Thursday, June 9, 2011

Summer of '76! Grooviest Covers of All Time: Beatin' the Heat with Archie, Dagar, Richie, Baron Weirwulf, and Friends

The spinner racks were full-to-overflowing in the Summer of '76, and it wasn't all Marvel and DC! Charlton, Gold Key, Harvey, and Archie were all going strong, with as many--if not more!--titles on the stands as the Big Two. Ol' Groove thought about sharing a summertime cover for each and every mag the "little four" put out, but I didn't wanna break the Internet! Here then is but a small sampling of what kids like Young Groove (and their younger siblings, pals, older siblings, and moms) spent their extra change on when they'd nabbed all their fave superhero comix...





Ol' Groove's gotta lavish a bit of praise on the vastly underrated Charlton Comics for introducing us to Groovy Age greats like John Byrne, Mike Zeck, and Don Newton. Can you spot some'a their early work in this mix?

7 comments:

  1. I'd almost forgotten how nicely done some of those painted Charlton covers used to be - particularly lovely in this batch are Newton's Phantom, Byrne's Space 1999 and Vosburg's (?) I Love You.
    On the other hand, those painted Gold Key covers never appealed to me for some reason - probably why I never bought any of those.

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  2. Ah, Dr. Spektor, my second favorite occult Dr. With a last name starting with S!

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  3. Ya know, Charlton's romance books never made it to store shelves in my town that often. I could've sworn they only did war, western, horror, & licensed titles by '76.

    The local distributor was pretty picky about the "independent" brands (i.e. Charlton, GK, Harvey), but always made sure to stock DC, Archie, & Marvel.

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  4. This will be a contentious comment -- but, boy, comics were more varied, more interesting and more accessible in 1976 than they are today. It's almost like looking at a lost promise.

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  5. I want to frame those Charlton covers.

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  6. @Bob: hear, hear! I totally agree. Publishers were willing to take chances then. It wasn't totally about the bottom line.

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  7. i had that Boris Korloff comic...

    by the late 70s, DC, Marvel, maybe Archie, rarely Harvey, were the only books i'd see.

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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.


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!