Monday Miscellanea: Help a Fellow Groove-ophile Out, More Housecleaning, and Jack Kirby's Greatest Hits: Captain America Round Two

ITEM! Groove-dom is such a great place. We've got die-hard fans, casual readers, life-time fans, young whippersnappers, guys, gals, a few aliens, and quite a few comicbook pros populating the FOOG army. Ya know Ol' Groove loves, loves, loves ya! I also know that you're a great, giving bunch who would go the extra mile for a fellow Groove-ophile--and that's just what I'm about to ask ya to do! Loston Wallace, artist and co-creator of Image's Lorna: Relic Wrangler has come upon some hard times. His wife has been hit with breast cancer, so Mr. Wallace is wrangling up all the commission work he can to help offset the cost of the surgeries and treatments she'll have to undergo. Loston's not asking for hand-outs (though I'm sure he'd be tickled with any financial help he can get!), he's working hard to pay the bills, and I hope as many of you as possible will contact Loston with some commission bucks! Just so you can see for yourself how far-out his art is, here are a few samples of some commissions Loston's produced lately...

I know things are tight, but man, wouldn't it be cool to have some great art and help a man take care of his brave and beautiful wife at the same time? E-mail Loston or contact him through his Deviant Art page asap, Groove-ophiles! That's Loston Wallace at loston@lostonwallace.com or http://lostonwallace.deviantart.com/

ITEM! You might have noticed a bit of cyber-sprucing going on over in the sidebars. (And we finally have a Facebook page!) Well, Ol' Groove's straightenning up the place a bit, getting it ready for our THIRD ANNIVERSARY coming up this Wednesday. Why the housekeeping? Well, let's just say we're gonna have a bit of a new look around here. Hopefully it'll make Groove City more fun and functional. It's gonna be far-out and funky--and I sure hope you'll dig it! Just for a taste of what's to come, here's what the new header is gonna look like...

ITEM! Can't get enough Captain America? The flick was far-out (four and a half out of five spangled stars on the Groove-O-Meter), and Ol' Groove's dying to see it for--yes--a third time! To hold us over until the next viewing, here are some more of Jack Kirby's Greatest Captain America hits, from Captain America issues 100-109! Oh, yeah, the words are by Stan Lee! Wah-HOO!

Secret Origins: Captain America by Englehart, S. Buscema, and Colletta

Today's the big day, Groove-ophiles! It's make or break time! Captain America the First Avenger is hitting theaters, and it's either gonna be pure bliss--or sheer agony. There is no in-between. Nah, just kidding. (We already had the sheer agony back in 1990!). It's no secret that Cap is Ol' Groove's number-one fave Marvel super-hero, so of course I'm jazzed--and nervous. The previews look great, so my fingers are crossed.

To celebrate the big day, Ol' Groove's dug up another version of Cap's origin (remember this one from Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins?), this one from Captain America #176 (May 1974). It's the ish after the legendary Secret Empire finale, and Cap is re-thinking his life...which leads to his fateful decision to give up being Captain America. This version is extra-special 'cause it's by the Groovy Age Cap team-supreme, Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema (with Vinnie Colletta on inks), and if the flick can get this part right, then Ol' Groove'll be one happy dude!

And just 'cause we can, how 'bout a look at some far-out cover art that graced Cap's mag during the Groovy Age? Yeah, Ol' Groove knew you'd dig that!

One more thing, Groove-ophiles! If you can't get enough Captain America this weekend, be sure to truck on over to Mars Will Send No More, where, this past Sunday, Ol' Groove had the honor of being that far-out blog's very first guest-blogger! My post, natch, is about Cap, this time being Jack Kirby's 1975 return to writing and drawing the Star-Spangled Avenger! make sure to check it out, y'hear?

Byrne-ing to Read: "Soul Catcher" by Isabella and Byrne

Cover Art by Rich Buckler and Mike Esposito

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Two of Groove's fave things about the Groovy Age are Tigra and John Byrne art, and as luck would have it, the twain met twice during that halcyon era! The second time was in Marvel Team-Up #67 (December 1977--demand it and it might show up here sometime!). The first, though, was way back in Marvel Chillers #6 (May 1976), and that's the one we gonna rap about today!

Written by Tony Isabella (with the exception of a couple of issues), Tigra was another of Marvel's attempts to cash in both on the Feminist and supernatural crazes that had the 70s in such a headlock. Young Groove thought Isabella was doing a great job (along with artists Will Meugnoit and John Byrne), pitting Tigra against a group of old Captain Mar-Vell villains, the Rat Pack, and adding in some cool sci-fi and supernatural twists. Tony was taking a whole bunch of very disparate bits of Marvel mythology and combining them into something that could have been absolutely mind-blowing. To further spice things up, he'd just added (in time for this story!) Red Wolf to the mix (I still need to do a Red Wolf post!)--and when you get to the climax to learn who the big bad villain is--well, yeah, it's wild, baby! Shame of it is, this would be Tony's last ish, and the following ish would be the final ish of Marvel Chillers/Tigra--so things were hastily wrapped up by fill-in creators Jim Shooter and George Tuska. Did their ending bear any resemblance to what Tony had in mind? Guess we'll never know (unless Tony is kind enough to drop by and let us know--hint, hint!)

Byrne's art in this ish is pretty far-out. The awesome double-page splash, the multiple-action-sequence on page five, the action scenes. He really made Tigra look awesome, too--alternately sexy and savage. Great, great stuff. I've read that John liked the inks of Frank Springer over his pencils, and I'm sure he knows better than I, but I'd have preferred someone with a cleaner, slicker line to have inked this story. Sam Grainger would'a been cool!

Still, it's a magnificent mag, both storywise and artwise. It's got that wild, unfettered, "anything goes" feel that you either loved or hated from Marvel at that time. Me, I dug it the most!

Black and White Wednesday: "Bruce Lee" by Sands, Staton, DeZuniga, and the Tribe

Mike Nasser's (Michael Netzer's) awesome frontispiece.

It was 38 years ago today that the real master of kung fu, Bruce Lee died oh-so-mysteriously. His life,movies, philosophy, and fighting style became, not only the stuff of legend, but made the late actor a cult-hero--no, a full-fledged icon. Books, magazines, articles, and films too numerous to mention have been made about the life of the young man who made himself known to the world playing Kato on the short-lived but highly-influential Green Hornet TV show. Thanks to his movies (and yes, the tons of imitators), Lee had made the words "kung fu" not only household words, but a full-out craze. It was a rare instance, indeed, if Young Groove made the trek to the local newsstand without seeing some sort of Bruce Lee related magazine cover on the racks during the 1970s. But as far as Ol' Groove can tell, there was only one biographical comicbook based on the life and times of the founder of Jeet Kune Do during the Groovy Age, and that was in Marvel's Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #28 (August 1976).

It was only fitting that Marvel would create such a comic, since without Lee, DHoKF, one of Marvel's most successful b&w mags, would never have come into existence. They had done many articles about Lee, but never thought to create comicbook stories about him. That idea, according to John Warner, came from the fans. Outgoing editor Archie Goodwin got the ball rolling, planning the concept of doing a comicbook version of Bruce Lee's life, but it was under incoming editor Warner that the issue actually saw print. Marvel went outside their deep talent pool and tapped journalist Martin Sands to write the script, but the art fell to two well-known, but wildly different, artists: penciler Joe Staton and inker Tony DeZuniga (aided by The Tribe). Only during the Groovy Age did Marvel have the freedom and vision to produce a comic like..."Bruce Lee". Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!

Ken Barr's iconic cover.

Thank Gorn for the scans!