Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Decent Comics: "Seven Doorways to Destiny!" by Conway, Giffen, and Celardo

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Gerry Conway's story, "Seven Doorways to Destiny!" for Challengers of the Unknown #83 (July 1977) not only gave us the return of the Swamp Thing, but also a new art team: Keith Giffen and John Celardo. Now, this issue and next were just supposed to be fill-ins by that far-out art combl, but they wound up hanging around as the series permanent artists. Ol' Groove thinks it's kinda wild that over at Marvel, Giffen was giving his work a very Jack Kirby look, but at DC on a book that Kirby had co-created, he was using a very different style--in fact, this style points strongly toward his incredible 1980s Legion of Super-Heroes work. Speaking of wild, this story is wild--and things are going to get even wilder next ish! Enjoy!
Cover art by Rich Buckler and Joe Rubinstein

















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2 comments:

  1. GeneSeptember 5, 2017 at 10:59 PM

    What's interesting is that, as opposed to the Kirby-heavy style he was doing for Marvel, with this you can definitely see the artistic direction which Giffen would go in with "Dr. Fate" and the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES a few years later.

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    1. keythd23September 7, 2017 at 7:21 AM

      This was the best iteration of Giffen's many styles he would employ over the years. Soon, over in the aforementioned Legion and Dr. Fate, he would be joined by Larry Mahlstedt (wonder whatever happened to him?),who would enhance him greatly. One of the stylistic techniques Giffen employed was the face popping sideways into the panel. You could always tell it was a Giffen drawn book once you saw that happening.

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