Our Pal Sal: "Titan's Three!" by Thomas, S. Buscema, and Mooney

Merry Christmas, Groove-ophiles! 'Tis Christmas Eve and Ol' Groove is back to share an all-time favorite comicbook classic with you! Now, this one, Sub-Mariner #34, has no special Christmas-y memories (it came out, after all, in November 1970), but it does lead into tomorrow's look at #35 which did, indeed, come out in time for Christmas (around December 1 or so). The important thing, for now, is to spend some time together this Christmas Eve digging on the "prototype" Defenders--"The Titans Three!" with story and art by one of my early dream-teams, Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, and Jim Mooney! Enjoy!

See you tomorrow for a special Christmas post! Happy Holidays!

Happy Groovy Thanksgivings of Yore!

Some of Ol' Groove's favorite comics came out in November, and I've shared a whole lot of 'em here on the blog. In a weird bout of nostalgic nostalgia, Ol' Groove would like to help you (in the U.S.A) celebrate Thanksgiving (happy Thursday to the rest of the world!) with some of my most favorite faves that I've shared here with you in our past Thanksgiving Feasts! So, instead'a cooking to enjoy these tasty morsels of comicbook wonder, all ya have to do is click! Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!

Strange Tales #178 (Jim Starlin's Warlock epic begins!), The Destructor #1 (Archie Goodwin, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood give us a most unexpected super-hero), and Scorpion #1 (Howard Chaykin's pulp-hero supreme)! Click here to read 'em all!

Ol' Groove's all-time favorite ish of Creepy! Read the best of this issue's best here, here, and here!

Marvel's greatest one-shot mag featuring early solo tales starring The Punisher and (Howard Chaykin's "reboot" of Scorpion) Dominic Fortune and the twin debuts of The Huntress (better known as Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird) and Weirdworld!

A special (or should I say Super Special) "issue" of Savage Sword of Conan in full color!

And finally, one of the best b&w comic mags of all time! The debut of Tigerman, Lawrence of Arabia...The Sting of Death...and Escape from Nine by 1!

Thanks for Everything, Stan!

I knew I'd have to write this post someday. It's something I dreaded for years. And I certainly didn't intend to come out of "semi-retirement" for this particular post, but here it is: Stan Lee passed away this morning at age 95.

Let that sink in for a moment. The Living Monument to Marvel Comics is no longer with us. People always want to debate "who created what" in the Marvel Universe. Being a sometimes creator myself, I know how diluted and confusing all of that can be. This I do know for certain: Stan's voice was the voice of Marvel for me. The letters pages. They cover hype. The Bullpen Bulletins. The Mighty Marvel Checklist. Stan's Soapbox. The feeling of friendship and community that made us Marvelites. That all started with Stan...and I'll always love and admire him for that.

Your positive memories and thoughts on Stan the Man are most welcome in the comments section. Let's use that space to celebrate one of the all time greats. Our friend, Stan.

If You Blinked You Missed: Super Cops by Channing, Morrow, Pino, Alcazar, and Thorne

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Here's one of those weird one-shots that popped up from time to time during the Groovy Age. Two real-life policemen, Dave Greenberg and Bob Hantz became minor media sensations for their daring methods of fighting crime--methods that included crashing through windows a la Batman and Robin (which became their nick-names). A book was written about them, then the book was turned into a movie, and late into the game--as usual--came the comicbook. And what a lovely comic mag it is! Published by Archie Comics under their Gray Morrow-helmed Red Circle imprint, Super-Cops #1 and only featured art by Morrow, Carlos Pino, Vincente Alcazar (as V. Hack), and Frank Thorne. The whole book (including the text feature giving Greenberg and Hantz's biographies) was written by Marvin Channing. Now, the stories weren't earth-shattering. You could even say that they're kinda mundane...but Ol' Groove always dug the fact that this mag was something different for the super-hero/super-natural/cosmic dominated 1970s. Let's head back to May 1974 and hit the streets, baby!

Anybody wanna buy a watch?