Merry Christmas 2019!

Season's Greetings, Groove-ophiles! As is our tradition in Groove City, we're sharing a favorite mag from the Groovy Age Yuletide Season, this time it's Freedom Fighters #1!

Back on December 9, 1975, DC unleashed Freedom Fighters #1 (Quality Comics heroes Uncle Sam, The Ray, Black Condor, Phantom Lady, Doll Man, and Human Bomb) on the spinner racks, and boy, was Young Groove ever glad! That snazzy Ernie Chan cover just begged to be bought, and the interiors by Ric Estrada and Mike Royer looked like fun (as was the story by Gerry Conway and Martin Pasko)! Len Wein and Dick Dillin had already introduced us to the super-team from Earth-X in Justice League of America issues 107-108 (June-August, 1973) and I really dug 'em, so finding this mag was quite a thrill! Ol' Groove hopes you get a kick out of it on this particular Christmas Day (or whatever day you might be reading it) four color memory!

The Story Behind the Story

And it wouldn't be a Christmas post without giving you a glimpse into Groove's Goodies for this year:

All the best to you and yours this Holiday Season! See you next year with the new, weekly Diversions of the Groovy Kind! Pax!

Happy 101st Anniversary of the Birth of Jack "King" Kirby!

There is a reason so many of us call Jack Kirby "the King of Comics." Here are a dozen covers that make the trumpets blare for Ol' Groove...

Thanks for the glorious memories, Jack!

Marvel-ous Monday: "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." by Kirby with Royer

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's another sci-fi shocker by Jack "King" Kirby (with inks and letters by Mike Royer, natch) from Marvel's continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ish #4 (January 1977) is a special fave, 'cause the first chunk of "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." is a comicbook fan's dream world. A world where super-heroes are real, and anyone can be one--IF they get to visit...Comicsville! (Hey, with our comicbook cons and cosplay, we're getting there!) After that, we get another of Kirby's patented looks into the future--and, as usual, he gets awfully close to nailing things that would come between 1977 and now. The King truly was a visionary.