Happy 101st Anniversary of the Birth of Jack "King" Kirby!

There is a reason so many of us call Jack Kirby "the King of Comics." Here are a dozen covers that make the trumpets blare for Ol' Groove...

Thanks for the glorious memories, Jack!

Marvel-ous Monday: "The Sting of the Widow!" by Conway, Heck, and Everett

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's the finale of the Black Widow vs. the Astrologer saga from Amazing Adventures #7 (April 1971). The thing Ol' Groove remembers most about this comic is the Goliath (Clint Barton version, natch) cameo, and the fact that I had doubles of this ish, so I traded a copy for a copy of Avengers #88 (the comic that made me a Marvel Maniac, you bet!). Story by Gerry Conway, art by Don Heck and Bill Everett--beware..."The Sting of the Widow!"

Marvel-ous Monday: "Deadlock" by Gold, Colan, and Everett

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we're looking at a cool episode of Black Widow from Amazing Adventures #4 (October 1970). Not only does it have knock-out gorgeous art by the incredible penciler/inker team of Gene Colan and Bill Everett, but it's the only Black Widow script written by the trail-blazing Mimi Gold, who enjoyed a successful career as a writer, comicbook editor, colorist, and book editor in her amazing, adventurous career (which you can read about right here when you finish reading this action-packed mini-epic!)

Cover art by John Buscema and John Verpoorten

Marvel-ous Monday: "The Widow and the Militants!" by Friedrich, Colan, and Everett

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's the next part of Gary Friedrich's militant mini-epic starring the Black Widow, and now he's joined by the most exquisite art team of Gene Colan and Bill Everett. Colan's storytelling is superbly cinematic and Everett's inks are so slick and moody that you can still enjoy the story even though you can see the "twist" of "The Mob's" involvement in the unrest that's got our Young Militants taking action from a few city blocks away. Still, it's an involving and exciting story--what more can we ask for? (Cameos of J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker, you say? See page 2, baby!) Here's "The Widow and the Militants!" from Amazing Adventures #3 (August 1970)!

Cover art by John Buscema and John Verpoorten

Black and White Wednesday: "In the Beginning--" by Lee, Lieber, and Everett

Happy Birthday, Stan (The Man) Lee! 94 today? Wow! He's still going strong (I was able to snap a blurry shot of him at the Cincinnati Comics Expo back in the fall--blurry because a security dude was grabbing at my phone! I was half a football field away, dude! The closest I'll ever get to Stan, gimme a break! But, was he ever an autographing machine!)

Anyhow, my admiration for Stan Lee never wavers, his importance to comics in general and Marvel in particular can never be overstated, imho. Regardless of where you stand on the "Marvel Method" of writing, t'was Stan's personality, both on the comicbook page and off, that made the world stand up and take notice of Marvel. In April 1968, Stan gave his greatest co-creation (Spider-Man, natch) a shot at "the big time" by having him headline Marvel's first b&w, magazine-sized superhero mag, Spectacular Spider-Man #1. The idea was ahead of its time, but man, what a cool mag it was! In honor of Stan's birthday, let's look at an awesome re-telling of Web-Head's origin from that self-same mag, illustrated by The Man's brother, Larry Lieber, and a man who worked for Marvel before it was even Marvel, Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett! Face Front!

Excelsior!