Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Ol' Groove's Request Line: "The Slayer" by Michelinie, Giffen, and Layton

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's dipping into the Groov-E-Mail-bag for a cool request. This one's from Groove-ophile Andrew Glaess, who requests the far-out finale of DC's Claw the Unconquered (ish #12, May 1978). "Andrew writes, "(Claw #12) was by far the best art job of (Keith Giffen's) career to that point and a bit of a quantum leap in style for him. That issue looks just like his art in the Great Darkness Legion saga of five years or so later, or his Dr. Fate backups in Flash." Ol' Groove definitely agrees, Andrew! I was used to (and loved, don't ever doubt it!) Giffen's Kirby-inspired work over on Marvel's Defenders, but the art on "The Slayer" is very different from that (owing some, no doubt, to Bob Layton's inking style). The stature of the characters, the intricate details on the architecture, the costuming all point very much toward Giffen's 80s work on Legion of Superheroes and those dazzling Dr. Fate backups. See if the rest of Groove City doesn't agree wit'cha!
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

3 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 12, 2011 at 10:03 AM

    Groove!
    This post is awesome! I've never seen this issue before, but I've fallen in love with it at first glance. This was definitely Giffen moving into new territory visually here! Some of the panels even reminded me of Alex Nino's work. I'd buy more comics these days if they looked like this. Hey, how about some recurring Giffen posts- I know he did some Challengers Of The Unknown work around this time as well- you could call it something "Groovin' with Giffen!" or... something.
    Thanks for all you do, Groove,
    Steven Butler

    ReplyDelete
  2. HEHApril 12, 2011 at 10:06 AM

    Wow, what a treat! I've never seen this work of Giffen's!
    Did he draw only issue 12?
    Thanks for sharing the scans!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChimeradaveApril 13, 2011 at 12:48 AM

    According to GCD he did issues 7-12

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!