Black and White Wednesday: "The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell" by O'Neil, Adams, and Englehart

HowOOOOO's it shakin', Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna take a look at somethin' creepy and kooky. No, not the Addams Family, Lester! Ol' Groove's rappin' about Stainless Steve Englehart's (who's 70th birthday was this past Saturday, by the by) first comicbook credit in Vampirella #10 (December 1970)! Unknown to editor Julie Schwartz at DC(well, Julie might've know, but it sounds cooler this way) , his titanic Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams were working together on a story for Warren's B&W Vampirella mag. "Wait, Groove," you say, "you started off talking about Steve Englehart!" I know, I know. We've mentioned here before that before breaking into comics as a writer (on strips like The Beast in Amazing Adventures, as well as a couple'a little-known mags like Captain America and Avengers), Mr. E. tried to get work as a comicbook artist. He managed to land the awesome assignment of assisting Neal Adams (a dream job, to be sure). According to Steve on his website (right'chere), he and Neal took turns laying out pages, penciling, and inking pages to the point where even he isn't sure who did what. In those days, assistants worked in anonymity, but Adams gave Englehart co-credit for this particular art job to help Steve "...start a career." How cool is that? And how cool is (are?)..."The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell!"

Yo, Rocky! That's why Mick was so cranky!