Random Reads: "The Return of the Living Mummy!" by Gerber and Mayerik

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! When Steve Gerber and Rich Buckler unleashed The Living Mummy upon Marveldom Assembled in Supernatural Thrillers #5 (May 1973), do ya think they knew they had a hit on their hands? Whether they knew it or not, The Living Mummy was diggable enough to be given its own regular berth in ST beginning with ish #7 (March 1974). Gerber would write "The Return of the Living Mummy!", but the art would be handled by a new-comer with an amazing, organic and moody style perfectly suited to a supernatural action strip, Val Mayerik (remember him from Thongor, Groove-ophiles?). Check it out!

The strip would continue for another 8 issues, with Tony Isabella taking over the writing chores for six of those issues. Mayerik would pencil all but the final ish. It was a pretty cool series, indeed!

Black and White Wednesday: "The Slither-Slime Man!" by Hewetson and Marcos

Hooooooooow's it hangin', Groove-ophiles! Y'know, with Skywald's Psycho #8, Archaic Al Hewetson was handed the editorial reins from former editor Sol Brodsky. With ish #9 (cover dated November 1972), The Archaic One was able to unleash his full vision, The Horror-Mood, 'pon fandom! It all started with the cover-lead feature, "The Slither-Slime Man!" (illustrated in all its gory glory by Pablo Marcos), in which Al even used a page to editorialize about what the Horror-Mood was and would come to be! History in the making, Groove-ophiles, and it's all right here for you, right now!

Cover by Domingo Gomez

Bring On the Back-ups: "A Quiet Day in Atlantis" by Levitz and Grell

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's got an action-packed Aquaman back-up for ya from Adventure Comics #437 (October 1974), drawn by a young Mike Grell and written by a very young Paul Levitz! This is Levitz's second published short, and his first pro super-hero script! Levitz would go on to writing Aquaman's mag, a long and celebrated run authoring Legion of Super-Heroes, and later he'd become a top editor and finally publisher of DC! Pretty good for a fellow fan, huh, baby?

MOKF Monday: "Warriors of the Golden Dawn: The Dragons" by Moench, Zeck, and Day

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Well, here we go! The grand finale to "Warriors of the Golden Dawn"! It's Shang-Chi vs. Fu Manchu...to the DEATH! From Master of Kung Fu #89 (March 1980), here's Doug Moench, Mike Zeck, and Gene Day with..."The Dragons"!

Making a Splash: Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man, Part Three

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! We're back with our third and final look at the sensational splashes Ross Andru provided for the Amazing Spider-Man during his amazing tenure as Spidey-penciler numero uno! Today we're down the home stretch, Ross working with writer/editor Marv Wolfman. The clock was ticking down as Mr. Andru was being beseeched by DC to return to them as an editor. Eventually the call became too strong, and with Amazing Spider-Man #185 (July 1978), the Andru Era was over. Check 'em out...

But wait, there's more! Andru didn't just draw Spidey in Amazing, but in Giant-Size Spider-Man issues 1-5 (April 1974-April 1975), as well! And some'a those extra-long epics had more than one splash--but I'll only use the one's featuring May Parker's nephew. We might wanna use the others for another time, don'tcha know!