Diversions of the Groovy Kind

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Gil Kane: "Inside the Box"

noreply@blogger.com (The Groovy Agent) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:02:00 PST

In late 1971-early 1973, Marvel Comics experimented quite a bit with their cover format. They changed their trade dress, updated many logos, and placed the cover art inside a box to separate the illustration from the copy. I s'pose they were trying to look modern, maybe even magazine-like. "The Box" was quite a controversial feature, and eventually faded away. Ol' Groove thought it might be cool to take a look at how the man who would become Marvel's go-to cover artist, Gil Kane, handled "The Box", so I dug up a dozen of my all-time faves. Did "The Box" help or hamper Gil in his quest to create eye-grabbing cover-art? Let your opinions be known! Okay?

If You Blinked You Missed; Kong the Untamed

noreply@blogger.com (The Groovy Agent) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:02:00 PST

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! If you were a kid who was a fan of cavemen and dinosaurs in 1974, you were having a pretty good year. Saturday mornings were filled with 'em: Valley of the Dinosaurs (CBS); Korg, 70,000 B.C. (ABC); and of course Land of the Lost (NBC). I s'pose this came about due to the heavy influence of parent educator groups on the networks to make Saturday mornings more (blech) educational. The caveman/dinosaur shows looked educational enough to satisfy the establishment, but had enough action and sci-fi to hold the kids attention.

Comicbooks are always late to the party when picking up on trends, but they always get in the door. DC made a few attempts to cash in on this short-lived craze. They greenlit Warlord which would almost completely miss the party, but showed 'em all by hanging around for a decade after the party was over. They reprinted Joe Kubert's classic 1950s caveman strip Tor (with new covers and some new material by Kubert). You'd have thought they would have brought back Anthro, created by Howie Post in 1967, but they didn't. They created a brand new character, Kong the Untamed, who bore quite a bit of resemblance...to Anthro (both were aided in their creation by editor Joe Orlando, just so ya know). In today's market, Kong the Untamed would have been a "reboot of the Anthro franchise", but in those days--nope.

Although Kong sported the same basic story as Anthro (young Cro-Magnon destined to become his tribe's chief during the waning days of the Neanderthal) and a less cool and highly derivative name (King Kong? Konga? Korg, 70,000 B.C.? ), it was still kinda neat. The first two issues (March-May 1975) with their Bernie Wrightson covers, Jack Oleck stories, and Alfredo Alcala interior art were all kinds of far-out. With ish #3 (July 1975), Gerry Conway took over scripting and the cover was by Bill Draut, who's a fine artist, but no Bernie Wrightson. Conway took total control of the writing with #4 (September 1975) while Alcala associates Tony Caravana and Jo Igente provide the art, blending Alcala's style with a style similar to Nestor Redondo's. Surprisingly, Conway doesn't upset the ship, story-wise, but keeps things moving along at an even keel. Unsurprisingly, ish 5 begins to usher in the inevitable "change of direction" that signals a sales slump. The art style has already completely changed as artist David T. Wenzel makes his pro comicbook debut as penciler (he would soon become one of the top sci-fi/fantasy illustrators ever, natch). Wenzel does a nice job, the storytelling is very exciting, but the inks of cover artist Bill Draut lack the luster and organic feel of the previous issues under Alcala and friends. Kong the Untamed #5 (November 1975) also turned out to be the series' final issue. Oh, well, it was a nice run, and it did, at least, outlive Valley of the Dinosaurs and Korg 70,000 B.C. Small victories are better than none!

Here's the far-out first ish by Oleck and Alcala (complete with Wrightson cover and behind-the-scenes info from the letters page. Who loves ya, baby?)!

Black and White Wednesday: "First House: Earth!" by Englehart and Gan

noreply@blogger.com (The Groovy Agent) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:02:00 PST

Y'know, Groove-ophiles, sometimes yers trooly has to wonder where his head is. I've done several posts about Star-Lord and how much I loved that character/feature. I've posted a few of his later tales and about his greatest moment at the hands of Christ Claremont/John Byrne/Terry Austin, but I have yet to share his debut with ya! How nutso can ya get? Well, today is the day Ol' Groove makes up for that outrageous oversight!

Star-Lord, created by one of my all-time heroes, Steve Englehart (based on the name created by then-editor Marv Wolfman), was intended to be the headliner of his own b&w sci-fi mag. I know this 'cause it was mentioned in the Bullpen Bulletins at the time, and Star-Lord even showed up on the list of subscriptions in Marvel's ads during early 1975. Stan and the higher-ups decided to nix that idea (Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction was on its last legs, after all, and Star Wars still was a couple of years away), so the origin story, with art by Steve Gan (with assists by Bob McLeod), would eventually make its debut in their b&w try-out mag Marvel Preview #4 (October 1975). Now, I'm not gonna try to expound on how Stainless Steve created seemingly psychotic Peter Jason Quill and his star-spanning alter-ego; he does a fine job of that on his own in the mag's intro, so I'm including that with the story itself. I just wanna tell you that Englehart's Star-Lord changed the way Young Groove would look at comics from that point on. It shed light on what guys like Steranko and Eisner had been saying for a while: comics could be SO MUCH MORE than super-heroes. See for yourself...

Cover art by Gray Morrow