Friday, July 27, 2018

The Diversions Turns 10 "Best of" Birthday Bash! Archie Comics' Supernatural Side: Die In the Name of the Law! and The Man Who Tried to Kill Death

Happy anniversary, Groove-ophiles! This coming Saturday Marks 10 years since the Diversions hit the interwebs, so Ol' Groove thought we'd celebrate by looking back at some his favorite, but least viewed, posts from our first fateful year! We'll be back new and live next Monday with a special anniversary post. Until then, enjoy these "reprints" and rap with us about 'em!



Welcome back, my Groovy Ghoulies! Ol' Groove is once again dipping deep into his museum of the macabre to bring you the most spine-chilling comicbook tales of the 1970s. This time around, we're looking at the always-wholesome Archie Comics Group's entry into the eerie, Red Circle Sorcery.

If you want the full rundown on the history of Archie's Red Circle Comics Group, check out the howling history written by my pal Jon Gilbert posted right here at the Mighty Crusaders website. I'll wait by the coffin for ya...

Back? Okay then, now that you know all about how even the Archie folks tried to cash in on the creepy and cookie supernatural craze of the early 70s, let's take a look at a couple stories from Ol' Groove's very most favorite issue of RSS, the legendary issue #8 (May, 1974)!

First up is "Die In the Name of the Law!"by Mysterious Marv Channing and Gruesome Gray Morrow. I could always relate to this story of a compulsive collector (of pulps novels, which I also dig the most)...



Author Channing was on a roll this ish. Here he teams up with the master, Alex Toth, for "The Man Who Tried to Kill Death!"

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9 comments:

  1. keythd23July 27, 2018 at 1:31 AM

    Red Circle, riding the horror wave of the 70s was short and sweet. Lots of great artists. Loved the first few issues because they were pretty much Gray Morrow one man shows.

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousJuly 27, 2018 at 8:48 PM

      Have you ever seen Gray Morrow's comics work from the '50s? Nice drawing & much less reliance on photo reference. He fell into the trap of using it for everything by the early '70s & it stiffened up his,figure drawing somewhat.

      Regards,
      Chris A.

      Delete
    2. keythd23July 30, 2018 at 7:48 AM

      No, I haven't. Where would be a good place to find his 50s work? I like his work in the very early issues of Creepy.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousJuly 31, 2018 at 7:13 AM

      I just went to comics.org, limited a search on Gray Morrow between 1951-59, then went to Google to find story scans of "The Uninvited," "The Man in Grey," & other stories for Atlas and the like that he drew then. By 1960 the heavy photo reference had kicked in (see 2nd story in this link), but it still looked good:
      http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-hitch-hiker-room-for-night.html?m=1

      Enjoy!
      Chris A.

      Delete
  2. Scott GrayJuly 27, 2018 at 7:43 AM

    Ah, Alex Toth, what a master! Happy Birthday, Groove! Thank you for maintaining your site, it's a shining oasis of comics coolness! Long may it continue!

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  3. AnonymousJuly 27, 2018 at 8:29 PM

    Yes, the Northridge character is clearly based on photo reference of Alex Toth. Love it!

    Regards,
    Chris A.

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  4. JohnJuly 28, 2018 at 11:17 AM

    Happy Birthday! Keep Groovy!

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  5. Edo BosnarJuly 28, 2018 at 1:19 PM

    Happy 10th, Groove. Enjoyed this week's 'retro' posts - as I do pretty much everything else you post.

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  6. Jasper BarkAugust 1, 2018 at 9:32 PM

    Wow, a whole decade of Groovy Diversions, didn't it just seem to fly by? Thanks for all the great comics Groove, I wonder how many years it will take until you've posted every comic printed in the glorious Groovy Age of comics?

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