Black and White Wednesday: Original Howard Chaykin Art

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! It's been way to long since we last planted our peepers on some of Howard Chaykin's awesome artistry, so let's make up for lost time with a few samples of some of his far-out original art (which Ol' Groove has pinched from several sensational sites from around the 'Net)?

Inks by Bernie Wrightson

Inks by Tom Palmer

Yeah, Ol' Groove knew you'd dig it!

Marvel Premiere-ing Through the Groovy Age: Why Marvel Premiere Rocked

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna trip through the Groovy Age once more, this time with one of Ol' Groove's fave Marvel mags...Marvel Premiere! MP ran throughout most of the Groovy Age, debuting in January 1972 and lasting until May 1981. That's sixty-one issues in all, a long and successful run considering the high-end life-span of a comic born in the Groovy Age was maybe (maybe) two dozen issues. MP hung on for nearly a decade and probably would have lasted even longer if not for the late-Groovy Age innovation we lovingly call the mini-series. 

The first two issues of Premiere featured Adam Warlock. Now, right off the bat, Marvel is ignoring their own title, since Warlock isn't technically a premiere but a re-vamp of an old Lee/Kirby character called "Him" (thus you'd think he'd have appeared in MP's sister mag, Marvel Spotlight. But no, Marvel was busy turning out brand new heroes like Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, and Son of Satan over there. Go figure...). Young Groove didn't care, though. This was Roy Thomas and Gil Kane at their most marvel-ous, taking Stan and Jack's artificial man, hooking him up with the maddest scientist of 'em all, the High Evolutionary, and sending him on a path not totally unlike that of a certain Man from Galilee.

Warlock quickly graduated to his own mag, which made room for Dr. Strange to make his series comeback in ish #3 (April 1972). Doc's series started out under the very cool but highly unlikely team of Stan Lee and Barry (pre-Windsor-) Smith, bounced through a variety of creative teams (guys like Archie Goodwin, Gardner Fox, Mike Ploog, and Jim Starlin) before settling on Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner, who would bring Doc such heat that he'd graduate to his own mag (again!) after ish #14 (December 1973).

Two "premieres", two successful spin-offs. Was the third time to be the charm? Well, when you consider issue 15 (February 1974) featured an actual, honest-to-Irving debut of a brand new character...a fella known as Iron Fist, I'd say, yeah, third time was the charm. Created by the Warlock team of Roy Thomas and Gil Kane as a combination homage to Bill Everett's Golden Age hero, Amazing Man/jump on the kung-fu craze bandwagon, the saga of Danny Rand proved quite popular. Though his popularity waned a bit as he passed through a variety of creative hands (Len Wein, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Larry Hama, and Arvell Jones to name a few), magic happened when two young mavericks by the names of Chris Claremont and John Byrne teamed up to produce Marvel Premiere #25 (July 1975). They clicked with each other and with fandom, carrying Iron Fist to his own mag which ran 15 issues, then combined with Power Man for a run that would last far into the 1980s under a variety of creative teams. Claremont and Byrne? They moved on to some comicbook about a bunch'a mutants...

After that, Marvel Premiere spent most of the rest of its run as the Showcase-style mag it was originally intended to be. There was some good stuff mixed among the clinkers, clunkers, and catastrophes. For every Hercules and Torpedo we got a Woodgod, Monark Starstalker,  Ant-Man, or Alice Cooper. Remember any of these?

The Groovy Age of Marvel Premiere ended with a bang (Caleb Hammer) and a whimper (Wonder Man)...

...then segued into the 1980s with Dominic Fortune, a short run of Dr. Who reprints, and finally, Star-Lord. And yeah, NONE of those were actual debuts, either.

Groove's Countdown: The Top 5 Marvel/DC Should-Have-Beens of the Groovy Age

Let's kick off our fourth year with something new, Groove-ophiles! We all love countdowns, don't we? Ol' Groove has loved 'em ever since he discovered Casey Kasem counting down the pop-rock hits on his weekly Top 40 radio show. Now, I ain't planning to count down 40 of anything (yet), but for today, I do plan a top five countdown of Marvel and DC characters who should have gone on to be long-running superstars instead of one-shot duds.

So welcome to this week's countdown, Groove-ophiles as we count down...The Top Five Marvel/DC Should-Have-Beens of the Groovy Age!

5. Seeker 3000 made its one and only Groovy Age appearance in Marvel Premiere #41 (January 1978). Created by writer Doug Moench with art by Tom Sutton (do I remember reading cover artist Dave Cockrum designed the costumes and ship?) as Marvel's answer to Star Trek, this "hard" sci-fi strip could have been a contender. A multi-cultural cast of astronauts who are "...forced to depart a doomed earth and find new salvation for humankind in the stars" sounds kinda like Star Trek on steroids, but with Moench at the writing helm, I'm betting this series could have been an excellent vehicle for him to tackle the humanistic issues and adult characterization he was famous for on Master of Kung Fu. The concept was revived in a mini-series a few years ago, but it, too, was doomed to oblivion.

4. Starman was a "grand old name" at DC even back in 1975, so it was a no-brainer for creators Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg to infuse new life in it. And with cosmic comics like Captain Marvel, Warlock, and Guardians of the Galaxy doing fairly well at Marvel, it was high-time DC got into the space-born super-hero game. Blue-skinned Mikaal Tomas had a unique look, a cool weapon (the pendent always reminded me of Prince Planet), and an intriguing back-story. The one-and-only Starman saga in 1st Issue Special #12 (December 1976) ended with a cliff-hanger and had Young Groove hankerin' for more--but alas, t'was not to be. It's a shame, because it seemed like Conway was using the Captain Marvel template (alien from warrior world trying to save earth from annihilation) and mixing in the down-and-dirty street vibe of Omega the Unknown to create something that could have been special. The character was tweaked and revived in the 90s Starman mag.

