Funny Stuff: John Costanza One-pagers

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! While John Costanza is best remembered as an ace comicbook letterer, he's also a dyn-o-mite cartoonist, to boot! He did tons of humor strips for Gold Key, lots of humor fillers for DC's war mags, and every once in a while he'd do a one-page filler in some other DC comics. In Aquaman #'s 49 and 51 (November 1969, February 1970), Costanza gave us Scuba-Man. Super-Goof appeared in Detective Comics #392 (August 1969), and in Teen Titans #27 (March 1970) and Tomahawk #140 (March 1972) his fillers sort of echoed the lead feature's setting (the moon for the Teen Titans issue and the great outdoors for Tomahawk). Rarely seen stuff here, Groove-ophiles! Hope ya dig it!

Black and White Wednesday: Ring-a-Ding Original Art

Happy birthday Jazzy John Romita! Where would we Groovy Age fans be without this phenomenal artist and his art direction at Marvel during the 1970s? Would Punisher, Wolverine, Luke Cage, the Savage Sub-Mariner, or Kingpin or so many other heroes and villains have looked as cool? Would the "Marvel House Style" been as glitzy and glamorous? Would Marvel's covers grabbed us nearly as much? Glad we don't have to find out, huh? Let's celebrate John Ring-a-Ding Romita's 88th birthday with a look back at some cool covers and sensational splashes that he created to take our dimes, nickels, and quarters! Thanks for all the great art and memories, O Jazzy One!

Pencils by Don Heck

Pencils by Ron Wilson

Decent Comics: "The Mirror Monster" by Conway and Redondo

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! A lot of folks think that "relevant" comics died out in 1971-72, but comicbooks have always had a social conscious, and that desire for righting social wrongs was alive and well in September 1975 when DC, Gerry Conway, and Nestor Redondo released "The Mirror Monster" in Swamp Thing #20...

Cover art by Ernie Chan

Marvel-ous Monday: "Deadlock" by Gold, Colan, and Everett

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we're looking at a cool episode of Black Widow from Amazing Adventures #4 (October 1970). Not only does it have knock-out gorgeous art by the incredible penciler/inker team of Gene Colan and Bill Everett, but it's the only Black Widow script written by the trail-blazing Mimi Gold, who enjoyed a successful career as a writer, comicbook editor, colorist, and book editor in her amazing, adventurous career (which you can read about right here when you finish reading this action-packed mini-epic!)

Cover art by John Buscema and John Verpoorten

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!