Titanic Tuesdays: "The Fiddler's Concert of Crime!" by Rozakis, Novick, and Giella

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! We're back with another Titanic Tuesday, this time it's ish #46 (November 1976) with "The Fiddler's Concert of Crime!" by Bob Rozakis, Irv Novick, and Joe Giella. Ah, what can Ol' Groove say about Bob, Irv, and Joe's latest Mal and the Titans mini-epic? Well, they sure knew how to grab me--at the time, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Donnie and Marie, and Captain and Tennille were definitely on my radar (and on my TV, and on my turn-table, 'cause I did have TOaD and C&T albums). Kinda weird they had to contrive an Earth-2 villain making his way to Earth-1, but I s'pose there was no Earth-1 villain with the musical orientation of the Fiddler. The wildest twist (and again, one would imagine DC's idea of being hip) is the revelation that Paul and Linda McCartney and the Carpenters (in their Earth-1 incarnations) were one and the same! Earth-1 was one strange place during the Groovy Age, huh? And with all this hip-ness, Teen Titans #47 looks like a Silver Age mag with the Novick/Giella art (except for that Rich Buckler/Frank McLaughlin cover). I sometimes wonder, did that Silver Age look (that lasted until the 80s for many of their mags) work for or against them as Marvel got more and more sophisticated? Guess that's what made/makes Marvel and DC fans different breeds! Enough philosophizing, on wit' da show!

MOKF Monday: "Wicked Messenger of Madness" by Moench, Gulacy, and Adkins

HiiiYA, Groove-ophiles! It's MOKF Monday again, and does Ol' Groove (and writer Doug Moench and artists Paul Gulacy and Dan Adkins) have a doozy of a story for you! Kung-fu action! Rifle-eyed robots! A bathing beauty! Mysteries, codes, and clues! Armies! A hidden island! And a secret villain reveal at the end of the ish! What are ya waiting for? Read "Wicked Messenger of Madness" from MOKF #33 (July 1975) right now!

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Marvel-ous Summer Annuals

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's in a summer-time mood, and what better way to celebrate the summer than to look back at some of the grooviest covers to ever decorate a superb-summer annual! Today we dig the most Marvel-ous of summer annuals. To help me narrow things down, I chose covers from all-new annuals, not the reprints (I'll have to find another excuse to run that Conan Annual #1 cover by BWS. Ah, well...) In no particular order, here's some'a the best of the best by Kirby, Kane, Buscema, Cockrum, Starlin, Simonson, Byrne, Miller, and more!