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!"

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!)

Groove's Faves: "King Konk '68" by Thomas and Sutton (with Severin)

HoowwWOOOOOO's about some hilarious horror today, Groove-ophiles, courtesy Roy Thomas and Tom Sutton (with lots'a help by Marie Severin on the various caricatures)? Yeah, Ol' Groove thought you might dig it! The cover-feature for Marvel's Not Brand Echh #11 (September 1968) was "King Konk '68". As you might expect, it was the Mighty Marvel Bullpen waxing cuckoo about what kinda flick King Kong would have been had it been re-made for 1968. The story is ka-razee, populated with dozens of pop-culture folk, both real and created, movie stars, monsters, TV stars, singers, and super-heroes all get their cameos. The humor is dense, found both in the prose and pictures, but man, you can spend a lot of time having a blast with all of this silliness! Are you ready for it?

All-in-all, I prefer this version to the 1976 and 2005 versions--by far!

Sunday Funnies: Mad About Happy Days

Two of Teen Groove's favorite pastimes, reading Mad magazine and watching Happy Days, together in one post. How's that for self-indulgent sharing? From Mad #187 (Cover dated December 1976), here's "Crappy Days" by Arnie Kogen and Angelo Torres. Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!