It's a new year and luckily 2019 started out with another Batgirl/Supergirl comic strip from Mike Maihack!
I have always been impressed with Maihack's holiday based comics of Babs and Kara. Kara is always played as the straight-laced foil to Kara's more bubbly persona. It is clear they are great friends even if their approach is different. And without a doubt they enjoy each others company.
This New Year comic has Kara switching out the heroes' usual costumes with bright pink ones. Babs, of course, can't be the brooding Bat when she looks like 'Bubblegum'. But that is the whole point per Kara.
And it seems to be a justified move when Batman, of all people, arrives with a Santa sack filled with candy. Love it.
Of course, in the Maihack world, Supergirl is obsessed with costumes and several strips have been focused on her switching things up. There is even a 'Christmas costume' strip out there, all somewhere in the link above.
I love Maihack's strips. So this end of year strip is always an extra special gift!
But I love that Supergirl is in the solid pink outfit which seems to be available in plenty of costume shops and Halloween stores. It reminded me that it has been officially seen in a comic when Sterling Gates had Kara in it while in a Psi-induced nightmare in Adventures of Supergirl #7 .
There are a couple of more holiday season posts to get through so bear with me over the next week or so!
Sweet stuff. I wonder if it’s a nod to Kara’s Bronze Age propensity to try on a reader-designed cossie at the tip of a Kryptonian headband.
ReplyDeleteWhen Christmas arrived and no Mike comic came out I grew concerned. Maybe Mr. Maihack ran out of jokes? Or time? Or enthusiasm? Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when it finally came out.
ReplyDeleteI love how utterly oblivious Kara is to her friend's discomfort. Boundaries, girl! And poor Babs should learned for now to roll with it.
I nearly wish Kara would have changed them to their current mainstream costumes, but then we wouldn't have them look Bubblegum-awesome. Sacrfices must be made.
Hmm... Eighteen pages and Batman has made a few appearances but Superman has zero showings. I'm curious as to why.
Am I imagining things or both girls have aged a little? In the first comic they look around fifteen:
http://operationspacecat.com/buffalog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/batgirl-supergirl_comic01.jpg
But in the newest comic I think they look in their late teens.
Maihack is one of my favorite Supergirl interpreters despite not being on a title. If he got to do a Supergirl/Batgirl ongoing in this style I would be there every week.
ReplyDeleteThe Batgirl/Supergirl friendship is maybe the most canon non-canon friendship there is. Despite there being very few encounters between them in comic history - when it happens it's like they have always been the best of friends.
It is in my mind an underutilized relationship that spreads joy on every page, miles away from the cold calculating friendship of Superman and Batman. While Shea does it masterfully in DCSHG, their appearances are still somewhat far between.
Give Maihack an ongoing and give us a journey where each page is about the joy of adventuring with a best friend.
I *LOVE* these holiday Supergirl/Batgirl strips from Mike Maihack. It's great you came across this one.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to get his work in higher resolution? Maybe he sells them. Or someday self-publish a collection. Would be a great holiday gift.
Maihack does indeed feature a running theme about costumes. Supergirl almost inevitably switches up, but so does Batgirl on occasion, including to her Burnside costume (though Mailhack reverted to an older look this year), and a Bat-swimsuit at one point.
Coincidentally I was just checking out the adorable "Tiny Titans" series from 2008-2012. In #39 Alfred does a laundry, and the Super capes bleed color in the wash and turn everyone's costume -- pink. Cassandra (who never voices a word in the title) ends up sheepishly in pink. Superman does too, and he's humiliated.
In the final issue, #50, Superman and Supergirl get New 52-ish costumes. Supergirl's version contains several elements from it, like the cloak and the new boots, and Art Baltazar transforms the more "eccentric" elements into a combination of a regular yellow belt buckle with a red skirt. Those costumes get carried forward into the 2012-2013 Superman Family Adventures.
What an amazing, huge cast of characters Art Baltazar and Franco put in that title.
Tiny Titans are forever sitting down for tea. Which reminds me that Maihacks' team relaxes with some cocoa in 2017 (in Batgirl-themed purple mugs), and Supergirl asks her what she has against tea.
Anyone else love the Tiny Titans? It's for kids, but obviously filled with tons of references that must be there for the fun of parents reading with their kids. Or, for any other DC reader.
Mike Maihack's strips are fun for all ages too!
Aw Yeah Titans!
(Sorry, I hijacked this. Well, where else can one talk about Tiny Titans? But I think Anonymous above is right - Maihack's do look a couple of years older now.)
T.N.
I reviewed that pink issue! Can;t believe I forgot!
ReplyDeletehttp://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-tiny-titans-39.html
Amazing.
And yes, they do look older now that you mention it!
I should have checked! You've blogged a ton about Tiny Titans. Looking forward to catching up.
ReplyDeleteThere was a 3-part cross-over with Archie - which I think gets referenced in Superman Family Adventures - that I need to look for, and want to read the Treehouse limited series too.
T.N.
I suppose the culture has surged past this particular venue, but I can truly see Maihack doing Kara-n-Babs as a daily newspaper type strip...his stuff has the exact same type of humor and pacing.
ReplyDeleteBut I fear the days of newspapers and daily comic strips are drawing to a close.
Pity these girls would go over big therein...
JF
It's too bad DC no longer runs full and half page gag strips in their books, like the ones Henry Boltinoff did until the late 60s (Casey the Cop, Super-Turtle etc.), because Maihack's work would be perfect for that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteToday's comic strips (dailies and Sundays) are run so small and crammed together, it's ridiculous. Look at what artists like Hal Foster and Alex Raymond and George Herriman and Milton Caniff and Cliff Sterrett were able to do when they had room to work. The current set up makes work like that impossible today.
THANKS FOR FINDING AND SHARING THIS, ANJ! Pul a HELLUVA grin on my face, and like one of the previous
ReplyDeleteAnons, was concerned there hadn't been anything new from Mike Maihack since 2017 Christmas.
Mike Maihack, wherever you are, THANK YOU AGAIN!!
And DC needs to let him do ALOT more with these two. I too would LOVE a whole collection of just Babs
and Kara's silly 1off adventures, but don't care what really. JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, DC!
> Hmm... Eighteen pages and Batman has made a few appearances but Superman has zero showings. I'm curious
> as to why.
To put alittle levity on it, I don't have to look further than the infamous "wedgie" incident at the Kent
farm -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuzquQIqsz4
? It is in my mind an underutilized relationship that spreads joy on every page, miles away from the cold
> calculating friendship of Superman and Batman. While Shea does it masterfully in DCSHG, their appearances
> are still somewhat far between.
I'll take all the Super Best Friends moments in DCSHG we can get! :D Always a treasure when Fontana, et al
can get them in.
> Is there a way to get his work in higher resolution? Maybe he sells them. Or someday self-publish a
> collection. Would be a great holiday gift.
checking Mike's site, he offers some of the previous comics in 11x14 size, if that tickles anyone's fancy.
Regards
So may of the shorter Tiny Titans stories are so similar to half-page Sunday newspaper colored funny pages.
ReplyDeleteAnd Alfred is often shown reading DC's "Wednesday Comics."
I just found those 11x14's, thanks, but that's kind of big and they're expensive. Reasonable prices for individually signed archival prints, but not exactly what I'd be looking for right now. His faq suggests he might produce smaller prints someday.
He has some beautiful watercolors.
T.N.