Happy Birthday, Jim Steranko!

 Thursday was the great Jim Steranko's 82nd birthday! His style, his innovations, his craftsmanship, his dedication to perfection in comicbook art has made his name synonymous with great comics art (and book cover art, and magazine layout, and...). He helped usher in the Groovy Age (with his work on Nick Fury in Strange Tales) and still wows us to this day. Happy birthday, Mr. S.! 

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

Beyond the Groovy Age: August 1981

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Actually, what it is is Ol' Groove's birthday is this coming Sunday, so IIIIII just wanna celebraaaate (celebraaate) with y'all by doing something different: by taking a look at some of the magnificent post-Groovy Age mags I got during my birthday month in 1981 A.G.A. (After Groovy Age). (What? You thought Ol' Groove dropped comics when the Groovy Age ended? Don't be ridiculous!) These weren't all the mags I got the month I turned 18 and started college, but they were (and most still are) my faves. Remember any of these?

Gerry Conway and George Perez were doing some fun stuff in JLA. This edition of the annual JLA/JSA meeting was fun and then some!

Hidden under this "eh" Al Milgrom cover is a magnificent Ms. Marvel story by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden (it addresses the mess left in the infamous Avengers #200's wake). Oh, it features the Avengers, the X-Men and Spider-Woman, and introduces Rogue, too!

Marv Wolfman and George Perez were KILLING IT in the New Teen Titans, melding the best comicbook-ish-ness of the 60s with the best comicbook-ish-ness of the 70s and creating a fresh new comic mag for the 1980s. And this one features the return of Robotman, too!

Similar to what Wolfman and Perez were doing in NTT, John Byrne had taken full control of the FF and returned it to its Silver Age roots--while making it totally (fer sure) 80s! This Twilight Zone-ish tale featuring a superior plot by Dr. Doom is an all-time FF classic!

The criminally underrated team of Mary Jo Duffy and Kerry Gammill was giving us a delightful buddy super-hero comic that was also criminally underrated. It was hip, smart, and downright charming. This one takes our Heroes for Hire to K'un-Lun and ties into the Sons of the Dragon. 

Roy Thomas set out to top his Marvel Invaders series at DC with his favorite heroes of the Golden Age--and then some! Aided and abetted by artists like Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway, Roy accomplished his mission. All-Star Squadron is the best WW II super-hero comic ever!

Hey, that was fun! Maybe we'll go Beyond the Groovy Age again sometime!

SCINTILLATING SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Ol' Groove is taking Monday off for his birthday, but don't worry, man! I'll be back on Tuesday with a birthday tribute to Jack "King" Kirby!

Making a Splash: John Byrne's Groovy Age FF

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! We all know that in the 1980s, John Byne rocked the Fantastic Four (issues 232-293). Did'ja know that he drew several issues during the Groovy Age? Even wrote a couple! It's true (Issues 209-218, 220-221, May 1979-February 1980; March-April 1980)! Byrne joined writer Marv Wolfman as layout artist with FF mainstay Joe Sinnott finishing the pencils and inking (except for a fill-in by Pablo Marcos). Byrne helped Wolfman finish a pretty cool storyline featuring Galactus, the Nova Corps, and Nova's arch-foe The Sphinx--oh, and the comicbook debut of H.E.R.B.I.E.) then went on to do a few more storylines before writing and laying out issues 220-221. Although Sinnott's slick inks kept the FF looking consistently Marvel-ous, you could see Byrne's style come shining through, especially in the layouts and storytelling. Fun stuff that only gave us a glimpse of the glory that was to come in the 80s! Take a peek!

Black and White Wednesday: Ring-a-Ding Original Art

Happy birthday Jazzy John Romita! Where would we Groovy Age fans be without this phenomenal artist and his art direction at Marvel during the 1970s? Would Punisher, Wolverine, Luke Cage, the Savage Sub-Mariner, or Kingpin or so many other heroes and villains have looked as cool? Would the "Marvel House Style" been as glitzy and glamorous? Would Marvel's covers grabbed us nearly as much? Glad we don't have to find out, huh? Let's celebrate John Ring-a-Ding Romita's 88th birthday with a look back at some cool covers and sensational splashes that he created to take our dimes, nickels, and quarters! Thanks for all the great art and memories, O Jazzy One!

Pencils by Don Heck

Pencils by Ron Wilson

Groovy Christmases Past: 1971

Merry Christmas, and welcome back to our two-week trip to December nine-teen-seventy-something to look at the comics Li'l Groove scarfed up from the spinner racks of various drugstores and the ever-lovin' King Kwik! Christmas 1971 always holds a special place in Ol' Groove's memories. Lots of family who didn't normally get to travel for Christmas holiday got to visit aaaand, my fave memory, I finally, for New Year's Eve got to stay up and play Monopoly with the grown-ups! No one but me probably remembers that, but it was a huge deal for Li'l Groove! Anyway--here come da comics!

 Ol' Groove did a post on this one many years back. Li'l Groove so wanted a cowboy outfit like the one the kid on the cover is wearing!

While I dug the spooky villain, Starbreaker, what Li'l Groove really loved was the Golden Age reprints in this ish! These first tastes of the Golden Age really grabbed me!

 Why in the world did Li'l Groove buy Lois Lane comics? For the Rose & Thorn back-ups!

 After seeing comicbook characters flying, why did a guy WALKING on the air strike Li'l Groove as so cool? 'Cause it was cool!

Bad guys had been trying to figure out Superman's identity for years--but when it happened to Spidey, it took on a whole 'nother level of drama!

Okay, Ol' Groove mentioned in the last post that in 1971 I was supplementing the comics I bought new off the spinner rack with coverless, cellophane-wrapped comics (three for twenty cents or a quarter). Those, ahem, unaurhorized comics really helped me grow my collection--and snagged me some very important comics like Avengers #97 (the end of the Kree/Skrull War), Captain American #147 (Cap vs. Hydra--when those battles really meant something), and the first appearance of Jonah Hex in All-Star Western #10. And to let you experience 'em the same way Li'l Groove did for the first time, here are the splashes to those brain-blasting comics instead of the covers! (See, splashes are important, too!)