Black and White Wednesday: "Etran to Fulsing" by Cuti and Giordano

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today's minor masterpiece comes from Creepy #94 (cover-dated January 1978), and it's a doozy! Written by Nick Cuti with art by Dick Giordano, "Etran to Fulsing" grabs you right away and makes you think this is some sort of pint-sized Prince Valiant riff--but then it knocks you upside the head with it's Twilight Zone-ish ending. It's a lovely, bittersweet piece created by two of the best at the tops of their respective games. Ol' Groove digs it. I'm sure you will, too!

Dyn-o-mite cover by Don Maitz

Secret Origins: Iron Jaw

Greetings, Groove-ophiles, it's time for more Atlas-madness! As I've mentioned before, when the guys at Atlas/Seaboard had to rip-off a character or concept, they had an uncanny knack for making it seem original. For example, Iron Jaw. We all know Conan was a big hit for Marvel, so naturally A/S publisher Martin Goodman ordered his forces to come up with their own version of Robert E. Howard's iconic barbarian. So what did creators Michael (Spectre, Jonah Hex) Fleisher and Mike (Lomax, Vigilante) Sekowsky do? Stick their version of Conan in a post-apocalyptic future and saddle him with the name and shtick of an old Lev Gleason villain!

In Iron Jaw #2, Fleisher and Pablo Marcos (who took over the artistic reigns with this issue and kept them for the rest of the series) gave Iron Jaw a pretty twisted origin...

...But didn't explain where the actual iron jaw came from. I don't think it really mattered to him, he just wanted to get on with the violence, baby! And get on with it he did, ramping it up as much as the Comics Code could withstand. So, naturally, not only was Iron Jaw handy with the sword, he liked to use that bear-trap of a mouth during a fight, as well! This was some of the cah-raaziest stuff to ever come from a color comic mag, lemme tell ya! Not only was Iron Jaw a ruthless brute in battle, he'd treat the women he'd rescue almost as badly as the dudes he was rescuing them from treated 'em. Rude, crude, and lewd--that was our hero! And yet...there was something in all that macho sweat and blood that held us spellbound, even if it was only for five short issues.

That's right! Besides starring in his own four-issue series (October, 1974-April, 1975), IJ also starred in a one-shot called The Barbarians (March, 1975), which came out between issues 3 and 4 of IJ. With his appearances in The Barbarians and Iron Jaw #4, our anti-hero seemed to soften a bit. He got a little more civilized. A check of the credits shows us why he changed--'cause, yep, you guessed it!--he got a new writer! As part of the "Marvel-ization" of Atlas, Martin Goodman took innovative editor Jeff Rovin's mags and gave 'em to Stan Lee's brother Larry Leiber to edit. Leiber replaced most every Atlas writer with Gary Friedrich, who's job was to make their mags more like Marvel's. So it was up to Groovy Gary to, not only civilize Iron Jaw a bit, but to give his iron jaw an origin.

And what an origin! Friedrich didn't hold back at all on the violence, cruelty, and even downright sexiness that had been a trademark of the strip. He revealed that the barbarian we'd been reading about had been raised as a peaceful minstrel, and...well, you just have'ta read it for yourself. It's a masterpiece of outrageousness (see how wild it was? I even had to make up a word for it...), to put it mildly.

Sadly, it seems there was more to the origin left to be told. What a bummer that Atlas/Seaboard never published Iron Jaw #5...

Black and White Wednesday: Jim Starlin's Darklon the Mystic

Somewhere between Adam Warlock and Vanth Dreadstar, there stood Darklon the Mystic. After finishing his way-out Warlock epic at Marvel, Jim Starlin produced several strips starring the cosmic sorcerer for the pages of Warren's Eerie magazine, beginning with issue #76 (cover-dated August, 1976). Darklon by Starlin appeared in only five issues of Eerie (not counting a reprint in #137): #'s 76, 79, 80, 84, and 100, but made enough of an impression that they were collected and reprinted (in color) by Pacific Comics in 1983, probably due in part to many of the themes and situations being revamped and reused in Starlin's early 80s works for Epic Comics, Metamorphosis Odyssey and Dreadstar.

Darklon was Starlin at his wildest. The stories were like fever dreams (inspired by the trials and tribulations Starlin was suffering through at the time, including his father dealing with cancer) filled with self-loathing and despair. The art was fabulous, with Starlin obviously inspired by the style of Filipino artist supreme Alex Nino (a Warren mainstay). This is especially evident in the layouts and inking style. Savage, graphic, brooding, and as always with Starlin, quite thought provoking stuff.

Black and White Wednesday: Charlton Comics' Space: 1999 Magazine

Somewhere/time (cryptically cosmic, huh?) between Star Trek/Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run/Star Wars (1975 to be exact), there was Space: 1999, the syndicated British series that kept sci-fi space opera on the tube during what Ol' Groove likes to refer to as "The Lull". There are tons of sites, like this one, dedicated to the show, so if you wanna learn more about it, remember that Google can be your friend. I think the series' intro does as good a job of fillin' ya in on the series and its stars as anything, myself. Check it out!



Anyway, the main thing I want ya to know about is that Charlton Comics produced 8 issues (November, 1975-October, 1976) of a spiffy b&w Space: 1999 mag during the show's heyday . Space: 1999 sported some magnificent art by folks like groovy Gray Morrow. Don't believe me? Then check out this sensational strip, scripted by the ever-talented Nick Cuti, from ish #1 called..."Endgame!"