Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Bring On the Back-ups: "A Quiet Day in Atlantis" by Levitz and Grell

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's got an action-packed Aquaman back-up for ya from Adventure Comics #437 (October 1974), drawn by a young Mike Grell and written by a very young Paul Levitz! This is Levitz's second published short, and his first pro super-hero script! Levitz would go on to writing Aquaman's mag, a long and celebrated run authoring Legion of Super-Heroes, and later he'd become a top editor and finally publisher of DC! Pretty good for a fellow fan, huh, baby?







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8 comments:

  1. AnthonyFebruary 10, 2015 at 5:12 AM

    The Grand Comics Database had this to say about this story in the indexer notes : Paul Levitz, in an interview with Rik Offenberger published at ComicsBulletin on August 20, 2003, talks about this story; his first solo super-hero writer assignment: "My first stories were actually in Weird Mystery and Ghost Castle; I only "graduated" to Aquaman in Adventure thanks to Bill Finger. Bill had come in on a Friday to deliver, and was supposed to have two scripts, but only had one done. The check he wanted to pick up was for both, and although Joe [Orlando] wasn't in, I wasn't going to hold back a paycheck for Batman's co-creator... even though Bill was legendary for delivering late and having excuses. But Bill never delivered that story because he died, and by the rules of the time, I was responsible for making up the pages. I asked Joe to let me do something more fun than a mystery story since I had to do it free, and he let me have the Aquaman assignment, and I got to work with Mike Grell. What fun!"

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  2. The Groovy AgentFebruary 10, 2015 at 7:52 AM

    Gracias for the additional info, Anthony! That's a great look into how fans made headway into the comicbook industry! Paul's way was very admirable!

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  3. Charlie Horse 47February 10, 2015 at 8:23 AM

    Hey Dude, I am really curious about the 7 Soldiers of Victory story prmototed at the end! I have always been interested in them after JLA-JSA crossovers (JLA 100 - 102) that brought them out of hibernation to fight some iron fist that was getting ready to squeeze Earth 1 (2?). Any chance of running it? Thanks for the great work you do.

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  4. The Groovy AgentFebruary 10, 2015 at 9:06 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. The Groovy AgentFebruary 10, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    They've already been run here, amigo! Part 1
    and
    Part 2. Enjoy, Pilgrim!

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  6. Charlie Horse 47February 10, 2015 at 1:07 PM

    As Irv Forbush would say, "Excelsior!" Thanks! I will read them now.

    I did go back and re-read the JLA 100 -102 team up. I guess I would say the covers were more exciting than the interior story. Too bad b/c I could easily see this story line being a memorable 15 - 20 issue run instead of 3.

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  7. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2015 at 8:28 PM

    Hey Charlie, if you're a big fan of the Seven Soldiers, I would recommend Grant Morrison's wonderful, crazy miniseries of the same name. Granted, it's a different team, but it sheds some light on the original gang, and their history. If you like your comics fun, crazy, scary, and completely nuts, like I do, check it out. M.P.

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  8. Charlie Horse 47February 12, 2015 at 10:33 AM

    Thanks bud! When did this come out? (Actually I got a copy of Leading Comics, with 7S on the cover, from like 1943 in VG condition for like 35$ last year. Too cool to actually hold one of those things in your hands, you know what I mean? I just can't really groove on the hard-back archive versoins, though that would be the only way I would ever be able to afford all the stories. I even prefer the DC reprints of Golden Age stuff to the archives... at least it's a comicbook!

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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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