Black and White Wednesday: "Taxing" by Gumen and Gamble

Remember the TV show Taxi, Groove-ophiles? Great show, funny and charming, with a stellar cast of folk; many of whom would become household names (Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Andy Kaufman, to name some of the biggest). When Crazy Magazine #57 came out in October 1979, the show was just barely into its second season, but it was already popular enough for comicbook skewering! Here's Murad Gumen and Kent Gamble's take on the show, but it's really their parody that lives up to the name..."Taxing!"

Groove's Faves: "The Lawn That Devoured Cleveland" by Michelinie and Aragones

How 'bout a howling heap o' ha-ha, Groove-ophiles? It's an early script by David Michelinie, illustrated by Sergio Aragones! Are ya starting to get an inkling of where "The Lawn That Devoured Cleveland" came from? You got it! PLOP! #7 (July 1974)! Here are some snickers for your Halloween bag, baby!

Black and White Wednesday: "A Tale of Sword & Sorcery" by Hicks and Simonson

Hail, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna truck back to April 1974, to the first fab ish of Mike Friedrich's "ground level" (not Underground, not newsstand) comic, Star*Reach, and the wonderment provided by Ed Hicks and Walt Simonson's "A Tale of Sword and Sorcery"! It's a cool humor/satire piece pointed straight at the burgeoning sword and sorcery genre, a romp that allowed Walt to get a bit "wild and wooly" in the art department (which is always fun to see!). And dig that ka-razee comic strip, dedicated to Walt's then partner-in-comics on DC's Manhunter, Archie Goodwin, that runs along the bottom of the story!

(Story and art are still copyright 1974 Walter Simonson!)

Sunday Funnies: F-Troop

Young Groove loved F-Troop. It was kinda like McHales Navy (which I also loved), but set in the West. We don't see it much today, probably 'cause it's not "pc", but what the heck! With its (semi)star-studded cast and fall down funny situations, the worst fort in the west lasted for two seasons (September, 1965-April, 1967). Dell also produced seven issues of a comicbook version of F-Troop, which ended around the same time the show ended. Here's a sample from the final issue of F-Troop, Groove-ophiles!

Sunday Funnies: The Flintstones

Back in the Groovy Age, every kid watched the Flintstones. We loved Fred, Barney and the gang. We loved 'em so much that the Flintstones actually ran under three different publishers back then! They started at Gold Key, flourished at Charlton, and finished out the decade at Marvel.

I hope you dig this sampling of Charlton's version of our favorite stone age family from the Flintstones and Pebbles #31 (May, 1974). Yabba-dabba-doo!

(Click to enlarge 'em, ya bonehead!)

(Weird) Sunday Funnies: Howard the Duck

WAUGH! We all know the story (or at least we all should know the story) of how Howard the Duck just sort of appeared in the middle of a Man-Thing adventure (Fear #19, August, 1973) courtesy the warped imaginations of creators Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick. What you may not know is the Howard immediately caught fandom's attention and was scheduled to appear as a solo strip in Monsters Unleashed. Those plans were changed after two solo Howard strips (both with monster/horror themed plots) were completed. Marvel was never a company to waste anything (especially far-out characters and strips), so the finished strips (with art by the more-than-awesome Frank Brunner) saw print as back-up strips in Giant-Size Man-Thing (issues 4 and 5).

With that info in mind, it is Ol' Groove's pleasure to present his favorite of the two strips, Howard's battle with that bovine blood-sucker, Hellcow! Story by Gerber, pencils by Brunner, and inks by Tomb of Dracula inker supreme Tom Palmer from G.S. Man-Thing #5 (May, 1975) and brought to you by...