Thursday, June 26, 2014
Ol' Groove's Request Line: "The One-Shot Hero!" by Bates and Cockrum
Ol' Groove recently received a request from Groove-ophile (and former Incredible Hulk (among many other great comics) inker) Jim Sanders III, and Jim wished he could read Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum's "The One-Shot Hero!" from Superboy #195 (March 1973). Not only is Mr. Sanders a great artist, but he also has great taste! We don't just get some suh-wheet early Dave Cockrum Legion of Super-Heroes art (dig that funky Colossal Boy costume), but we also get the debut (and we thought demise) of Erg-1, the dude we'd come to know as Wildfire, who'd become one of our all-time fave Legionnaires (he was the "hot" Legion character of the 70s/80s)! Check it out, Groove-ophiles!
I first read this in one of those ubiquitous DC digests. What a great story. I can see why ol' Wildf--, oops, ERG-1 got popular enough to be revived. And Cockrum's art, naturally, is simply lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, which I had never seen. I had the issue in which Erg came back, and it referenced this issue with a panel or two. Great to see Cockrum's work!
ReplyDeleteSo, not only are teenagers your superhero protector guardians, but in this future they are also your astroengineers? And another DC story that depends on somebody not being able to actually use speech to explain something. "I have one special power, it's a destructive beam, but it also drains all my energy and kills me." Simple!
ReplyDeleteI've loved Dave Cockrum's art from the first time I saw it in the back of Superboy. He quite simply was one of the best the industry ever turned out. And such a nice guy! I met him multiple times at conventions and was able to effuse all over him (had to keep my geek boy cred). A shame he had to end his life so young under such squalid circumstances. This early phase of his career was bursting with energy and enthusiasm. Such clean lines.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't end his life.
DeleteWow. I just bought 3 Archive Editions of The Legion of Super - Heroes at the Comic Salon in Erlangen and this story was in the first volume ( although the reproduction was not so good ).
ReplyDeleteFor a long period of time I thought Mike Grell got me hooked on the Legion but when I checked out the archives I realized that it were the stories by Dave Cockrum. And he also re - designed all the costumes......I loved the ones for the girls. Homina, homina.
By the way, I don´t think keythd23 wanted to imply that Dave Cockrum commited suicide. That was just an unfortunate phrasing.....