Yesterday (January 19) was Joe Staton's 66th birthday, and ya know how much we love Joe here in Groove City! From E-Man to Avengers to Green Lantern to Scooby Doo to Dick Tracy and back again, Joe is one of the all-time bestest artists to come out of the Groovy Age! Everyone should know by now that Joe has helped reinvigorate the classic Dick Tracy strip with his awesome artistry, so Ol' Groove thought it might be kinda cool to show that Joe was demonstrating his mastery of the Dick Tracy style as far back as 1979 when he worked on the Adventure Comics revival of Plastic Man! Joe, writer Martin Pasko, and editor Len Wein came up with a whole passel of Dick Tracy-style villains like Pink Eye (whom you'll meet in today's post), Brickface, the Trowel, Yellowbelly, Lowbrow, and more. One of my personal faves is "Codename: Pinkeye!" from Adventure Comics #469 (December 1979). Let's check it out and wish Joe another Happy Birthday!!
Happy belated birthday, Joe!
ReplyDeleteAnd great stuff, Groove. Although I had heard of him before, these stories in Adventure were my actual introduction to Plastic Man. And Staton's art was a perfect fit for the character.
Also, I've probably mentioned it here before, but I just loved that run of Adventure when Plas shared the book with Levitz/Ditko's Starman - the disappointment over the discontinuation of that title's dollar comic status didn't last long.
I have to agree. That run of 12 issues was a highlight of my reading DC in that era. I was not familiar with Plas, Star or Aquaman and their combination of humour, science fantasy and superhero was pretty darn good.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Nopants.