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!

Stocking Stuffer: Marvel Super Special #2 featuring the Savage Sword of Conan

Ol' Groove is one'a those comics fans nutty enough to remember when and where he got certain comics. I can remember picking up my copy of Marvel Comics Super Special #2 from the local Convenient Food Mart around this very date in 1977. I'd seen the ads and the blurbs in the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins, so I was on the prowl for this full-color, magazine sized, feature-length Conan extravaganza. I'd been saving an extra quarter here and there so I'd have the buck fifty when I needed it...and sure 'nuff, one dreary December afternoon on the way home from school (freshman year, blechh) I found it on the bottom shelf of the magazine rack, stuffed behind the regular sized comics. I hope I didn't have any homework that night, 'cause all I can remember is spending the whole evening poring over the masterpiece of comicbook art Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, and Marie Severin had created.

It was Conan-fan heaven, man! The story, based on Conan creator Robert E. Howard's "Black Vulmea's Vengeance", filled with action and adventure, set in an exotic local held me spell-bound. The art, so lush and detailed, was better than just about anything Teen Groove had ever before experienced. Marie Severins colors, painted, rather than the usual flat comicbook colors, blew my mind. See for yourself, Groove-ophile! While the scans don't quite do justice to the actual printed (on Baxter paper) mag, you can still see how different, how much more sophisticated Ms. Severins colors were compared to standard comics of the day. Today, "painterly" comics are the norm, but in 1977? This was far-freakin'-out, man!