Black and White Wednesday: FOOM Magazine #9 Cosmic Stuff by Stern, Vohland, Starlin, Byrne, and more

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Here's the best ish of FOOM Magazine Young Groove never had: the special cosmic issue: FOOM #9 (late 1974/early 1975)! Yeah, Young Groove's subscription for FOOM ran out with ish #4 and the family was moving from Ohio to Kentucky, so the folks nixed my re-upping for a while. After the move, I met a fellow sixth-grader named David who loved comics as much as I did. He had a subscription for FOOM and let me borrow his copies. Wotta pal! FOOM #9 started off with an in-freakin'-credible Jim Starlin cover and was loaded with articles on Silver Surfer, Warlock, Captain Mar-Vell, and the Watcher by a young Roger Stern and the late Duffy Vohland, and filled-to-the-brim with outtasite art by newcomers like John Byrne, Don Maitz, and Stephen Fabian. Is it any wonder I loved this ish?

And just 'cause Ol' Groove loves ya, baby, here's the legendary Mistress of Kung Fu back cover, also by that kid Byrne!

Oh, and fear not, faithful ones! Ol' Groove eventually got his own copy of FOOM #9 (thanks, eBay!). Oh, and my folks let me re-subscribe just in time to get FOOM #10 featuring the All-New, All-Different X-Men. Don'tcha just love happy endings?

Black and White Wednesday: "The Casket of Hsien Hang!" by Skrenes and Gulacy

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today's classic, "The Casket of Hsien Hang!" from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #5 (August 1974) would have been just as at home in Savage Tales or Savage Sword of Conan as it was in DHOKF. It's a tale of high-adventure and horror written by the highly talented Mary Skrenes (co-creator/co-writer of Omega the Unknown, among other Groovy Age works) with fabamundo art by Paul Gulacy (inked by Duffy Vohland, graduate of FOOM). This ain't your run-of-the-mill martial arts bash-'em-up, baby. Check it out!

Black and White Wednesday: Tony Isabella's Monster(ous) Essays

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Groove-ophile Mike Mikulovsky has suggested that Ol' Groove share the eerily educational frontispieces from Monsters Unleashed #'s 6-10. These fillers were written by sometimes editor Tony Isabella and sported art by Ernie Chan (then Chua), with the last couple being illustrated by Arvell Jones/Duffy Vohland and Pablo Marcos. Tony did a great job of cramming lots of info into such a short space, and the art was extremely good. I think Mike's right--you're gonna dig these!

Black and White Wednesday: Moench, Gulacy, and Vohland Go "Bats"

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's a silent shocker from Vampire Tales #7 (August 1974). It's the Master of Kung Fu team-supreme Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy (with inspired inks by Duffy Vohland) showing their fangs, baby! Dig it!

Famous First Fridays: John Byrne's Nightmare "Castle" and more!

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Being that I'm a charter Byrne-victim, I've waxed eloquent on John Byrne many times here on DOtGK, so I figured it was high time we took a look back at his first professionally published work. As with many of the greats, Byrne started off humbly paying his dues in the fanzines (like Amazing Science Fantasy--that one's from 1973, by the by) before finding paying gigs with minor publishers and then being "discovered" by the Big Boys. I've scoured his website (Byrne Robotics) so I could get this right, and if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me, but according to Byrne, his first pro job was an 8 pager that sat in a drawer for many moons before seeing print (heavily inked by Rudy Nebres) in Giant-Size Dracula #5 (March 1975). His first pro work to be published was the debut of Rog-2000, "That Was No Lady", which appeared in E-Man #6 (October 1974). However, I've done a little digging, and there's a two page strip in Skywald's black and white Nightmare #20 (cover-dated August 1974) illustrated by...John Byrne and Duffy Vohland. Well, Ol' Groove's still searching high and low for that G-S Dracula ish, but I dooby-dooby-doo have scans of the Nightmare and Rog comics, so without further ado, here's "The Castle" from the aforementioned Nightmare #20 aaaaand "That Was No Lady" (scripted by Nick Cuti) from the also-already-mentioned E-Man #6. How's that for service with a smile? Enjoy!


By the way, if you've never done so, stop by the Byrne Robotics Gallery and check out all the far-out art posted there. It's a museum of magnificence, baby!

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