3. Woodgod from Marvel Premiere #31 (May 1976) is one of the wildest concepts to have come out of the 1970s (or any decade for that matter). A Frankenstein-style creature who looked like a mythical being but created in a sci-fi setting was enough to garner interest, but add in the child-like (okay, Hulk-like) temperament and power? Woodgod could have taken the misunderstood-monster-on-the-run schtick  into places the more conventional Jade Jaws could never have gone. Heck, most of us FOOMers would have bought a Woodgod mag for the Keith Giffen/Klaus Janson art alone, with creator/writer Bill Mantlo's mondo-freaky concepts being the icing on the cake. Mantlo would revive Woodgod in the pages of (where else?) Incredible Hulk in the early 1980s, but by then he had a very different vision for the character.

2. Atlas the Great was one of the last koncepts kreated by Jack "King" Kirby for his tenure at DC. Appearing in the first issue of 1st Issue Special (yeah, only in the Groovy Age, baby!), Atlas combined a lot of Kirby's Fourth World ideas with his future worlds of Kamandi and Omac and added a dose of (can you believe it?) Conan the Barbarian. Atlas could have been a truly mind-blowing series but for a few factors stacked with the weight of a dozen elephants against it: 

• It was Kirby getting yet another of his gazillion creations out of his system.
• Kirby was playing out the string on his soon-to-end DC contract, so his energies were being stored up for his move to Marvel.
• Though the inherent concepts were pretty far-out, they seemed kinda watered down compared to the Fourth World stuff we'd been accustomed to.
• DC didn't seem to have any real interest in it. 

Can you imagine, though, what David Michelenie and an artist like Keith Giffen (him again?) or Marshall Rogers could have done with Atlas? DC did finally revive Atlas the Great a few scant years ago--with the obligatory concept-tweaking--as a villain for Superman. Yeah, Superman. 

1. Monark Starstalker should have become a superstar just based on the name alone. Created by Howard Chaykin for Marvel Premiere #32 (June 1976), Monark Starstalker was the bridge built from Chaykin's Iron Wolf  for DC and his  "ground-level" hero (for Star*Reach, natch) Cody Starbuck that lead to his most successful creation, American Flagg. With each character, Chaykin was slowly jettisoning any fantasy elements, bringing his vision of the future a more traditional sci-fi edge. He was also toning things down a bit, conceptually, from galaxy-spanning to planet hopping. He kept the things that made his stories edgy--especially the politics and the sexiness--and grounded MS with touches of the Old West and the hedonistic society he saw in our world's future. Monark himself was a bit of a departure from Chaykin's other heroes in his ethnicity and maturity, being the most businesslike and serious of Chaykin's usually devil-may-care heroes. So with all of Chaykin's talent and careful planning behind crafting Monark Starstalker and his world, why did he and Marvel so quickly abandon such an original and potentially successful hero? Ol' Groove believes it might have had something to do with a dude named George Lucas wanting Chaykin to draw the adaptation of his upcoming flick... 

Marvel finally brought Monark Starstalker back recently in an issue of Nova, but Chaykin wasn't involved in it. Maybe now that Chaykin is at Marvel MS could get another chance? Hmmmm...

 That's Ol' Groove's Top 5, Groove-ophiles! Agree? Disagree? Who would you put in your Top 5?

If You Blinked You Missed...Howard Chaykin's Monark Starstalker!

Howard Chaykin is one of the greatest comicbook artists ever (just ask him!). If that's not enough, he happens to be one of the best comicbook writers ever, as well. Since breaking into the biz in the early days of the Groovy Age, Chaykin has kept fandom abuzz with his hard-fisted, hard-headed, he-man heroes like Iron Wolf, the Scorpion, Dominic Fortune, Gideon Faust, Cody Starbuck, (I'll get to all of those, Groove-ophiles, never fear!) Ruben Flagg, the Shadow, Blackhawk, and many more. He's has also been nominated for many awards (mostly for American Flagg), including Eagle (for which he's won several), the Hugo, and the Nebula. He has also been successful in television, writing and/or producing such shows as the Flash, Mutant X, Earth: the Final Conflict, and Viper. Recently he's found his way back to the drawing board, working for Marvel (Squadron Supreme 2; War Is Hell: Flight of the Phantom Eagle; Punisher War Journal) and DC (Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage).

One of Chaykin's most intriguing and original creations appeared in a single issue of Marvel Premiere #32 (June, 1976). Monark Starstalker was a pulpishly magnificent mix of science fiction, westerns, high adventure, and noir that should've been a huge hit. Unfortunately, soon after creating Starstalker, Chaykin got roped into doing a comic based on some piddly little sci-fi movie...Space Wars? No...Star Wars, that's it. For some reason, that became one of the best-selling titles in Marvel's history--seems like the movie did pretty well, too--so everyone kinda forgot about Starstalker and his awesome robotic falcon-shaped telepathic nervous system, Ulysses. Them's the breaks. But I think Starstalker could clean Skywalker's clock!

If you have any doubt that Monark Starstalker had potential to make a big splash in comics, check out the letters page from Marvel Premier #34...Ol' Groove'd sure dig some new Monark Starstalker sagas! Wouldn't you?