The Grooviest Covers of All Time: June Bats, Round Three: Brave and the Bold

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's time for another round of June Bats--comicbook covers featuring The Caped Crusader that came out in the month of June during the Groovy Age. This time around we're planting our peepers on Batman in Brave and the Bold, and Ol' Groove bets you're gonna dig it the most! Covers by Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, and Jim Aparo? What's not to swoon over, right? One note before we dig in: you'll probably notice there aren't any B&B covers represented from 1972-1974. That's 'cause, for some wonky reason no doubt, in 1972, ish #103 was a month late. Seeing as how B&B was on a bi-monthly schedule, that scheduling change forced our fave Batman team-up mag into coming out in July instead of June during the summer. We'll let the scholars worry about that, though, and just enjoy Batman and friends rocking some incredible covers!

The Boys from Derby: "The Informer!" by Gill and PAM

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Cop and detective shows were big in the 1970s (as they still are), but for some reason, comics rarely tried their hands at the crime-drama genre. Yeah, the easy answer is, "They all flopped, Groove," but if they'd been given a chance, some of 'em might have caught on. Take Charlton's Vengeance Squad. Yeah, the real "star" of the mag was Nick Cuti and Joe Staton's brilliant back-up strip, Michael Mauser (which you can dig on if you'll take the time to look up those sensational strips in our index), but Vengeance Squad, especially beginning with ish #2 (June 1975), was a really cool strip in its own right. Why "beginning with ish #2"? 'Cause writer/creator Joe Gill was joined by the immensely talented and criminally underrated (ironic considering he was a cop moonlighting in comics) Pet Morisi aka PAM on the art. PAM's style was perfect for the strip. Ol' Groove sees a unique mix of Alex Toth and George Tuska in a slick newspaper strip style that really brought the cool to Eric Redd and his aides Candy Orr and Tulsa Coyle's adventures. Here's there story from that far-out second ish, "The Informer!"

Black and White Wednesday: "Death Is My Co-Star!" by Mantlo, Perez, and Abel

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #13 (May 1975) featured a solo-Sons of the Tiger outing for movie-star Tiger, Bob Diamond. Bill Mantlo's story focuses (I didn't do that on purpose) on Diamond's movie career with a gritty (sometimes gruesome), street-level mystery. Also of note are Jack Abel's inks over George Perez's pencils. Abel does some cool things with blacks and grays here. Oh, yeah, Lotus returns, too!

Decent Comics: "The Hangman Never Loses!" by Kanigher and Aparo

Howdy there, Groove-ophiles! Here we are with the grand finale of Outlaw from All-Star Western #5 (February 1971)! With "The Hangman Never Loses!" writer/series co-creator Robert Kanigher goes out with a bang (literally) as he's joined by artist Jim Aparo (whooo!) and cover artist Neal Adams (whooo-whooo)!