Every week, I will be sharing with you three comic book "easter eggs." An easter egg is a joke/visual gag/in-joke that a comic book creator (typically the artist) has hidden in the pages of the comic for readers to find (just like an easter egg). They range from the not-so-obscure to the really obscure. So come check 'em all out and enjoy! Also, click here for an archive of all the easter eggs featured so far! If you want to suggest an easter egg for a future column, e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com (do not post your suggestion in the comments section!).
Today we look at an issue of Captain America by Mark Gruenwald, Rik Levins and Danny Bulanadi where Captain America, Hawkeye and Iron Man visit a bar that is packed to the gills with easter egg cameos.
Enjoy!
I've written about Captain America #401 in the past, as I think it is sort of the pinnacle of Mark Gruenwald's "square" take on Captain America (Cap gives a lecture on superhero ethics in the issue!!).
Hawkeye tries to get Cap to loosen up, so he takes him to a bar. While there, they meet up with Tony Stark who has a heart-to-heart with Cap over the differences the two had been having at the time.
Rik Levins filled the bar with a TON of easter eggs. So many that I don't think that I have even identified them all!
First up, here's Popeye...
Next we see Steed and Peel playing pool with Humphrey Bogart. My guess for the background figure is Jimmy Cagney, but I am open to suggestions there.
Next, Groucho Marx is hanging out with Gomez and Morticia Addams, as well as their butler Lurch...
Andy Capp is having a drink at the bar...
Dick Tracy, Reid Fleming (the world's toughest milkman) and James Bond are hanging out (I don't know who the blonde is supposed to be)...
The Yellow Kid and Elvis Presley share the bar...
Jackie Gleason (from The Hustler) plays pool with Hawkeye...
Albert Einstein has a cocktail...
This next one could be a dozen different comic book creators. I'm guess John Byrne, but it really could be MANY different ones...
In addition, I don't know who these people are (if they are meant to be anyone at all)...
Finally, at the end of the bar trip, Levins couldn't end without having the king of cameos make an appearance, as Alfred Hitchcock walks by...
If you have a suggestion for a future edition of Comic Book Easter Eggs, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!