Making a Splash: Jack Kirby's Losers

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! One of Jack "King" Kirby's final DC assignments for his legendary Groovy Age run was on Our Fighting Forces' The Losers. Kirby, a WWII veteran, was a master of war comics (as he was master of every genre of comic!), so even though Jack was nearing the finish line of his DC career and approaching his new time at Marvel, The Losers were in great hands! Jack (paired with inkers D. Bruce Berry and Mike Royer)seemed to experiment a bit with his storytelling in issues 151-162 (July 1974-September 1975) of Our Fighting Forces; most issues had double-page splashes, many had full page splashes for chapters after chapter one, but there weren't any single-page splashes to kick off any Losers stories. (Heck, issue 152 didn't have a single-page splash in the whole mag!) Ol' Groove has collected the double- and single-page splashes from the entire run right here for ya. Who loves ya, baby?

Oh, and if you're like me, wondering if assigning Jack to "The Losers" was some sort of dig, think on this: the mag went from bi-monthly to monthly during The King's run! So if it was some kind of joke, who got the last laugh?

Groovy Age Gold: "Blackhawk" by Eisner and Cuidera

One of the things Young Groove learned about DC comics via their various reprints of Golden Age classics is that National Periodical Publications was a monolith that swallowed its competition (and it still is/does!). When Golden Age publishers like Quality and Fawcett went under, DC would eventually wind up finding a way to make those properties part of the DC Universe. Case in point: Blackhawk. Along with Plastic Man, Blackhawk was probably Quality Comics' best and most popular character. DC has worked hard to keep Blackhawk and his cronies flying decade in and decade out. They've never been as successful as Quality was during the Golden Age, but then Blackhawk was made for the Golden Age anyway, right?

Still, Blackhawk reprints during the Groovy Age were cause for celebration. At least they were in the Groovy Household. And I've never read a better Blackhawk tale than the one that started it all way back in Military Comics #1 (August 1941). Reprinted in Secret Origins #6 (October 1973), here is the legendary origin of Blackhawk by Will Eisner and Chuck Cuidera. (Wow! Ya wanna talk about pedigree!)