Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Titanic Tuesdays: "The Fiddler's Concert of Crime!" by Rozakis, Novick, and Giella

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! We're back with another Titanic Tuesday, this time it's ish #46 (November 1976) with "The Fiddler's Concert of Crime!" by Bob Rozakis, Irv Novick, and Joe Giella. Ah, what can Ol' Groove say about Bob, Irv, and Joe's latest Mal and the Titans mini-epic? Well, they sure knew how to grab me--at the time, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Donnie and Marie, and Captain and Tennille were definitely on my radar (and on my TV, and on my turn-table, 'cause I did have TOaD and C&T albums). Kinda weird they had to contrive an Earth-2 villain making his way to Earth-1, but I s'pose there was no Earth-1 villain with the musical orientation of the Fiddler. The wildest twist (and again, one would imagine DC's idea of being hip) is the revelation that Paul and Linda McCartney and the Carpenters (in their Earth-1 incarnations) were one and the same! Earth-1 was one strange place during the Groovy Age, huh? And with all this hip-ness, Teen Titans #47 looks like a Silver Age mag with the Novick/Giella art (except for that Rich Buckler/Frank McLaughlin cover). I sometimes wonder, did that Silver Age look (that lasted until the 80s for many of their mags) work for or against them as Marvel got more and more sophisticated? Guess that's what made/makes Marvel and DC fans different breeds! Enough philosophizing, on wit' da show!


















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3 comments:

  1. Edo BosnarJune 30, 2015 at 8:03 AM

    Wow, what a trip! As soon as I saw the cover and opening splash page I remembered that I used to have this issue. One thing I recall in particular is that even as a little kid I totally got the "Woodworkers" reference (yep, my mom listened to a lot of AM radio in the mornings, so I can totally relate to your familiarity with the Carpenters and Captain & Tennille, and the Tony Orlando & Dawn show was popular in our household as well). However, McCarthy & the Flyers initially, er, flew right over my head.
    Love that cover, by the way...

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  2. JosephJuly 1, 2015 at 8:46 AM

    Does anyone know if issues with royalties is keeping the Rozakis era Teen Titans from being reprinted? Seems I read that somewhere...

    One of my favorite books as a kid. Distribution was spotty, so it was years later I read the complete Titans West story. I ended up getting a subscription, but it started with #53, the last issue. I think my sub switched over to Freedom Fighters, which also was canceled after I got the last issue. Then I think it switched over to Green Lantern. Crazy times.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John SmallJuly 3, 2015 at 5:09 PM

    I'm surprised no one has commented on this story's "guest star": namely the appearance of TV reporter Jack Ryder, a.k.a. The Creeper.

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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!


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