Happy Fourth of July!

To celebrate the Fourth of July, here's a great moment in Captain America History! From Captain America and the Falcon #183 (December 1974) by Steve Englehart, Frank Robbins, and Frank Giacoia, it's the end of Nomad and the return of the one, true Cap!

Making a Splash: Frank Robbins' Invaders

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! For our final post of 2016, why don't we plant our peepers on some spectacular splashes from one of Ol' Groove's fave Marvel mags: the Invaders! Roy Thomas' pet project that took us back to WW II and gave us the "real" adventures of Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch! And while artist Frank Robbins' may have not been everyone's cup o'java on mags like Captain America or Batman, his classic comic strip style was, in yerz trooleyz eyes, a perfect match for America's Greatest Heroes of WW II, especially when inked by Frank Springer. Robbins penciled most of the first 28 issues of Invaders (minus issues 5, 16, 22, and 24, but plus Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Invaders Annual #1), and some of these splashes are truly mind-blowing, baby!

 Yeah, this is the cover to G.S. Invaders #1, but it was originally drawn as the splash page to that mag. Writer/Editor Roy Thomas dug it so much, he got John Romita to ink it and had Robbins draw the flip-side of the cover image for the new splash!

Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! See you in 2017!

Making a Splash: Marvel Comics 40 Years Ago This Month

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! In March, 1975, Young Groove was about to move away from Loyall, Kentucky to Barbourville, Kentucky, which would be my home town to this very day. At the beginning of the month, I had no idea that I would never again get to visit my beloved Mack's super-store (and their duo of comicbook spinner racks), but by early April finding comics in Knox County had become a chore (t'would swiftly, and thankfully, change for the better). In other words, March, 1975 was the last time I would ever be able to go to one store and find all my comicbooks (and b&w mags and paperbacks) for at least a couple of years. The next couple of months would be a real struggle to track down my fave mags. Didn't know how good I had it when I was snatching these Marvel-ous mags from the racks...

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that Ol' Groove's only included Marvel's color, non-reprint mags this go-round (Avengers was even a reprint that month!). We'll look more at the b&w mags in a future Black and White Wednesday!