R.I.P. Richard Corben

 There was no  artist like Richard Corben, who passed December 2. While much of his output was too "mature" for Young Groove back in the Groovy Age, I have always admired his singular, savagely spectacular style. And THAT Meatloaf album cover.

Corben colors Eisner

Ken Kelly fooling Ol' Groove into thinking he was Corben! (Thanks Anonymous Groove-ophile!)

And then there was the time I was lucky enough to have a story published in an issue of The Creeps that Mr. Corben did the cover art for!

 Fly high, Rich Corben! And thank you for the adventures, shivers, and memories!

Happy Groovy Thanksgivings of Yore!

Some of Ol' Groove's favorite comics came out in November, and I've shared a whole lot of 'em here on the blog. In a weird bout of nostalgic nostalgia, Ol' Groove would like to help you (in the U.S.A) celebrate Thanksgiving (happy Thursday to the rest of the world!) with some of my most favorite faves that I've shared here with you in our past Thanksgiving Feasts! So, instead'a cooking to enjoy these tasty morsels of comicbook wonder, all ya have to do is click! Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!

Strange Tales #178 (Jim Starlin's Warlock epic begins!), The Destructor #1 (Archie Goodwin, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood give us a most unexpected super-hero), and Scorpion #1 (Howard Chaykin's pulp-hero supreme)! Click here to read 'em all!

Ol' Groove's all-time favorite ish of Creepy! Read the best of this issue's best here, here, and here!

Marvel's greatest one-shot mag featuring early solo tales starring The Punisher and (Howard Chaykin's "reboot" of Scorpion) Dominic Fortune and the twin debuts of The Huntress (better known as Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird) and Weirdworld!

A special (or should I say Super Special) "issue" of Savage Sword of Conan in full color!

And finally, one of the best b&w comic mags of all time! The debut of Tigerman, Lawrence of Arabia...The Sting of Death...and Escape from Nine by 1!

Black and White Wednesday: "The Doorway!" by Goodwin and Adkins

Enter freely and of your own will, Groove-ophiles! Today we're looking back at the cover-story for Creepy #28 (June 1969)--said cover being provided by Vic Prezio, don'tcha know. "The Doorway!" is a cool mix of sci-fi, thriller, and horror ably written and illustrated by the mighty talents of Archie Goodwin and Dan Adkins (at his Wally Wood-ish best)! Enjoy, Children of the Night!

Black and White Wednesday: "Shadow of the Axe!" by Sim and Heath

After the birthday celebrations, Ol' Groove hates to have to rap about the passing of the inimitable Russ Heath, but sadly, I must. Mr. Heath passed away last Thursday, August 23. Besides co-creating the Haunted Tank for DC and having his art "swiped" by Roy Lichtenstein, Heath had a long career that began in the late 1940s and lasted until well into the 2000s. His detailed, realistic, nuanced art won him many, many awards and accolades--and it seemed that he could never produce enough art to please us fans. A search on Grand Comics Database shows he did way more than we ever gave him credit for (for most every comics publisher, as well as Playboy, Peter Pan Records, slews of non-U.S. publishers, advertising (remember that ad for 132 toy Roman soldiers? That was Russ Heath art!). Still and all, his prodigious talent will be missed. And yeah, it's seems a bit weird to be remembering an artist by posting a story about an axe murder, but it's so beautifully rendered--and written by a young, pre-Cerebus Dave Sim. It's from Creepy #79 (March 1976). Oh, and these are scans of the original art (from the indispensable Heritage Auctions site).  Check it out...

Black and White Wednesday: "Where Sorcery Lives!" by Goodwin and Ditko

Hey, hey, HEY, Groove-ophiles! Wanna see a creepy-cool story by two of comics' finest creators at the height of their powers? Then just flip open a copy of Warren's 1970 Creepy Yearbook! Yeah, it's a reprint mag featuring some of the best Creepy stories of the late 1960s, but it was published in 1970, so it's fair game here on the Diversions. And even if it wasn't, who'd gripe about viewing a masterpiece like Archie Goodwin and Steve Ditko's "Where Sorcery Lives"? (Reprinted from Creepy #14, February 1967)

Ya know, the cover to that magnificent mag...

 ...reminds Ol' Groove of an homage he's seen lately. Hmmm. What was it...? Oh, yeah, check this out:

The Creeps 2019 Spooktacular! Cool huh? Cooler still, at least for moi, is that I had the honor of having my story from The Creeps #8, "Clownin' Around" reprinted in it! (If that ain't enough to get your curiosity going, there are stories in there by Groovy Age/Warren Greats Nick Cuti and Don Glut, t'boot!) It's ON SALE NOW wherever finer magazines are sold, or check out this link to Warrant Publishing. Who says this isn't the Groovy Age of sneaky sales pitches?

Black and White Wednesday: "Something to Remember Me By!!" by Tom Sutton

HooooOOOw's it shakin', Groove-ophiles! Isn't it about time we grooved to the macabre comicbook mastery of  the great Tom Sutton once again? Ol' Groove thought so, too! So let's flip through the pages of Creepy #44 (December 1971) until we find Mr. Sutton's cadaverous contribution, "Something to Remember Me By!!"