Lo! There Shall Come Endings Week: "Whatever Happened to Scorpio?" by Jim Steranko

Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! We're wrapping up LO! THERE SHALL COME ENDINGS WEEK with something a little different. Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't end with issue #5, but "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" was innovator Jim Steranko's swan song as the series' writer/artist. By this time Steranko was a bona-fide comicbook superstar and was ready to spread his wings and broaden his horizons. And why not? He had already helped broaden the horizons of the entire comicbook industry! Ol' Groove knows you're gonna dig this all-time fave...

And don't forget, Marvel has just released S.H.I.E.L.D. Masterworks Vol. 3 featuring this and many other classic tales featuring Momma Fury's oldest boy!

Lo! There Shall Come Endings Week: "The Second Death of the...Spectre" by Fleisher and Aparo

We're rockin' through our groovy LO! THERE SHALL COME ENDINGS WEEK with a look at the final installment of one of the absolute defining series' of the Groovy Age--"The Second Death of the...Spectre" by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo.  Adventure Comics #440 (April 1975) has to have one of the strangest endings for a series ever, with the Spectre's alter-ego, Jim Corrigan, dying again after having just been brought back to life the issue before. But then, the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre series always was wildly unpredictable and unique. That's why we loved it!

Lo! There Shall Come Endings Week/Black and White Wednesday: "This Is the Valiant One, Signing Out!" by McGregor and Graham

Welcome back to LO! THERE SHALL COME ENDINGS WEEK, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove knows how much y'all love BLACK AND WHITE WEDNESDAY, so the challenge today was how to combine that favored department with LTSCEW. The solution hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks--share the final story of the final ish of Marvel's Monster's Unleashed (#10, February 1975). From Don McGregor and Billy Graham..."This Is the Valiant One, Signing Out!" (Was that an apt title, or what?)

Lo! There Shall Come Endings Week: Plop! #24 Edited by Tony Isabella

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! LO! THERE SHALL COME ENDINGS WEEK rolls on...

Another of Young Groove's faves was DC's "magazine of weird humor" Plop! That mish-mash of horrible humor never failed to entertain me (or my family--my mom, sister, and cousins also dug Plop!). Even the final ish (#24, August 1976--hey, just like Skull!) left me wanting more. And why wouldn't it with talent like Aragones, Wood, Wolverton, Manak, Estrada, Skeates, and Bates on tap? I didn't realize at the time that this final issue was edited by Tony Isabella (fresh from Marvel where he'd done cool stuff like edit FOOM, Marvel's b&w mags, and create Black Goliath, Tigra,and the Champions) taking over from the recently-promoted-to-managing-editor Joe Orlando. Where would Tony have taken Plop! from here? Plop! #24 is our only hint...