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!

Groovin' Back In the Summertime, 1972

The Summer of 1972! The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, Deliverance, The Biscuit Eater (it was out at the drive-in, don'tcha know), and Sounder came out. Of course, Young Groove only got to see a couple of those flicks at the time (can you guess which ones?).

The Olympics, as well as reruns of All In the Family, Mary Tyler-Moore, M*A*S*H*, and best of all, Sonny and Cher kept Young Groove glued to the boob tube.

And when I was drawing (well, actually tracing), playing games, or just chillin', the sounds of The Eagles, Alice Cooper, Dr. Hook, Neil Diamond, and even Sammy Davis Jr. came pouring out of my radio.

It was a magical time for  Young Groove with cousins staying over here and there, a fun vacation (long drives were a great excuse to read a pile of comics) to visit even more family, the ol' swimming pool in the back yard, trolling the grounds of more houses being built in our subdivision for spare lumber to use to build a clubhouse...but still, it's all about the comics, baby! Let's rap about a few faves...

The Avengers (aren't they always at the top of Ol' Groove's lists?). Roy Thomas' Avengers swan song pitting the Awesome Assemblers against the Sentinels wrapped up during that summer. The story was so cool, especially the romantic tension with Scarlet Witch, The Vision, and Hawkeye, Quicksilver stepping into the spotlight (ironically, to end his time in the Avengers), the flashbacks to the Thomas/Neal Adams X-Men era, and haaaave mercy, that gorgeous Rich Buckler/Joe Sinnott art! The summer ended with that new Englehart guy taking over the writing. He wound up being pretty good! (More on him below!)

Batman. Over at DC, the dream team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams were wrapping some things up in Batman, too. The final chapters of their massive and immortal Ra's al Ghul saga came out in the Summer of 1972, and man, did they ever make a mark on Young Groove (a lot of us Groove-ophiles, I'm sure)! O'Neil crafted a tale that would have made the producers of the James Bond movies jealous, and Adams' art, inked by Dick Giordano, was just the pinnacle of what The Batman should look like. Modern, slick, sophisticated--and yet, an eight year old like me could totally dig it!

Captain America. Remember "that Englehart guy" I mentioned up there in the Avengers paragraph. Of course I'm rappin' about Steve Englehart. He'd already won me over with the Beast feature in Amazing Adventures, but man, he took over Cap's mag and immediately made it the "must read" mag of the week! He started off with sending Cap on vacation, then, boom, out of left field we got another Cap giving the Falcon fits. This Cap, it turned out, was the "forgotten" Cap of the 1950s--and he was bonkers. Man, Sterling Steve gave us a cracking-good action/adventure story (its magnificence heightened by the equally action-packed art of the great Sal Buscema), but he also managed to give us history lessons in both Cap and real-world history, some social studies, and civics lessons all at the same time. It was the coolest school ever--and it happened in the summer!

Marvel Feature Presents the Astonishing Ant-Man: Issue #5, where writer Mike Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe pit our stuck-at-ant-size hero against the evil Egghead just blew Young Groove away. The battle with the hawk that started the comic off was downright scary to me back then. The introduction of Trish Starr (who'd become sort-of important in The Defenders a few years later) and Ant-Man's oh-so-Seventies outfit (white pants, boots, and a red turtleneck!) seemed so cool back then. And this series showed me that the best Herb Trimpe art was when he could ink it himself. I loved him on the Ant-Man strip even more than on Incredible Hulk. Weird personal aside: I'd been looking forward to the new Ant-Man series, but somehow I thought I'd missed MF #4 (the debut ish, natch). I found #5 and, as you can see, loved it. Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later, on the same spinner rack I'd found ish 5--I found ish #4! I was puzzled but very happy!



Those are just a few of the mostly Marvel-ous mags that took my twin dimes that simmering summer. Which ones turned you on? Some of these? These? Or perhaps, these? (Don'tcha just love Mike's Amazing World of Comics' Newsstand?)

