Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Groove's Faves: "Hellfire and Holocaust" by Conway, Giffen, and Wood
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! We're back with another awesome episode of The All-Star Supersquad/ Justice Society of America from All-Star Comics #61 (April 1976)! Gerry Conway, Keith Giffen (Don'tcha just love his layouts? He packed so much action and drama into 17 pages!), and Wally Wood were really clicking with this ish, baby! A very cool villain (visually especially), lots of action, a bit of anguish (what about Dr. Fate?), and even a few pages setting up the next ish! Nice character moments, as well, with Jay Garrick and his wife Joan, Wildcat, and Power Girl (almost always a show-stealer). And wrapped up nicely under an Ernie Chan cover, to boot! Enjoy!
I had this issue back in the day. I really liked the Giffen/Wood combination and from his work with the JSA/Super Squad, I followed Giffen into other comics (LSH, Defenders, etc...).
ReplyDeleteGreat storytelling. The page where Power Girl fights XLK-JNN and the alien communicates telepathically is told so visually well. This was my first issue of All-Star Comics, and I was hooked. Love the full-face panels and the fabulous Woody inks.
ReplyDeleteSuper Squadron was so much fun, I was never a big fan of DC's team-up books (JLA, Legion Of Superheros) but always loved JSA, All-Star Squadron.
ReplyDeleteI loved the covers on these, too. The bar across the top with the old-style D.C. "bullet", the figures or heads they used to put in there, and the blurbs! A lotta writing at the top but it was all done with a lotta color.
ReplyDeleteI have several D.C. comics with the "salute the bicentennial" line at the top, but I'm glad I didn't cut 'em up and send 'em in for a Superman belt buckle, or whatever the prize was.
Perish forbid! Like the dreaded Marvel value stamps! You would go in a comic shop and buy a long-searched for back issue and find some chucklehead had defaced it. Arrgh!
Although a Superman belt buckle does sound kinda cool, now that I think about it...
M.P.
Man, did Keith Giffen cram a lot of panels into 17 pages! One day, when I'm ambitious, I'll count them. I also like how he dropped the white borders between them on many pages.
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