Black and White Wednesday: "The Krylorian Conspiracy" by Moench, Simonson, and Alcala

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Back in 1976, Marvel had cut its b&w line almost to the bone. Savage Sword of Conan, Crazy, and Marvel Preview were still going strong, but Doc Savage and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu were each a heartbeat away from cancellation. The horror mags were gone, baby, gone. Marvel needed something to shake things up, to get their b&w mags more attention. Someone had the genius (really!) idea of doing a b&w Hulk mag. After all, Ol' Greenskin had started off as Ol' Grayskin, so t'was a natural fit. How to do it, though, and keep it different from the Incredible color version? Why, set the b&w tales between the events of the final ish of The Hulk's original mag and his strip in Tales to Astonish that started in ish #60. That left a gap (not counting Ol' Greenskin's guest appearances) of about a year and a half that could be used to tell "untold tales". The creative team of Doug Moench (writer), Walt Simonson (layouts), and Alfredo Alcala (finishes/inks) was chosen, and it was off to wild and wacky adventures involving aliens, Rick Jones, The X-Men, Sub-Mariner, and even The Avengers. T'was a fun and cool series with incredible art, but after nine issues, Rampaging Hulk was re-vamped as The Hulk!, in color with stories that would appeal (Marvel hoped) to fans of The Hulk's then-new TV show. Oh, and Bereet and the Krylorians were totally retconned in the 80s, so the b&w stories are no longer cannon. They were still good! Here's the first one..."The Krylorian Conspiracy!"

Cover art by Ken Barr

Groove's Faves: "It's a Monster!" by Moench, Colan, and Wiacek

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Teen Groove (and a lot of other Groove-ophiles, no doubt) really, really dug The Hulk! color mag. Not only was the MarvelColor technique totally far-out (pointing toward today's computer coloring and heavier paper stock), but writer Doug Moench's stories took on the tone of the even more popular Hulk TV show of the day, with it's down-to-earth morality tales. The coolest part was that while The Hulk! had the realistic feel of the show, it featured the real Hulk who could smash stuff like no TV budget would ever allow! So in The Hulk #19 (December 1979), Moench gives us a cool, thoughtful story enhanced by the power-packed art of Gene Colan and Bob Wiacek! John Tartaglione's colors add greatly to the realistic feel. But that's my opinion about "It's a Monster!", your opinions may vary. 'Cause like the story poignantly points out, what we think about something is all based on our own individual perspectives...

Face Front(ispieces)! Hulking Out in Marvel Super-Color

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's not easy being green, but it's certainly easy to find superbly stunning art featuring Marvel's Green Goliath! When the black and white Rampaging Hulk mag morphed into the Marvel Super-Color The Hulk! mag, the frankly fabulouso and far-out frontispieces kept on truckin', baby! To prove Ol' Groove ain't jivin', dig these dy-no-mite drawings of old Jade Jaws by Walt Simonson, John Romita Jr., Mike Zeck, Rudy Nebres, Steve Bissette, Gene Colan, Ernie Chan, Rich Buckler, and Brent Anderson!