For the eleventh installment of Not Just Comics trivia at Mission Comics, we dispensed with a theme, but kept the extended format of forty questions with an intermission. The evening still sped by far too quickly…

Ben, part of a two-person team christened Spidey-Ben and his Amazing Friend, captured another first-place trophy with a dominating 38/40 showing (I did give him “Dick Butz,” but they would have won regardless).

Dan, part of a four-person team that went by CALD for the day, took second; and first-time participants Team Hell Yes! rounded out the medal podium with third place. All-time standings now have Ben with 5 titles and Dan with 3.

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 24 for another fun evening at Mission: Comics + Art! See their Facebook page for details.

Now for a chance to test your knowledge. Here’s the quiz in its entirety. Do it without Google, true believer!

Question #1 – Easy Opener
In John Byrne’s Sensational She-Hulk #8, Jennifer Walters is aided in a murder investigation by Nick St. Christopher, “World’s Greatest Detective.”
Nick turns out to be..?

Question #2 – Awards
This year’s Harvey award for Book of the Year was given to this cartoonist for Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, chronicling her experience working in the oil fields of Alberta in the mid-2000’s.

Question #3 – Secret Identities
Name one of the heroic alter egos of Dick Grayson.

Question #4 – Pioneers
Comics and animation pioneer Winsor McCay is known for his work on Little Nemo in Slumberland and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, the latter of which featured bizarre dream sequences that always end with the sleeper awaking and cursing the fact that he or she ate Welsh rarebit before bed.
What is Welsh rarebit?

Question #5 – First Appearances
In which comic book series does Blade make his first appearance?

Question #6 – Myths & Legends
Each letter in the magic phrase SHAZAM stands for a legendary hero. Five of them are from Greco-Roman mythology; who is the only Biblical hero in the mix?*
*for Billy Batson’s Captain Marvel transformation

Question #7 – Writers
The earliest Charlton and DC work by this legendary Batman writer and editor was credited to “Sergius O’Shaughnessy,” a pen name he adopted from one of Norman Mailer’s novels.

Question #8 – Sports
In 1970, Stan Lee paired up Marvel heroes with NFL linebackers for a spread in Gameday magazine. The Hulk was compared to this Chicago Bears Hall of Famer.

Question #9 – Politics
Spinning out of one of creator Steve Gerber’s storylines, Marvel promoted an actual presidential campaign for Howard the Duck in 1976, garnering thousands* of write-in votes.Who won the 1976 presidential election?
*hundreds? dozens? No one seems to know for sure…

Question #10 – Toys & Games
The HasLab team behind the giant Sentinel and Galactus toys recently completed crowdfunding for another ridiculously oversized action figure. This upcoming toy, measuring 24 inches high, is meant to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Avengers.

Question #11 – Science & Technology
The printing technique of creating gradients and a variety of colors through spacing and overlapping of different colored dots is named after its inventor, the 19th century illustrator and printer.

Question #12 – Cartoonists
Mexican political cartoonist Rius was recently celebrated in a retrospective at SDCC 2023. While already a powerful and influential voice in his own country, particularly as an advocate of socialism, he first attained popularity in the U.S. for his graphic novel history of this Latin American country.

Question #13 – Geography
The costume for Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez’s La Borinqueña was recently featured in The Smithsonian.The character’s name comes from the native name of her homeland.

Question #14 – Music and Pop Culture
The name of Billy Idol’s first band shares its name with a Marvel mutant spinoff series.

Question #15 – Around the World
Early in their careers, Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland were hired to produce Powerman, published in the UK and distributed in this African nation.

Question #16 – Conventions
This pop culture convention, booked at San Francisco’s Moscone West through 2026, pulled in a reported 35,000 attendees this past Thanksgiving weekend.

Question #17 – Business & Retail
The first comic from a major publisher intended solely for the direct market was the debut of this Marvel mutant’s solo book in 1981.

Question #18 – On TV
Stan Lee claimed that the ratings for 1977’s television movie Dr. Strange suffered because it aired opposite this mini-series event based on Alex Haley’s book of the same name.

Question #19 – Marvel Cinematic Universe
In the comics, it wasn’t Tony Stark, but this character* who wielded the Infinity Gauntlet and restored the universe after Thanos’s “snap” in The Infinity Gauntlet mini-series.
*hint: character does appear in the MCU…

Question #20 – Goodknight Already!
Which of the following is not the title of an actual Batman-starring comic released by DC in 2023?

a) Dark Knights of Steel
b) Batman: The White Knight Presents
c) Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight
d) Dark Knight of the Soul

Question #21 – How Hard Can It Be?
This actor co-writes and lends his likeness to the lead character of BRZRKR.

Question #22 – Comix
Bryan Talbot was one of the first artists to emerge from the UK’s underground comics scene.His Adventures of Luther Arkwright is widely considered one of the first artistic works to employ this sci-fi subgenre, an anachronistic blend of retrofuturistic technology with 19th-century aesthetics.

Question #23 – Multiverses
The designation of “Earth-616” for the main universe of comics continuity in Marvel’s multiverse was first used by this writer in the pages of the UK-published Captain Britain magazine.

Question #24 – Hall of Fame
Inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame during this year’s New York Comic Con, she started in the industry as an editor, went on to create Power Pack, and then write seminal runs on X-Factor, New Mutants, and Superman: Man of Steel.
Who is..?

Question #25 – Food & Beverage
Since 2021, Liquid Gravity Brewing’s annual release of Pale from the Crypt has featured art licensed from which legendary comics publisher?

Question #26 – Controversies
Early British reprints of The Avengers scrubbed this hero’s secret identity for fear that his first name would, thanks to possibly muddy black & white printing, appear as a vulgarity.

Question #27 – Japanese
Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo will celebrate his 40th anniversary next year.
What does “usagi” mean in Japanese?

Question #28 – In Memoriam
The prolific artist and writer Keith Giffen may be most well-known for his 80’s and 90’s work on DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League International, but his longest sequence of work was as layout artist for every issue of this weekly series that ran in 2006 and 2007.

Question #29 – Fashion
These “Knee-High Gladiator Sandals” were released as part of a promotion for The Marvels, and were designed by which prominent French fashion designer?
also, they retail for $3,495.00

Question #30
Unscramble the anagram (DC series):
“YES,” MOUTHS FOYER

Questions #31 through 35 are artist identifications, one each from five different eras of comic book history.

Question #31
Golden Age (< 1956)

Question #32
Silver Age (1956 – 1972)

Question #33
Bronze Age (1972 – 1985)

Question #34
“Steel” Age (1986 – 2000)

Question #35
“Diamond” Age (2001 – Present)
Hint: she won the 2022 Eisner for Best Cover Artist

Questions #36 through 40 are part of the Imagram. Identify the characters in the puzzle below, and then use the circled letters to solve the final clue.

And, finally, a tiebreaker question…

According to Forbes’s “Fictional 15,” Scrooge McDuck is the second-wealthiest fictional character. What is his supposed net worth?