Cool Stuff to Captivate Your Cranium!

Hey, Kids! Comics from 50 Years Ago! 
January 27 & 29, 1970

Groovy Age Splash Page of the Week

Art by Don Newton

Groovy Age Spotlight On...
Conan: Hour of the Dragon TPB

Can you dig it, Groove-ophiles? Marvel's Groovy Age adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Conan masterpiece Hour of the Dragon is now available in trade paperback form! That's right, the Roy Thomas/Gil Kane/John Buscema epic that spanned Giant-Size Conan issues 1-4, Savage Sword of Conan issues 8 and 10, and Conan Annuals 4-5 is all together between two cardstock covers at last! Evidently the b&w stories are going to be colorized, so that probably means the other issues will be re-colored; hopefully they'll stay true the original hues. Still and all, seeing this whole saga together in one place is something worth celebrating, Groove-ophiles! As of this writing (yep, Ol' Groove writes these posts way in advance) the book hasn't come out yet, but Ol' Groove is sure 'enuff lookin' forward to it! If you've a copy, sing out in the comments section and let us know what ya think of it! Meantime, here are the sensational splashes from the original issues...

'Til next week...Pax!

Happy Groovy Thanksgivings of Yore!

Some of Ol' Groove's favorite comics came out in November, and I've shared a whole lot of 'em here on the blog. In a weird bout of nostalgic nostalgia, Ol' Groove would like to help you (in the U.S.A) celebrate Thanksgiving (happy Thursday to the rest of the world!) with some of my most favorite faves that I've shared here with you in our past Thanksgiving Feasts! So, instead'a cooking to enjoy these tasty morsels of comicbook wonder, all ya have to do is click! Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!

Strange Tales #178 (Jim Starlin's Warlock epic begins!), The Destructor #1 (Archie Goodwin, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood give us a most unexpected super-hero), and Scorpion #1 (Howard Chaykin's pulp-hero supreme)! Click here to read 'em all!

Ol' Groove's all-time favorite ish of Creepy! Read the best of this issue's best here, here, and here!

Marvel's greatest one-shot mag featuring early solo tales starring The Punisher and (Howard Chaykin's "reboot" of Scorpion) Dominic Fortune and the twin debuts of The Huntress (better known as Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird) and Weirdworld!

A special (or should I say Super Special) "issue" of Savage Sword of Conan in full color!

And finally, one of the best b&w comic mags of all time! The debut of Tigerman, Lawrence of Arabia...The Sting of Death...and Escape from Nine by 1!

Marvel M-AD-ness: 13 Terrifying Teasers from Macabre Marvel

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! When the Comics Code relaxed its ban on supernatural-style stories, Mighty Marvel unleashed more monsters than Transylvania and all its neighbors! Dig this random sampling of creepy commercials for the creature features that ran in the early 1970s Marvel Mags! What a bounty of blood-curdling books, baby!

Black and White Wednesday: Original John Buscema Cover Art

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove was just wandering around the interwebs and stumbled across a variety of bee-yoo-tee-ful scans of original John Buscema cover art for Groovy Age Marvel. These are some of yers trooly's fave Big John-penciled covers (inked by the best of the best). Wanna see some of 'em? Yeah, Ol' Groove thought you would...

Ernie Chan inks

Frank Giacoia inks

John Verpoorten inks

John Buscema inks

Neal Adams inks

Bob McLeod inks

Black and White Wednesday: "The Secret of Skull River!" by Thomas, Starlin, and Milgrom

Hail, Groove-ophiles! Here's a teaming Ol' Groove would have loved, loved, (and I do mean) LOVED to have seen more of: Roy Thomas, Jim Starlin, and Al Milgrom on Conan! Do ya remember this one from Savage Tales #5 (May 1974)? Plotted by novelist John Jakes,  "The Secret of Skull River!" has e-ver-y-thing you want from a great Conan story: it's spooky, violent, trippy, brutal, funny, and sexy (don't blush when you get to page 13!).  Ol' Groove has a dream that Marvel, now that it has the rights to Conan back, will wake up and hire Roy, Jim, and Al--each and every one of whom are still producing magnificent work--to do some new Conan tales. Wouldn't that be far-freakin'-out?