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Hey, Kids! Comics from 50 Years Ago!
January 6 & 8, 1970

Groovy Age Splash Page of the Week

Art by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer

Groovy Age Spotlight On...

Christopher Mills' Atomic Action Comics!

If you're like Ol' Groove, the above ad is a real grabber. We all miss comics made in the Groovy Age style. We long for the clean art, the fun storytelling, done-in-one stories that you could jump in on without having to search the Internet for a decade's worth of backstory before the mag you just bought could make any sense. Many an indie publisher promises and tries to do comics like they used to make 'em--but Christopher Mills and the Atomic Action gang have succeeded, baby!

Ol' Groove has purchased, read, and re-read all three of the Atomic Action mags that have been released so far (all pictured in the ad above) and I truly dig 'em, Groove-ophiles! They really do read like mags from the Groovy Age, the art really does look like art from the Groovy Age, the ads and editorial material really do give it all an authentic Groovy Age vibe! If the mags were on newsprint (an impossibility for small-press undertaking such as this, alas), you'd swear they came from the Groovy Age!

Mills' idea was pure, simple, genius: take PD characters from the Golden Age, create stories about them as if they'd been continuously published into the 1970s! THESE Atomic Action mags "are" the books that were published in the 70s!

Christopher Mills, a pro for 30 or so years has surrounded himself with other pros like Rick Burchett, Matt Webb, Peter Grau, Nik Poliwko, Joe Staton (!), and many others, to bring this dream project to life. Oh, and besides the three titles in the ad (Space Crusaders #'s 1-2 and Sleuth Comics #1--available RIGHT NOW at Indyplanet, by the way), Mills and company have several more titles and characters in the works as this pin-up by Rick Hoberg shows us...

Yep, besides Rex Dexter, Spacehawk, and The Owl, be on the lookout for "70s" updates of Crom the Barbarian, Cave Girl, Black Terror, The Heap, Miss Fury, and other Golden Age titans! For more info, get thee to Atomic Action Comics right now! And tell 'em Ol' Groove sent ya! See ya next week, Groove-ophiles! Pax!

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Jack Kirby's Fourth World

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! In Ol' Groove's eyes, Jack Kirby's Fourth World universe at DC in the early 1970s is one of the greatest comicbook creations ever. New Gods. Mister Miracle. Forever People. The return of The Guardian and The Newsboy Legion in Jimmy Olsen. Those comics were a huge part of my turn from comicbook reader to comicbook fanatic. Naturally, especially when you consider that King Kirby was inked by the likes of Vinnie Colletta, Mike Royer, Frank Giacoia, and Neal Adams (!), among others, the art was gonna rock and there would be a passel of spectacular covers. Today we're gonna dig on some'a those spectacular covers! These are some of my favorites! What are yours?

Decent Comics: "Command Performance!" by Englehart, Rogers, and Colletta

Happy Valentine's Day, Groove-ophiles! For this most romantic of days, Ol' Groove thought he'd lay the one Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers (inked by Vinnie Colletta) Mister Miracle we haven't rapped about yet upon ya. What does MM #21 (September 1977) have to do with Valentine's Day you query? Why, don'tcha know that Scott Free and Big Barda were one of the Great Romances of the Groovy Age? It's true! And what better way to say "I Love You" than to risk your life to bring your loving spouse out of some sort'a cosmic coma? That's what we've got in "Command Performance!"

Don'tcha just love love? (Many thanks to HaCsA*Imbie for the superior scans!)