Lo! There Shall Come...Endings! "The Inheritor Kills!" by Conway and Staton

Happy New Year's Eve, Groove-ophiles! It's time to sing "Auld Lang Syne" and reminisce about the year that was. Hope 2015 was good to ya, baby--and Ol' Groove hopes 2016 will treat ya even better! As has become our tradition, today's the day we say "so long" to one of our Groovy Age titles by looking back at their final ish. Well, this year it's Metal Men #55 (November 1977). Since Metal Mondays was a hit with most of y'all, Ol' Groove thought their Groovy Age finale would be most fitting. (Yeah, I know it's not Monday, but hey, that's a good thing, right?)

It's a nice ending for the series, with a down-played, low-key guest appearance by the alter-ego of a certain Prince-ess tossed in for good measure. Ol' Groove think's you'll dig..."The Inheritor Kills!" by Gerry Conway and Joe Staton!

Cover art by Jim Aparo

Black and White Wednesday: Thrilling Adventure Splashes by Simonson, Severin, Toth, Heath, Thorne, and more

Season's Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna look back at the superior artistry of Atlas/Seaboard's two (wish it'd been a few hundred) issue Thrilling Adventure Stories (November 1974/May 1975)! Ernie Colon! Jack Sparling! Leo Summers! Frank Thorne! Russ Heath! Walt Simonson! John Severin! Alex Toth! Dang, no wonder Ol' Groove still prizes those two magnificent mags so highly!

Oh, and if you find the "Thrilling Adventure Stories" link in the Stream of Comicbook Consciousness over in the sidebar, you can read most of these titanic tales--if you've the notion...

Our Pal Sal: "Catch a Falling Hero" by Claremont, S. Buscema, and Leialoha

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! We're back with the third chapter of Chris Claremont, Sal Buscema, and Steve Leialoha's Spider-Man/Black Widow/S.H.I.E.L.D. super-saga! This time, Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu joins in on the fun, with baddies like Madame Hydra/Viper, Silver Samurai, and Boomerang making things extra hard for our hallowed heroes! From Marvel Team-Up #84 (May 1979), here's "Catch a Falling Hero"!

Bring On the Back-ups: "The Man Who Skyjacked Hawkman!" by Rozakis, Rogers, Austin, and Adams

Happy Holidays, Groove-ophiles! Here's hoping the cheer of the season is rocking on for ya! We're back today with the final Calculator back-up, this time featuring Hawkman! "The Man Who Skyjacked Hawkman!", from Detective Comics #467 (October 1976), uses a tried-and-true comicbook framing device (utilizing The Batman, himself) not only to tell its story, but to set up the grand finale (which you can read right here). Bob Rozakis is still rocking the writing, Marshall Rogers is making his mark with the art, and inker Terry Austin gets help from none other than Neal Adams. Hoo-hah!