Making a Splash: Joe Staton's Super, Boy!

Happy birthday, Joe Staton! One of Groove City's absolute favorite artists is celebrating today, and we wanna help celebrate in our own small but far-out way! As most of you know, Joe's snazzy art has graced the pages of tons of comics from most every publisher. He's especially revered for his co-creations E-Man, Mike Mauser, and the Huntress, as well as his art on comics featuring the Avengers, the Hulk, the Justice Society, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes, and so many more (right up to the Dick Tracy strip and E-Man revival--in Charlton Arrow-- going on right now)! Did ya know that Joe drew several Superboy solo-stories during the Groovy Age? No jive! Joe drew several issues of the Superboy strip in Adventure Comics (in 1977/78 between the Aquaman and Dollar Comics eras, issues 456-458), and stayed on when the Boy of Steel moved to the front of Superman Family (issues 191-194 and 196 in 1978/79). Would you like to see the smashing splashes from those super stories? Well, then, here ya go!

Thanks, Joe!

Groovy Posts of Christmas Past: "The Stranger" by Kupperberg, Rogers, and Springer

Happy Holidays, Groove-ophiles! As Ol' Groove mentioned yesterday, for the rest of the week we're gonna be showcasing Posts of Christmas Past--in other words, re-runs or reprints of some of Ol' Groove's fave posts from Decembers other than this one. ;D Hope you enjoy 'em!

The first one of from December 14, 2009...

Welcome to the first day of this year's 12 Days of Christmas, Groove-ophiles! From now through December 25, Ol' Groove is gonna share a dozen comicbook memories. Splash pages, covers, comics, stories, toys, and even a surprise or two. I wanna kick things off with one of my favorite Fabulous World of Krypton fables. From the pages of Superman Family # 182 (December 1976),"The Stranger" by writer Paul Kupperberg and artists Marshall Rogers and Frank Springer is a story that warms the heart and captures the spirit of the Season. Grab a cup of cocoa and enjoy!

Team-up Week! Thursday Team-ups: "The Gravity War!" by Conway, Edelman, Jones, and Tanghal

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Another day, another day of Team-up Week! Today we're wrapping up the Supergirl/Doom Patrol team-up from Superman Family! "The Gravity War!" plotted by Gerry Conway, scripted by Scott Edelman, and illustrated by Arvell Jones and Romeo Tanghal appeared in Superman Family #193 (October 1978)...

Thursday Team-ups: "What Goes Up...Can't Come Down" by Conway, Jones, and Tanghal

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! It's part two of our Supergirl/Doom Patrol team-up (though this part doesn't feature much DP) by Gerry Conway, Arvell Jones, and Romeo Tanghal! "What Goes Up...Can't Come Down" first appeared in Superman Family #192 (August 1978).

Part three next week. Miss it not!

Thursday Team-Ups: "A Matter of Gravity" by Conway, Jones, and Tanghal

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! When the All-New Doom Patrol finished their three-part Showcase intro (issues 94-96, check 'em out here, here, and here) who'd'a thunk their next appearance would involve them teaming up with Supergirl! S'truth! At the beginning of the DC Explosion, June 1978, the All-New DP teamed with the Maid of Might in her berth in Superman Family (ish #191, to be exact). Now, this ten-pager by Gerry Conway, Arvell Jones, and Romeo Tanghal was, Ol' Groove strongly suspects, was to have been part of a 34 page ish of Super-Team Family, based on the fact that the story runs 32 pages all totaled through ish 193 and the writer/art team was the regular writer/art team on STF. STF was cancelled when DC went to it's all-fourty-four pages for fifty cent line, so a little creative editing made for a pretty smooth transition from STF to SMF. Only hadda change one letter! (I kill me sometimes!)

Fun fact for moi: Teen Groove bought this ish of Superman Family off the spinner rack the very same Friday evening he went with the fam to see Grease on the big screen! Sandy!

Random Reads: "A Rendezvous with Reality" by Harris, Weiss, and Rubinstein

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-philes! Here's a superbly illustrated Supergirl saga to kick off our week. The art team of Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein gave us a slick, hip-looking Supergirl to keep up with the disco-era Superman Family #186 (August 1977) was a part of. Writer Jack C. Harris was doing his darnedest to give us a Supergirl sci-fi epic (which included both her foster and real parents, a trio of Silver Age super-villains, and a mysterious and evil group called the Visitors), but was never allowed a regular art-team to give his epic the continuity it needed. To make matters worse, instead of a "now" art team like Weiss and Rubinstein, Harris was usually saddled with solid-but-unspectacular workhorses like Jack Abel, Don Heck, and Jose Delbo. With "A Rendezvous with Reality" Harris crams a lot of story into a mere 12 pages and is lookeeng goo-hood thanks to the Weiss/Rubinstein duo. Dig it!