginger was a girl and Snap was a boy, all the stories feature light-hearted exploratons of gender role reversals. "Cute' is the perfect word to describe the stories by Mickey Klar Marks and the illustrations by Dave Tendlar, and not in a sarcastic way.

I immediately developed a fondness for "Ginger and Snap" when I discovered the series during one of my hunts for comics for NUELOW Games to re-publish as part of its comics/rpg hybrid line. It's not like anything else we've put out, so the Trading Places Twins are getting a book of their very own. Here's the splash page from the first story, as it will appear in NUELOW's "Ginger and Snap." (Click on the image for a larger, more readable version.)

The first appearance of Ginger and Snap.

When I made a post similar to this in a Facebook forum, announcing the plans to do a "Ginger and Snap" book, one of the commentors said,"Where the mind goes by today's standard would make a book like this a little ...,"

And he's right. If Ginger and Snap were to be fully rebooted instead of just re-issued, it would probably look something like this:

Joke ad for Ginger and Snap, by Karl M.

Look for Ginger and Snap, later this week from NUELOW Games. Meanwhile, click here to check out the other comics offerings... guaranteed better than 99 percent of the crap currently at your Friendly Neighborhood Comics Shop.