Friday, June 1, 2012

Making a Splash: Marvel Comics 40 Years Ago this Month

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! June is here! School is out! Let the summertime fun begin! To start things off right, just dig this power-house pile of sizzling splashes from mighty Marvel--the very ones we passed time cooling our heels with back in 1972!





Gerry Conway: Writer/Wayne Boring and Frank Giacoia: Artists













This was the month Stan Lee officially stepped into the Publisher's office and Roy Thomas officially took over as Editor-in-Chief, by the way, so you'll note Stan is no longer writing Fantastic Four--the mag he held onto the longest! A bittersweet start to a long and wonderfully winding road ahead for Marveldom Assembled!

9 comments:

  1. So much awesome artwork, so many great memories! Mooney, Kane and Colletta had a busy month! And that iconic Buscema FF splash page... words fail me :-)

    Thanks for posting these Bronze Age beauties, O Groovy One!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another excellent post that confirms a few things that I already knew:
    1) Nobody does an angry god better than John Buscema
    2) Nobody draws figures falling through space better than Gene Colan - that DD/BW splash page is a thing of beauty.
    3) Dr Strange might be the character that Barry Smith was born to draw - but not at that early stage of his career.

    And a question: Who is the artist on the Captain Marvel splash? Both the layout of the page and the figures themselves are extremely awkward looking - Don Heck, maybe??

    ReplyDelete
  3. T'was 1950s Superman artist Wayne Boring, Gey. I've added a credit line (which I should've done to begin with).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! He's an artist I'm not familiar with.

      Delete
  4. I'm showing my age by remembering these classics! Sal Buscema's Capt.America was always a fav.Gil Kane on Conan & Team-Up...nice!Always had a soft spot for the Marvel monsters,too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was born in 1965 so I was in my early comicbook collecting days about then.

      Early Bronze Age was a great period to get into comics.

      The masters, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were still producing top work, but not at Marvel. Althought, the House of Ideas were reprinting their old stuff like crazy such as in the "monster" comics like WEIRD WONDER TALES, WHERE MONSTERS DWELL, etc.

      Anyway, Marvel still had John Severin and Gil Kane (up to this day, nothing beats a Gil Kane cover!). And my definitive Spidey artist, John Romita (sr) was pencilling the old webhead. Other veterans like John Buscema, Gene Colan, George Tuska were shining with their own unique style. Even Bill Everett was back producing new gorgeous art on SUB-MARINER! (but, sadly, not for long).

      Brilliant new guys were emerging: Mike Ploog, Barry Windsor Smith, Frank Brunner... Did Walt Simonson started about this time? John Byrne, Mike Golden, Marshall Rogers were just around the corner...

      Ah... Good times!
      Thanks for sharing the cool stuff Groovy!

      Delete
  5. Dude, I've got a shitload of these babies. Not all of them mind you, but most, and it's the very real reason why I don't purchase much from Marvel these days. Current stuff can't hold a candle to the classics like these gems!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Marvel had quite a stable of illustrators back in the day. We didn't appreciate these artists as much as we do today.Enjoy seeing the works of Ayers,Trimpe,Ploog,the Severins & Buscemas,Everett,Kane,Tuska and Colan...many of today's artists cannot hold a candle to these masters!

    ReplyDelete
  7. These posts are among my favorites that you put up. My childhood in one scroll! LOL

    ReplyDelete

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!