Random Reads: "Shopper Comes a Cropper" by Gladir, Lucey, and Stone

Merry Christmas, Groove-ophiles! Are you finished with your holiday shopping? Me neither! The closer it gets, the more...fun..it gets, right? Riiiiiight! Times like this, Ol' Groove can sure empathize with with our favorite teen, Archie Andrews! Check out how he handles the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping in this classic George Gladir/Harry Lucey/Chic Stone short from Archie #232 (November 1974), "Shopper Comes a Cropper"!

Still Going: Joe Staton

I first discovered Joe Staton's far-out pencil stylings when I nabbed the first issue of E-Man off the top of a stack of comics waiting to be put on the old spinner rack. His cartoony-yet-realistic pencils, coupled with a very slick inking style just grabbed me and never let go. Not only did Joe do magnificent work on E-Man, but his work found its way into tons of Charlton comics. He did some outstanding stories for titles like Haunted, Haunted Love, Ghostly Haunts, the Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, Teen Confessions, and many others. Let's face it, Joe Staton was Charlton's Jim Steranko/Neal Adams!

Before ya knew it, Joe was at Marvel, doing superb work inking Sal Buscema on the Avengers and then the Incredible Hulk. He also did art jobs for the black and white titles, like Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Then, suddenly, Joe was at DC back at the drawing board. He did magnificent work on a variety of titles, especially All-Star Comics (the Justice Society of America, baby!), Green Lantern (first in Adventure Comics, then on the main book), Plastic Man (in Adventure Comics), and Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Joe was also penciler and co-creator of such milestone stories as the Untold Origin of the Justice Society, the All-New Doom Patrol, and the daughter of the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman, the Huntress.

Joe continued right on out of the Groovy Age, working on everything from Superman to a revamped E-Man to American Flagg. In the 90s Joe was a regular artist on the Batman Adventures titles, among other things, and today he's working on such far-famed comic characters as Scooby Doo and Jughead. And through it all, he's managed to keep E-man going in some form or fashion.

Go, Joe!