Random Reads: "The Curse of the House of Mara" by Dorfman and Celardo

DC at Gold Key? Former Superman mainstay Leo Dorfman teamed with former DC romance/mystery penciler John Celardo for "The Curse of the House of Mara" in Ripley's Believe It Or Not #27 (June 1971)!

Random Reads: "Death Is My Dominion!" by Dorfman, Brown, and Anderson

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Ya know, Superboy didn't spend the Groovy Age truckin' it to the future to hang out with the Legion of Super-Heroes all the time. Sometimes he just hung around Smallville battling it out with his ex-pal Lex Luthor. You know, like in Leo Dorfman, Bob Brown, and Murphy Anderson's "Death Is My Dominion!" from Superboy #179 (September 1971). Dig it!

Cover art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson

Random Reads: "My Son...Is He Man or Beast?" by Dorfman, Swan, and Anderson

What it is, Groove-ophiles! To celebrate the 400th ish of Action Comics (March 1971), editor Murray Boltinoff gave us one of those bittersweet tales his tenure as Superman editor is so well known for. "My Son...Is He Man or Beast?" is a  tale filled with action (of course!) and pathos, solemnity and silliness, spooned out in equal doses by veteran writer Leo Dorfman. Perfect for kids like Young Groove, but the older guys, peeking over their copies of Incredible Hulk, scoffed at us for digging it. I didn't understand it at the time, but I soon would. Today, though, I long for the simple (and yes sometimes simplistic) tales of yore...and amazing art like that provided by true masters like Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

Cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano

Amazed by Aparo: "Death's Bridegroom!" by Browne and Aparo

What it is, Groove-ophiles! DC didn't have enough mystery/horror mags in the Summer of '71, so in July they released the first issue of Ghosts. The hook for Ghosts was in the tagline that revealed that the stories in this mag were "True tales of the weird and supernatural!" The aim of each story was to, not only make you quake and shiver, but believe in ghosts. Did it work? Well, no, not for me, but I did really dig many of the trembling tales presented in that mag. One of the best appeared in the very first ish. It was written by "Geoff Browne" (actually Superman specialist Leo Dorfman) and drawn in an especially moody and macabre fashion by the great Jim Aparo. His use of shadows, his ability to make his characters "act" (just check out the facial expressions and body language), and his uncanny, Hitchcock-like knack for knowing what to show and what not to show made Jim one of the best mystery artists ever. No wonder many consider him to be the definitive artist on men of mystery like Batman and Phantom Stranger!