Black and White Wednesday: Kirby Covers DC

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Jack Kirby's Groovy Age run at DC is most famous for his Fourth World kreations--and that's the way it should be. But The King konkokted other kool komics during that self-same reign: Kamandi, The Demon, The Losers (in Our Fighting Forces), Sandman, Justice Inc., and Omac, plus some rather unique karakhters for First Issue Special. Ol' Groove thought it would be kinda fun to plant our peepers on some skans of those kool Kirby kovers in their original form...

Decent Comics: "Multi-Man Rules the World" by Skeates, Sherman, and Abel

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna dig on Super-Team Family #10 (January 1977) featuring the Challengers of the Unknown in "Multi-Man Rules the World!" The team of Steve Skeates, James Sherman, and Jack Abel were clicking right along on all cylinders, bringing back some classic characters from the Challs' past, most notably the villainous Multi-Man. Sales must have been pretty good, because if you look at the blurb in the final panel of the final page you'll see that the Challs would be graduating to their own mag two months later. Strangely enough, even though this particular story would be continued in the revived mag, not a single one of the men who brought the Challengers back so successfully would be assigned to the new mag...

Cover art by Rich Buckler and Jack Abel

Marvel-ous Monday: "A Blast from the Past!" by Stern, Elias, and Mooney

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Omega the Unknown #8 (February 1977) was second of two infamous fill-in issues. Writer Roger Stern and Penciler Lee Elias don't seem to have gotten the memo about not making waves, continuity-wise, during their filler ish, as we get some new faces from Omega co-creator Gerber's cancelled Man-Thing mag. Perhaps Gerber and fellow writer/co-creator Mary Skrenes were at least in on what was going on, as this ish smoothly segues into next issue (with the return of Gerber and Skrenes at the typewriter). Regular artist Jim Mooney supplies the inks, by the way, keeping some continuity going for this fill-in.

What Ol' Grovoe really gets a kick out of is the appearance of Captain Marvel villain Nitro. Only in a classic Marvel mag would a villain show up to fight a hero in the wrong hero's mag! And Omega, being a hero (or whatever he was), was obliged to duke it out with our explosive bad-guy. Another irony (we didn't know about at the time) was the fact that Nitro was out to kill Mar-Vell--not knowing that their first battle back in Captain Marvel #34 was actually slowly killing our Kree Captain....

Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

Marvel-ous Mondays: "Confrontation!" by Wolfman, Kane, and the Tribe

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Due to Monday's post on the passing of Rich Buckler, Ol' Groove's moved our regular Monday post to Friday just this once. Thanks for your kind indulgence.

Here's the finale to Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane's "Air Pirates of Mars" saga from Marvel's John Carter Warlord of Mars #10 (December 1977). This one's inked by The Tribe, btw, but Kane's pencils shine and the inks are pretty consistent throughout. And dig Kane's inks on the cover!