Another Groovy Guest-Post by Jonathan "A" Gilbert! If You Blinked You Missed: Super Green Beret

Here 'tis, Groove-ophiles! Another swell essay by my pal Jazzy Jon "A" Gilbert! Dig it, baby!

Well, last time out I talked about the differences between The Groovy Agent and I. We also have similarities; one of them being we like really weird and obscure comics.

One of the obscure comics that both he and I like is SUPER GREEN BERET from the 1960s.

1967 if I am not mistaken; published by Lightning Comics and ran for two issues.

Lighting published two titles; SUPER GREEN BERET and FATMAN THE HUMAN FLYING SAUCER.

C.C. Beck had his hand in both titles and Lightning was going to launch Captain Shazam but the company went out of business.

Not sure how I can even begin to explain SUPER GREEN BERET (Actually it was officially titled TOD HOLTON, SUPER GREEN BERET).

Basically though Tod Holton was given a green beret by a relative who served in, well, The Green Berets. But it wasn't an ordinary green beret. It was a magic green beret. And when Tod wore it and saluted like a good American he became SUPER GREEN BERET and then used his powers to kick the butts of the commie rats in Vietnam (and to gain certain powers he had to salute of course).

It was pretty darn jingoistic to be honest with you looking back. The comics were 25 cents with I think 64 inside pages. Great Carl Pfuefer art, but the comic (Written by Otto Binder--Groove); well, it was definitely a period piece. Long before the Tet Offensive-which for the record despite what you might want to believe the American forces won-that resulted in things turning into mission creep.

Good comic. Good fun. And for a kid who knew nothing about what was going on at the time. And lots and lots of action.

The comic lasted for two issues. It came out during the Batmania craze when a whole bunch of other companies flooded the market, too.

I bought the comic when it came out and loved it and even bought a green beret at a military surplus store in London called Novacs and tried to gain super-powers by saluting. Guess what. Didn't work.

I am beginning to wonder if any of these things in comics work when it comes to gaining super-powers. Cosmic rays will kill me, getting bitten by a radioactive spider will cause a major itch. Gamma rays; well, I would be a dead man within a second. And striking a stick on the ground only results in a broken stick.

Still; when you are a kid and ya run into a comic about a kid who is your age and just salutes and has these amazing powers; well heck man. It was super cool.

And though it was darn jingoistic I still love those two issues. Fun stuff.

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Jonathan "A" Gilbert is a comics writer, editor, publisher and t-shirt designer. His blog can be found at www.dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenorth.blogspot.com .

A Groovy Guest-Post by Jonathan "A" Gilbert! Black and White Wednesday: Hell-Rider

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Today's Groovy Guest-Post has been a long time coming. I've known Jazzy Jon for well over two decades, and we always dig working together. When I started this blog nigh-unto two years ago, and then talked him into writing one of his own--E-Dispatches from the Great White North (as long as I would take care of the actual posting--the man is so far behind the times he has Wite-Out on his computer screen) we promised one another that we'd guest-post on one another's blogs from time to time. Well, I did my turn on his blog back in February. And today, at long last, he's guest-posting on the Diversions! Besides being one of my all-time bestest buds, the Jazzy One is also a fantastic comicbook writer and historian. Don't believe me (WHAT? Thou hast not been following E-D ftGWN? Shame 'pon thee!), just keep a'readin'!

Now as everyone knows The Groovy Agent and I are best of buds. Better than best. But there are differences. I for example am a child of the 60s and he a child of the 70s.

What's the difference? Well I grew up on The Beatles, Woodstock, Hard Days Night, the original run of the Batman TV series, The Green Hornet TV series, Hendrix, The Who, Janice Joplin, The Band, etc.

Now Groovy; he grew up on...let me see....disco, the song Kung Fu Fighting, Joe Simon's The Green Team, more disco, Saturday Night Fever. You get my drift.

But to be fair to the old Groove I did have my second childhood in 1978-80 when punk was king. Still; the differences are there.

Anyway; as a kid we were all into bikes. Not bicycles but motor bikes. Some of us even got bikes given to us when we were under age. One buddy of mine was given a Suzuki 80 when he was ten and we all used to take it for a spin. It was a gutless wonder looking back at it now but at the time it was one cool ridin' machine.

We were also into movies and TV featuring motor bikes as well as magazines, books and, of course comics.

And the coolest comic that featured motor bikes was "Hell-Rider" from Skywald Publications.

Now before anyone says anything yes; I know, it came out in the early 70s but the 60s hadn't really ended at that point so it qualifies. And disco wasn't around in full force either. Thank Zues for that.

Anyway; if you aren't familiar with Skywald you can find out more by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/skywald_publications . Read at your leisure. As for "Hell-Rider" itself; it was a black and white magazine style comic along the lines of what Warren used to publish but far more brutal than anything that ever came out of Warren.

Actually most of the black and white comics mags from Skywald were. As kids we could leave our Warren comics out knowing our moms and dads would not get to upset but the Skywalds; no way. We hid them under the bed and read them by flash light late at night.

"Hell-Rider" lasted for a grand total of only two issues and featured a "Hell-Rider" lead and a backup strip called Butterfly which was also pretty brutal. Lots of violence to say the least but we kids loved them. And despite what the so call experts said and say it didn't warp my mind or the minds of my friends.

Well, not that I know of anyway. Some people might disagree though.

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Jonathan "A" Gilbert is a comics writer, editor, t-shirt designer, publisher and writer of the blog www.dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenorth.blogspot.com .

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And here's a taste of what Jazzy Jon has been rappin' about, Groove-ophiles! From Hell-Rider #2, here's a re-cap of Hell-Rider's origin, followed by "Night of the Ripper!" by Gary Friedrich, Ross Andrew, and Mike Esposito.

Be sure to tune into DotGK this coming Monday, Groove-ophiles--'cause the Jazzy One'll be back with another Groovy Guest-Post...this one covering Super Green Beret! You'll never forgive yourself it ya miss it!