Monday, April 18, 2011

Wham-O! It's Our 1000th Giant Comics Post!

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here it is, our One Thousandth post here on DotGK! Sound the trumps! Fire the cannons! Let the doves fly! Bring me some ibuprofen--my carpal tunnel's coming back!

Seriously, Ol' Groove is humbled have so many of you fine folks out there in the intranet making DotGK your stopping-off point on a daily basis. The fact that DotGk has well over 1,500 subscribers and hundreds of "drop-in" readers blows Ol' Groove's mind--and I appreciate you one and all. I especially want to thank the dozens of you who've been true-blue Groove-ophiles from virtually the very start of of this humble blog waaaaaaay back in July, 2008! Fellow bloggers who took me in and made me part of the "family", like Joe Bloke at Grantbridge Street, BookSteve, Pat Curley from Silver Age Comics, Andrew Wahl of Comics Bronze Age fame, Mykal Banta of the many blogs, and so many more have helped me in a myriad of ways, from tips, to corrections, to flat out friendship. I also have to thank all of the pros who've contributed to make this blog so special. Not just the ones whose work I share with y'all day in and day out, but the ones who actually stop by to read and/or comment on goings on in Groove City. I could name-drop all day (Denis Kitchen, Roy Thomas, Mark Evanier, Paul Kupperberg, Steve Skeates, P. Craig Russell, Nick Cuti, Joe Staton, Walter Simonson, Scott Edelman, Kevin Nowlan--oh, I'd better quit before I leave someone out) and go all gushy over how fanboyish me's heart goes all a-flutter when one of my heroes drops a comment or e-mail. I certainly need to name and thank the Groovy Age pros like Michael Netzer and Rich Buckler who believe in DotGK so much that they actually took time to write posts for us. And how dull would it get around here, speaking of Guest Bloggers, if folks like Barry Pearl, Sharon K., Mike Mikulovsky, and Jazzy Jonathan "A" Gilbert hadn't stopped by to share their powerful points of view?

Thanks to all of you, named or not. Your kindness, generosity, and support are appreciated more than you'll ever know. Keep on truckin', Groove-ophiles! Keep on truckin'!

Okay, okay, this ain't an awards show, so where's the comix? Well, to celebrate this milestone occasion, it has to be something special. Something rare. Something HUGE. What could be more rare and huge than the legendary, almost mythical Wham-O Giant Comics?

I remember getting this one-of-a-kind comicbook rarity from a big display in the toy section of a Rink's department store in the Cincinnati area. I don't know for sure what year it was and I sure don't see how I talked my folks into shelling out 98 cents for a comicbook--unless the very sight of that awe-inspiring 14" x 21" tabloid monolith grabbed their imaginations the way it grabbed mine. Of course, it could have been a few years after the mag's 1967 debut and we got it at a discount. Either way, Li'l Groove knew how he was gonna spend the rest of that fateful Saturday (or was it a Sunday?)!

Wham-O Giant Comics was produced by--duh!--Wham-O, the legendary toy company that gave us such magical childhood memories with their Frisbees, Hula-Hoops, Slip-and-Slides, and Super Balls. Evidently, during the 1966/67 Batmania craze (fueled by--you guessed it!--ABC's Batman TV show), everyone wanted to produce comics and super-heroes--including Wham-O. I've never been able to find the name of the publisher and/or editor behind this unique assemblage o' comics, but man, did whoever it was believe in packing 52 pages with piles of panels! Over 1500, according to the cover. Count 'em if you want--Ol' Groove'll take their word for it!

Super-heroes, sci-fi, humor, adventure, mystery, fantasy, games, puzzles, and (natch) ads for more Wham-O toys (and even a subscription to Wham-O Giant Comics, which was intended to be a quarterly mag) filled every inch of every humongous page. In their zeal to get those 1500 panels into print, and despite the size of the actual pages, you could still get eyestrain trying to read the furshluginner thing! Still, knowing there were strips by the likes of Wally Wood (don't overlook Goody Bumpkin!), Lou Fine, Ernie Colon, John Stanley, and Warren Tufts made it worth the risk, baby! Have at it and have fun!


