Marvel-ous Monday: "The Hottest Slot In Town!" by Gerber, Skrenes, and Mooney

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here we are with the final ish of Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, and Jim Mooney's Omega the Unknown. What an ending! Talk about a cliffhanger! Oh, how Ol' Groove wishes that, even if Omega wouldn't have continued, that Gerber and Skrenes could have actually finished the story in the Defenders as they'd envisioned it. Marvel has made some baaad moves, and that was one of the worst. Still, this ish still has some interesting stuff (besides that ending): Omega in glasses (but still wearing his headband--a dig at Clark Kent?); getting rich in Las Vegas; Nedley's funeral; a seemingly random monster just popping up out of nowhere; and Defenders' foe Ruby Thursday. (A hint of what could have come? We'll never know.) Let's travel back to June 1977 for..."The Hottest Slot In Town!"

Cover art by Dave Cockrum and Pablo Marcos

(Note to Groove-ophile keythd23: Your long nightmare is over! No more Omega! ;D)

Making a Splash: John Romita's Captain America

Ya know, Groove-ophiles, for a short time in 1971, John Romita was reunited with a character he'd drawn back in the mid-1950s: Captain America. The Jazzy One's style had changed quite a bit, and the times had certainly changed, but Cap and Romita still made a great fit. Ol' Groove should also mention that Romita's take on Cap made for a nice bridge from the Gene Colan era to the long-running Sal Buscema era of CA&F (and a few issues had dynamite inks by Joe Sinnott, to boot). Just dig these splashes from Captain America and the Falcon issues 138-144 (March-September 1971) and see for yourself!

The Boys from Derby: "The Eyes of Ikaba" by Gill and Glanzman

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Here's a rare 70s Charlton Sam Glanzman story from Ghostly Tales #93 (January 1972). According to Grand Comics Database it was probably written by Joe Gill. It's a hoot of an adventure story, but it's deftly laced with a lesson in the horrors of greed and hate. Beware..."The Eyes of Ikaba!"

Black and White Wednesday: "Small Is Beautiful" and "Cracked Looks At the T-Shirt Craze"

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Today Ol' Groove's gonna crack open a copy of Cracked (see why I liked Cracked better than Mad? You can't mad open a copy of Mad!)--issue 143 (cover dated August 1977) to be exact! The writers and artists (not sure about the writers, but John Langton and Howard Nostrand art the artists) had their crystal balls polished up big-time, baby! The first article, "Small Is Beautiful" takes miniaturizing everyday things to an extreme--but it kinda/sorta predicted where we'd go with things like computers, airline seats, and even houses (the Tiny House Movement)...

The second article, "Cracked Looks At the T-Shirt Craze" takes a twisted look at the very thing I'm wearing right now (and on every summer day, and a lot of fall, winter, and spring days)! Too bad they didn't predict the "tagless" part!

Decent Comics: "Gung Ho!" by Kirby and Berry

Here we are, Groove-ophiles! The final Losers story by Jack Kirby from Our Fighting Forces #162 (September 1975). This one starts off with a misleading cover by Ernie Chua (Chan); misleading in that it has the wrong Loser featured in the scene, it should be Gunner, not Sarge, as you'll see for yourself when you read "Gung Ho!" But The King went out with style, allowing the least of the Losers, Gunner, his own time to shine and do his part to give us another action-packed fable on the atrocities of war.

Jack's 100th birthday celebration is coming up at the end of the month, and unless you've been under a rock, you've notices that it's been celebrated on comicbook sites and blogs pretty much all year long. And that's how it should be!