Rap about 'em in the comments, okay?

Black and White Wednesday: "The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell" by O'Neil, Adams, and Englehart

HowOOOOO's it shakin', Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna take a look at somethin' creepy and kooky. No, not the Addams Family, Lester! Ol' Groove's rappin' about Stainless Steve Englehart's (who's 70th birthday was this past Saturday, by the by) first comicbook credit in Vampirella #10 (December 1970)! Unknown to editor Julie Schwartz at DC(well, Julie might've know, but it sounds cooler this way) , his titanic Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams were working together on a story for Warren's B&W Vampirella mag. "Wait, Groove," you say, "you started off talking about Steve Englehart!" I know, I know. We've mentioned here before that before breaking into comics as a writer (on strips like The Beast in Amazing Adventures, as well as a couple'a little-known mags like Captain America and Avengers), Mr. E. tried to get work as a comicbook artist. He managed to land the awesome assignment of assisting Neal Adams (a dream job, to be sure). According to Steve on his website (right'chere), he and Neal took turns laying out pages, penciling, and inking pages to the point where even he isn't sure who did what. In those days, assistants worked in anonymity, but Adams gave Englehart co-credit for this particular art job to help Steve "...start a career." How cool is that? And how cool is (are?)..."The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell!"

Yo, Rocky! That's why Mick was so cranky!

Decent Comics: "Command Performance!" by Englehart, Rogers, and Colletta

Happy Valentine's Day, Groove-ophiles! For this most romantic of days, Ol' Groove thought he'd lay the one Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers (inked by Vinnie Colletta) Mister Miracle we haven't rapped about yet upon ya. What does MM #21 (September 1977) have to do with Valentine's Day you query? Why, don'tcha know that Scott Free and Big Barda were one of the Great Romances of the Groovy Age? It's true! And what better way to say "I Love You" than to risk your life to bring your loving spouse out of some sort'a cosmic coma? That's what we've got in "Command Performance!"

Don'tcha just love love? (Many thanks to HaCsA*Imbie for the superior scans!)

Making a Splash: Mister Miracle Volume Two by Rogers and Golden

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's still in a Fourth World mood, so we're gonna plant our peepers on some sizzlin' splashes from the post-Kirby run of Mister Miracle, namely issues 19-25 (June 1977-May 1978). Issues 19-22 were written by Steve Englehart (he used his pen-name of John Harkness with his final ish, #22) with art by the a-freakin'-mazing Marshall Rogers (aided by a plethora of inkers). With ish #23, Steve Gerber came aboard as writer, joined by yet another a-freakin'-mazing penciler Michael Golden (inked, strangely enough, by Joe Giella, who was replaced by the much more suitable Russ Heath for the final two stories). While both Rogers and Golden's styles were miles away from The King's, they totally knocked their issues outta the park, baby! The proof lies below...

Our Pal Sal: "The Dreams of Death!" by Englehart, S. Buscema, and McLaughlin

What it is, Groove-ophiles! For about 40 issues, Our Pal Sal was the mainstay artist on the Defenders. Writers and inkers (great ones!) came and went, but Sal kept pushing that pencil to tell give us the adventures  of the world's greatest non-team. Sal is a huge part of why the Defenders was a must-read for yers trooly, along with a goodly portion of Marveldom Assembled. For ish number 6, Sal was joined by writer Steve Englehart, whose story kinda pointed the way toward the far-out types of tales that Steve Gerber would lay on us a couple'a years on down the road. The tone, the motives, personality, and plans of villain Cyrus Black, along with a plot that hinges on the existential angst (and madness) of our baddie is the type of thing we'd eventually get on an even wilder level from Gerber's versions of the Headmen and Nebulon. Oh, and this is a rare Hulk-less ish of the Defenders, leaving much of the spotlight to fall on The Silver Surfer. From March 1973, here's "The Dreams of Death!" inked by Frank McLaughlin...