What's happening, Groove-ophiles? I thought after all the big events of the past several weeks (Halloween Countdown, 100th Post, and the election), it'd be nice to unwind with a flat-out great comicbook story by two of the most talented dudes to ever grace the pulpified pages of our favorite medium. I mentioned this story in my post on Thrilling Adventure Stories back in August (you can read it here), so I'm not gonna waste space repeating it all today. Suffice to say, the two issues of Thrilling Adventure Stories produced by Atlas/Seaboard back in 1975 are treasure-troves of comicbook excellence. This story by Goodwin and Simonson, who had just finished their magnificent run on Manhunter in the back of Detective Comics (issues 437-443), is one of the absolute best black and white comics ever. And because Ol' Groove loves ya, here it is!
Terrific. I never knew this existed.
ReplyDelete(And yet, I think Frank Miller saw it all those years ago...)
In the name of all that's Moley! I still have this magazine!
ReplyDeleteJust discovered your blog while researching comics that I collected in the 70s. It's a fantastic resource. Interestingly two of the first clippings (B&W) I I dragged from the basement are this one and "Dread Night of the Jaguar!". Also one of my all-time favourite artists is Alex Nino, both his drawing and inking style - looks like I'll be spending a bit of time browsing, so I'll your site.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got a copy of this hard-to-find story (around the year 2000), I was amazed how nice the art was, to the point that I couldn't believe it hadn't been reprinted. A really nice follow-up to Goodwin/Simonson's Manhunter run in DETECTIVE 437-443.
ReplyDeleteAnother black-and-white masterpiece is Simonson's adaptation of Stephen King's "The Lawnmower Man", in BIZARRE ADVENTURES 29, Dec 1981.
The other stuff I really enjoyed in the brief line published by Seaboard-Atlas are the Ernie Colon stories.
One Tiger-man story in THRILLING ADVENTURES 1 magazine.
TIGER-MAN issue 1, the color comic.
And GRIM GHOST 1, 2 and 3, a compelling tale of a guy who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for vengeance, and I think some of Colon's nicest art.
The only other I like better by Colon is a 3-par "Manimal" werewolf story in HOT STUF' fanzine issues 6-8, about a Jewish guy in his 30's whose parents were prisoners at Auschwitz and used for human experiments, that caused him to latently become a werewolf. When surviving Nazis in the U.S. come after him, his werewolf transformations allow him to unleash veangeance on his attackers.
And also Colon's art for ARAK issue 1, in 1981. By far the best issue of the series. I love Roy Thomas' doing the reverse of what we're used to, having a Native American travel to Europe, and explore Europe in Medieval times.
A few random suggestions for Groove-treatment.