The Grooviest Covers of All Time: 13 from Dell's Ghost Stories

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Dell Comics, family friendly, tasteful, and so self-regulated that they didn't even need the Comics Code Authority turned out a few suspenseful and supernatural mags during the Groovy Age. One of their best was the simply titled Ghost Stories (which had begun in 1962). Those painted covers Dell was know for were turned into macabre masterpieces by artists even the mighty Grand Comics Database can't name, but man, whomever did 'em knew how to give a kid the shivers! Later, standard pencil and ink covers had their turn on Ghost Stories, with spooky covers mainly by Frank Springer (but Jack Sparling turned in a good'un, too). Check out 13 of Ol' Groove's faves from Dell's Ghost Stories...

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: 13 More from the House of Secrets

Oh, yeah, Groove-ophiles! House of Secrets had some sensational covers during the Groovy Age! Artists like Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson (if you wanna see more of his HoS covers, click here), Mike Kaluta, Jack Sparling, Luis Dominguez, Ernie Chan, and Jim Starlin shocked, startled, and scared us out of our loose change--and we loved it! Here are 13 of Groove's favorite covers from HoS!

Black and White Wednesday: "A Trip In Time" by Skeates and Sparling

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! You can never get enough time travel stories, right? Especially when they're the creation of top talents like Steve Skeates and Jack Sparling. Here's "A Trip In Time" from Eerie #33 (March 1971)!

Black and White Wednesday: Thrilling Adventure Splashes by Simonson, Severin, Toth, Heath, Thorne, and more

Season's Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna look back at the superior artistry of Atlas/Seaboard's two (wish it'd been a few hundred) issue Thrilling Adventure Stories (November 1974/May 1975)! Ernie Colon! Jack Sparling! Leo Summers! Frank Thorne! Russ Heath! Walt Simonson! John Severin! Alex Toth! Dang, no wonder Ol' Groove still prizes those two magnificent mags so highly!

Oh, and if you find the "Thrilling Adventure Stories" link in the Stream of Comicbook Consciousness over in the sidebar, you can read most of these titanic tales--if you've the notion...

Sci-Friday: "Rico, Come Home!" by Jack Sparling

In the 1970s, ABC TV's Six-Million Dollar Man was hot, so natually, there'd have to be a spin-off. What we got was as good or perhaps even better than the original--the Bionic Woman. Lindsay Wagner played Jamie Sommers on TV, but it was Jack Sparling (and an as-yet unidentified author) who brought her to life in Charlton Comics' tie-in comic. Charlton's Bionic Woman mag ran five issues (July 1977-March 1978). Here's the lead story from the first ish, "Rico, Come Home!" Enjoy!

And just for fun, here's a rare Charlton editorial giving us the low-down on the TV-to-comic adaptation...