Decent Comics: "Curse of the Werewolf" by Oleck and Rubeny

HooooOOOW's it shakin', Groove-ophiles! You know Ol' Groove loves werewolf stories, and today we've got a hair-raising howler (ouch and double ouch)! From House of Mystery #214 (Mar4ch 1973) here's "Curse of the Werewolf" by Jack Oleck and Rubeny (Ruben Yandoc)!

Random Reads: "Manslaughter" by Cary Bates and Rubeny

January 13, 1976. It was a cold, gray day. It was a Tuesday. I was off from school. Snow day. A trip to town and thirty cents got me a copy of House of Mystery #240. The cover story was a typical shocker with some nice E.R. Cruz art. Nothing out of the ordinary. Next comes "Manslaughter" by Cary Bates and Rubeny (Ruben Yandoc). I stop, stunned. Staring at me from the first page is Humphrey Bogart. That's right. Bogey. The copy called him "Mick Mason", but I knew who he really was. I started reading...

I'll say it before you say it, baby: "They should have called this one...'Frankencow'!" Here's lookin' at you, calf.

If You Blinked You Missed: Army at War

During the Silver Age, war anthologies were a mainstay of DC's line of comicbooks. During the Groovy Age, the serialized leads of those mags eventually took over completely. Our Army at War became Sgt. Rock; Star Spangled War Stories became The Unknown Soldier; The Haunted Tank ruled G.I. Combat's pages. During the Summer of 1978, the year of the DC Explosion, it was decided that DC needed a new war anthology; one that had no continuing features. It's hook would be that the stories would cover every war and the various aspects of them. Editor Paul Levitz was given a week to pull together the contents of Army at War #1 (July 1978), and a nice package he pulled together, indeed, with talents like Edelman, Michelenie, Rubeny, Ayers, Bingham, Redondo, and of course Joe Kubert. Check it out...

Cover by Joe Kubert

Sadly, the DC Explosion quickly became the infamous DC Implosion, with the powers-that-were at Warner (DC's owners, don'tcha know) pulling the plug on twenty (!) of DC's mags. Army at War was one of 'em. A shame, too. If Levitz could package a quality mag in a week, imagine what he might've done with a monthly or bi-montly schedule...

Ol' Groove's Request Line: Ruben Yandoc

What's happening, Groove-ophiles? The latest missive for the Request Line is in, and the call goes forth from Groove-ophile Gregory Whitfield for a sampling of sensational sketching Ruben Yandoc (aka Rubeny) style! Here's a far-out frightener from House of Mystery #255 (August 1977) written by the great Jack Oleck! You're gonna dig..."The Evil Half"!