Black and White Wednesday: "Shadow of the Axe!" by Sim and Heath

After the birthday celebrations, Ol' Groove hates to have to rap about the passing of the inimitable Russ Heath, but sadly, I must. Mr. Heath passed away last Thursday, August 23. Besides co-creating the Haunted Tank for DC and having his art "swiped" by Roy Lichtenstein, Heath had a long career that began in the late 1940s and lasted until well into the 2000s. His detailed, realistic, nuanced art won him many, many awards and accolades--and it seemed that he could never produce enough art to please us fans. A search on Grand Comics Database shows he did way more than we ever gave him credit for (for most every comics publisher, as well as Playboy, Peter Pan Records, slews of non-U.S. publishers, advertising (remember that ad for 132 toy Roman soldiers? That was Russ Heath art!). Still and all, his prodigious talent will be missed. And yeah, it's seems a bit weird to be remembering an artist by posting a story about an axe murder, but it's so beautifully rendered--and written by a young, pre-Cerebus Dave Sim. It's from Creepy #79 (March 1976). Oh, and these are scans of the original art (from the indispensable Heritage Auctions site).  Check it out...

Black and White Wednesday: "Requiem for a Haunted Man" by Conway, Heath, and the Crusty Bunkers

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! We haven't dug a Ka-Zar adventure from Savage Tales for waaaaay too long, so let's do it now! Here's a good'un from Savage Tales #10 (March 1975) called "Requiem for a Haunted Man!" Story by Gerry Conway with art by the incomparable Russ Heath and The Crusty Bunkers (including, natch, Neal Adams)! All this and a Boris Vallejo cover, too!

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...

Christmas All Week 2015! "The Cosmic Quest for the Disc of Mars!" by Harris, Delbo, Heath, Ditko, Ayers, and Colletta

Merry Christmas Eve, Groove-ophiles! While you're waiting for Santa to sneak down your chimney (if ya have one--how does he get in for those of us without chimneys?), has Ol' Groove got a massive (I'm talkin' 'bout 64 ho-ho-honkin' pages plus a cover, baby) post for your dazzling day-before-Christmas! Y'see, back in Christmas 1977, DC gave Wonder Woman fans a most superior Christmas gift in the form of DC Special Series #9, aka Wonder Woman Spectacular 1978! With Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman TV series still on the air (the series had moved from WW II and ABC to 1977 and CBS in the Fall of 77, so WW Fever was still running wild (should I have saved that phrase for the Incredible Hulk?), therefore the powers-that-were saw fit to fan those flames of --er--fandom! So here we have a comic that came out in 1977, dated for 1978, set in the 1940s (and Earth-2, natch)...whew! It's a time warp, baby! Anyhoo, Wonder Woman Spectacular 1978 just goes to show that you don't need a year-long series with a hundred cross-overs to produce an epic story! With "The Cosmic Quest for the Disc of Mars!", Jack C. Harris, along with artists Jose Delbo, Russ Heath, Dick Ayers, Steve Ditko, and Vinnie Colletta gave us a monumental WW II  saga, complete with the gods of Olympus, and then tossed in a new Nazi bad-guy (The Red Panzer), a new "good-guy" (The Bombardier), and even Adolph Hitler! For one measly buck! (Oh, how I loved the Dollar Comic format, didn't you?) Snuggle up by the fireplace, but don't hit the egg-nog too hard, as you savor..."The Cosmic Quest for the Disc of Mars!"

Cover art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Giordano

For those of you dying to know who-drew-what, according to Grand Comics Database: Jose Delbo drew pages 1-9, 15-17, 28-32, 35-37; Russ Heath penciled 10-14, 45, 60; Steve Ditko  drew (and inked) 18-23, 33-34, 43-44, 47; Dick Ayers penciled 24-27, 38-42, 46, 48, 49-59, 61-64; and Vinnie Colletta inked everything but the Ditko pages! Merry Christmas, baby!