Black and White Wednesday: "The Deadliest Enemy of Gotham City!" by O'Neil and Robbins

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove doesn't know how he missed this gem when it hit the Interwebs back in 2016, but here ya go! While scrounging for some cool original art to share in future posts, yers trooly ran across some original Frank Robbins Batman art--from an unpublished story! Lucky Paul Handler actually owns the original pages to the whole story and was kind enough to share the pages on his Comicartfans page...which you can check out here. (I hope you're okay with my posting those pages here, Paul--hopefully we'll drives some traffic to your pages.) According to Paul, "The Deadliest Enemy of Gotham City!" (written by Denny O'Neil) was to have been part of a special anti-drug book DC was putting together with an unnamed agency back in 1974. The plan fell through, and the book, as far as we know, was never completed, but the Robbins Batman pages were. Check it out!

Making a Splash: Ghost Rider--the First 13

What it is, Groove-ophiles! How about a look back at the stunning splashes from the first thirteen issues of The Most Supernatural Hero of All? Ghost Rider issues 1-13 featured art by gifted graphite gurus like Tom Sutton, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins, and George Tuska (plus a reprinted splash by co-creator Mike Ploog) inked by an army of adroit ink artists! Check 'em out!

Oh, yeah, Groove-ophiles--if you're in the mood for more Ghost Rider splashes, you can see the fab first pages from each of GR's appearances in Marvel Spotlight (issues 5-11) right here!

Making a Splash: Kane and Anderson's Batgirl

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Way back in 1969/1970 (Li'l Groove's first grade year! Just tossin' that in there...) Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson provided the art for Batgirl and Robin's solo back-ups in Detective Comics. Capes, fists, and feet were a'flyin' from issues 384-397, with each young caped crusader alternating in two-part tales (thanks in no small part to the smashing scripts by Mike Friedrich and Frank Robbins). Today we're gonna focus on the Batgirl splashes: 384, 385, 388, 389, 392, 393, 396, and 397. We'll get to the Robin ones in the near future, and after 397, Kane stayed on for a little while longer with a few different inkers. Again, we'll get to those, too. But for now...it's Kane and Anderson unleashed on the Dominoed Daredoll!

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!