Tuesday Two-fer: "Duel at Dawn" and "The Vampire King" by Fallberg (?) and Arens(?)

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Today just happens to be the 50th anniversary of the debut of Batman on ABC-TV! It's Li'l Groove's love of that show that grew into the all-out fanatic that blogs for you five days a week as Ol' Groove, so I hadda do something to celebrate! Of course, being who I is, of course we're not gonna celebrate in a way that you'd expect.

Of course I MUST share a cool Adam-West-as-Batman pic!

Nope, to celebrate the impact Adam West and company made on moi, I'll use this time to show just how quickly the love of Batman grew into a love for comicbooks, cartoons, and superheroes. Y'see, as much as Li'l Groove loved Batman, when he learned that there were other superheroes (most of the following wouldn't have existed had it not been for Batman), he went a little bit bonkers. Absorbed everything from Archie's Mighty Comics line to shows like Captain Nice to (of course) Marvel Comics (and their cartoons) to (of course, again) Hanna-Barbera's line of cartoon superheroes, which included such luminaries as Space Ghost, Atom Ant, the Herculoids, Frankenstein Jr., the Impossibles, Young Samson, and today's focuses (foci?), Birdman and Mighty Mightor!

Both of these tales first appeared in Gold Key's Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes #1 (January 1968), and one (or both) were written and/or drawn by Carl Fallberg and Mike Arens (even the magnificent Grand Comics Database doesn't know for sure).

First up, here's Birdman in "Duel at Dawn"!

And here's Mighty Mightor battling "The Vampire King"!

Tuesday Two-fer: "Time-Warp" by Barr, Barretto, and Adkins and "Plague" by Kashdan, Newton, and Mitchell

Gobble, gobble, Groove-ophiles! Let's talk turkey: Time Warp was a pretty cool sci fi comic! Too bad it was so short-lived. Just take, for example, November 1979's Time Warp #3! Under it's way-too-pulpy-cool Mike Kaluta cover there are a ton of cool stories--including the twisted tale that lead off the ish, "Time Warp" (What an appropriate title!) by Mike W. Barr, Ed Barretto, and Dan Adkins...

Then, there's the issue's final sci-fi shocker by George Kashdan, Don Newton, and Steve Mitchell, "Plague"!

And if you're in the mood for more Time Warp wonderment, just click the Time Warp link over there in the Stream of Comicbook Consciousness section! Time Warp! It's not just a campy dance number any more!

Shades of Gray Tuesday Two-Fer: "Missing Link!" and "Haunted Gallery" by Gray Morrow

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! It's been a while since we dug some groovy Gray Morrow masterpieces, so here are two gems from Chilling Adventure in Sorcery #3 (August 1973), the first Red Circle ish in which Master Morrow takes over writing, editing, drawing, even lettering, and possibly coloring the whole sinister she-bang! Are your eyes prepared for the magnificence of Morrow? Then...onward!

The Boys from Derby (Two-fer!): "The Metamorph" and "Escape from Vipon" by Pellowski and Boyette

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Over the past few years, we've looked back at all of Charlton's color Space: 1999 comics--except for the final ish, #7 (August 1976)--what's up with that? So today, Ol' Groove is gonna rectify that sitch by sharing both of Mike Pellowski and Pat Boyette's mini-epics from that fateful final ish, "The Metamorph" (which features the origin of Maya) and "Escape from Vipon"! Dig 'em!