Monday, August 1, 2016

Marvel-ous Mondays: "Carnival of Souls!" by Grant, Broderick, and Patterson

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Ah, summertime! Amusement parks! Cotton candy! Roller coasters, baby! Who'da thunk all those things plus Spider-Man and the Ghost Rider would come together for an ish of Marvel Team-Up (#91, December 1979, to be exact)? Well, Steven Grant, Pat Broderick, and Bruce Patterson did! Toss in a baddie who sounds way cooler than what he is (Moondark!), pack it full of cool character bits, funny dialogue (from Spidey, natch), and tons of action (lookit all those panels Broderick got on some'a those pages!), wrap it up under an exciting Rich Buckler/Al Milgrom cover, and you definitely got your forty cents-worth, baby!


















6 comments:

  1. I wonder if they received any comments about basically displaying Johnny Blaze in the buff, there.

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    Replies
    1. Eh. You see one naked skeleton, you've seen 'em all.

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    2. Brilliant point Nobile, I never thought about that.

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  2. Well Groove, it had to happen. I was only really a tiny tot through most of the Groovy Age, but I was busy reading comics, and sooner or later you were bound to showcase a comic I actually bought with my own pocket money (20p in English money). Strangely I found this issue in my parents attic a few months ago, Broderick's pencil's are amazing and Grant manages a lot of atmosphere in this story. This was my first intro to Ghost Rider and I still get a shudder reading it now.

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  3. I remember this issue well, one of my faces, I loved Ghost Rider in the 70's I hated what they did to the character a few years later when they brought him back. It really is surprising at how dark the title was back then and the things they hot away with between religion, retribution, hellfire and such. How do you think they were able to to all of that at the time? The comics code had been relaxed but it still seemed like Ghost Rider would have set off tons of bells for them. Keep up the great work Groove, and it is a little late but Happy Anniversary!

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  4. Great artwork. I especially like the Ditkoesque Spidey on the last panel of page 8.

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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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