Black and White Wednesday: Marvel-ously Macabre Original Art

Original art from some of Marvel's Groovy Age mags like Tower of Shadows, Chamber of Chills, Chamber of Darkness, Journey Into Mystery, Supernatural Thrillers, Creatures on the Loose, Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf By Night, and even S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor, Champions, and...Western Gunfighters!?! Yep, Ol' Groove's gone outta the box to bring you these far-out and spooky original art pages! Enjoy, my Groovy Ghoulies!

Gene Colan and Tom Palmer

John Byrne and Bob Layton

Jack Kirby and Bill Everett

Barry Windsor-Smith and Dan Adkins

Berni Wrightson

Marie Severin and Bill Everett

Gil Kane and Tom Palmer

Mike Ploog

Rich Buckler and Frank Chiaramonte

Jim Steranko

Val Mayerik and Vince Colletta

Black and White Wednesday: Happy Birthday, Bob Layton (and Thanks for the Scans!)

Yesterday was Bob Layton's 65th birthday. Happy birthday, Bob! Your inks made some of the greatest comics of all time even more special, and Ol' Groove thanks you for that! (And for sharing these sweet original art scans on your Facebook page!)

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: "Shadow of the Axe!" by Sim and Heath

After the birthday celebrations, Ol' Groove hates to have to rap about the passing of the inimitable Russ Heath, but sadly, I must. Mr. Heath passed away last Thursday, August 23. Besides co-creating the Haunted Tank for DC and having his art "swiped" by Roy Lichtenstein, Heath had a long career that began in the late 1940s and lasted until well into the 2000s. His detailed, realistic, nuanced art won him many, many awards and accolades--and it seemed that he could never produce enough art to please us fans. A search on Grand Comics Database shows he did way more than we ever gave him credit for (for most every comics publisher, as well as Playboy, Peter Pan Records, slews of non-U.S. publishers, advertising (remember that ad for 132 toy Roman soldiers? That was Russ Heath art!). Still and all, his prodigious talent will be missed. And yeah, it's seems a bit weird to be remembering an artist by posting a story about an axe murder, but it's so beautifully rendered--and written by a young, pre-Cerebus Dave Sim. It's from Creepy #79 (March 1976). Oh, and these are scans of the original art (from the indispensable Heritage Auctions site).  Check it out...

Black and White Wednesday: Marvel-ous Original Art

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Here's another round of stunning and sensational original art pages Ol' Groove has corralled from around the interwebs. This one focuses on Mighty Marvel and features work by some of the all-time greatest comicbook artists evAH!

Black and White Wednesday: Random Groovy Age Original Art

Yeah, Ol' Groove is kind of a digital "collector"--I see cool images shared on the interwebs and then I come back here and share 'em with my Groove-ophiles. Usually I have a theme, but it's summer, I'm on vacation and lazy, and I figure, "what the hey?" I'll just dump a bunch of cool images here in the tradition of my buddy and pal Joe Bloke of Grantbridge Street and Other Misadventures and other mucho-missed blogs. So enjoy!