Making a Splash: John Byrne's Doomsday (+1)

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! I know you're gonna love today's post (well, unless you're John Byrne--sorry, don't mean to embarrass you, man, but dang! Your art was great even way back then)! Earrrrrrrrrly John Byrne on Doomsday +1 (July 1975-May 1976)! Yeah, Byrne was learning and experimenting (some of these splashes don't meet the exact definition of a splash, but hey--any excuse to look at Byrne art, right?), but whoa! That cool, original style pulsing with life, energy, and enthusiasm still knocks me out! How 'bout you?

Doomsday +1 #1

Doomsday +1 #3

Doomsday +1 #5

Model Heroes: The Amazing Spider-Man

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! First of all, Ol' Groove want's to say, "Happy Anniversary!" Yep, t'was eight years ago today that yers trooley posted our very first Diversion! It wasn't much, but it was a start, and who'da thunk eight years later we'd still be around, rappin' about the comics of the 70s, sharing memories, and just chillin' with our fellow Groove-ophiles? Thank you, one and all for your support, dedication, and love. Ol' Groove loves ya, baby! Let's keep truckin' on for as long as we can!

Today we're gonna look at another of the awesome Aurora Model Kits which originally hit stores in the late 60s, disappeared for a while, then made a comeback in the mid-70s with the super-cool twist of those hard to find (and expensive if you do find 'em) comicbook inserts. Not only do those inserts give us instructions for how to put those 'mazing models together (which I'm pretty sure were drawn by Dave Cockrum), but we get a piece of incredible background art (to set the finished model in front of, natch), but a whole stand-alone story, to boot! For the Amazing Spider-Man, author Len Wein (who'd go on to write the regular Amazing Spider-Man comic) and artist John Romita, Sr. (one of the Mt. Everest of Spidey creators) got it all together with a fun Spidey vs. Kraven the Hunter mini-classic! Check it out, baby!

The box and the unpainted model

A nicely painted finished version of the model--but what's up with Kraven's pants?

Black and White Wednesday: "The Valley of Ancestors" by Mantlo, Perez, and Adkins

HiiiiiiiYA, Groove-ophiles! We're back with another Sons of the Tiger adventure, this one featuring the Bruce Lee inspired SoT, Lin Sun. Some fine cosmic kung fu action goin' on in Bill Mantlo, George Perez, and Dan Adkins' "The Valley of Ancestors", baby! Let's go back to June 1975 to Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #14 and check it out!

Decent Comics: "Kill Me with Wagner!" by Kirby and Berry

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! A comicbook with a Joe Kubert cover and Jack Kirby story and art just screams "Read me!" dunnit? That's what DC figured when they let Kirby (and inker D. Bruce Berry) take over Robert Kanigher's The Losers feature in Our Fighting Forces beginning with ish #151 (July 1974). For the past four-plus years, The Losers, created by Kanigher by gathering a small group of cancelled DC war features (meaning they were Losers in more ways than one), enjoyed several top artists (including luminaries like Ross Andru and John Severin) and followed the Kanigher War Formula. With Kirby's arrival, Capt. Storm, Johnny Cloud, Gunner and Sarge kept trucking through WWII, their ability to stumble into and out of trouble remained intact, but man, did the thrust of the series take a turn! Gone were the fables of the bravery of our fighting forces and the futility of war. They were replaced by the action-packed, fast-paced, in-your-face Jack Kirby style, filtered through Kirby's experiences (he was a veteran of World War II, ya know), bringing us imaginative and yes, many times outlandish--but always cool!--stories that displayed the brutality of what enlisted men faced when their boots hit the ground. For perhaps the last time during his DC tenure, Kirby was unleashed! Here's his opening salvo, "Kill Me with Wagner!"