And a special shout-out and "Thanks, man!" to jodyanimator for the sweet, sweet scans! Man, did you save Ol' Groove some sweat and eyestrain!

23 comments:

  1. Let me be the first to congratulate you, sir! Here's to many, many more!

    And what a perfect post! I don't envy anyone who had to scan this sucker!

    I first spotted it circa 1969 at a Dollar store a block away from school in Covington, KY. Tons of copies at 50 cents each.

    I still have one but it is so $%$#@@!! hard to store! That's why there were no more issues! Dealers couldn't easily display it and buyers couldn't easily store it! You ever try to get a Mylar sleeve that size??

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  2. Wow! Congrats on your 1000th post, Groove. I've been with ya since about the 4th, and it's hard to believe that so much time has already passed. I look forward to thousands of more posts (and thousands of more helpings of daily comics goodness on the web).

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  3. Congratulations, Groove! That's some achievement. Keep up the great work and stay Groovy, man!!

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  4. dude, I'll have to be getting 'round to reading that later.

    you just keep on doing what you do, mate. my world's a happier place with the Groovy in it.

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  5. Keep up the good work, and here's to another 1,000...
    I'd heard of this Wham-o comic before, but never actually seen any the pages. What an impressive line-up of talent. Thanks again for posting.

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  6. Dudes riding lions, a muppet-bot, James Bond about to plug a caveman, and (astonishingly) a nerd ogling a girl's breasts with a lack of subtlety I haven't seen since grade school...and that's just the back cover. Good lord! (Choke!)

    Congratulations and long life!

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  7. Many congratulations - a thousand, I suppose - on your achievement. And what a stonking post, I've not heard of this book. Looks amazing.

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  8. Groove -- congrats. I don't let a day go by without checking the site. What a great time it was!

    Also -- wow on Wham! And how come, looking at the ads, it's only in my adulthood that I want this stuff...?

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  9. Congratulations on your 1,000th post, my friend! Here's to thousands and thousands more!! Your blog has meant alot ALOT to me, so thank you and here's wishing you all the happiness and success in the world!

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  10. Thanks for the Daily Dose of Escapism, Groove! All the best and continued success to you!

    Doug

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  11. Thank you I always wanted to see the interiors on this. Great stuff , great post! Keep up the good work and lead by example!

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  12. Congrats on my your 1000th post. Keep up the fantastic work!

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  13. Congrads! WOW! 1000!! That's alot of posts!Keep'em coming groovy one! Your website is one of my all time favorites! Thanks for letting me guest blog also. It was cool & fun to do. I always spread the gospel of this groovy site when & where I can.

    Here's to another 1000!!In the immortal words of Ash from Army of Darkness "GROOVY!"

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  14. Congratulations on your 1000th post! Yeah, that's one crazy-paneled comic book! Thanks for sharing! See you at 200o!

    ~John

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  15. Congratulations on 1000 posts. I've only recently discovered this place so there is so, so much great stuff for me to catch up on.

    Also, I hope you do a 1000 more while I'm here to enjoy it.

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  16. Congrats on your 1000!!
    Here's to 1000 more!!

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  17. groove!!!! baby!!!! congrats on the big day! You make us all so happy! thanks so much for all these great comics!--a day without groove is a day without--if y'know what I mean--so here's to thousands more!

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  18. You've done a great public service here, sir. I salute you!

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  19. Now this is weird -- I bought a copy of this just four days ago.
    How on earth did you fit it onto a scanner? This thing is huge.

    David Simpson

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  20. Groove: Congratulations on 1000 posts. Keep the great work coming.

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  21. For my copy of this comic, I ended up taping together four magazine sized backboards, and four magazine sized bags (slit on one side for the bottom, two sides for the top half). It's not a PRETTY bag, but it's protected as best as can be now. :-P

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  22. Nice article, thanks for the information. You give me some idea's. I will bookmark for next reference.

    doctor strange (2016)

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  23. Thank you for your your consistent work. grim ghost was great. Bought it off the spinning rack in a convenients store !

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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.


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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!