Edge Of Chaos Day!

Gray Morrow was born on this date in 1934. Morrow was a stalwart artist who showed up everywhere -- Marvel, DC, Warren, and more. He became a force in the Indy market. His covers really make us remember a great Indy Pacific Comics item - the focus of today's Dojo celebration -- Edge of Chaos.  

Pacific Comics was one of the more interesting Indy publishers in the early days of the direct-sales market. One title the Pacific crew came up with was a potential opus by Gray Morrow called Edge of Chaos which has a pretty dandy high concept.

A man named Eric Cleese ("Hercules" of course) is lost in the Bermuda Triangle and is whisked away into the ancient past (vague timeframe) by aliens who have been stranded on Earth and have become the basis for our mythological gods. He meets a beauty named Diona and accepts a mission to undo the harm the alien-gods have done so that the aliens can go home at long last. He must battle a renegade alien named Moloch who mourns for his dead mate, and he does this with a couple of buddies he picks up in a local bar named Flan (a drunken fellow with a baboon face) and Slag (a neanderthal looking chap). As the first issue ends the trio ride off to complete their mission riding prehistoric beasts.

The final two issues of the run though fail to really follow through on the excellent set-up. In the second issue Eric and his buds fight the "Hill Hag" a sorceress and her monsters. They overcome her fairly readily, then in the next issue we have to see all this great landscape wrapped up as characters are eliminated and the status quo is transformed because the three-issue series is coming to an end. It's a pretty random and confusing conclusion with characters popping up faster than the reader can process them, though given the space crunch Morrow does okay I suppose.

It's a disappointment because this series had great potential. The greatest strength is the artwork of Morrow, a man who was unusually gifted at drawing lovely women in all manner of undress. A weakness is his writing. Many of the pages are overwritten, with words overcoming the pace of the story. There are instances where captions get lost on the page and the text almost contradicts what we're seeing on the page. This series seems to have fallen victim to some scheduling or contractual problem that made its conclusion rushed and ironically chaotic. It's a pity.

Gray Morrow's artwork continues to shine through the years. He was a singular talent who seemed unusually capable of rendering lovely, sexy, realistic women. (Not like the sex doll fantasies which pass for women in so many comics in recent years.)  His heroes were grounded in a base reality which added to the fantasy which always seemed to erupt.

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Groo The Wanderer!

(Groo can only dream of being Frazetta's Conan.)

And then there's Groo the Wanderer! He debuted in (of all places) Destroyer Duck #1, the original comic dedicated to raising funds for the legal case of one Steve Gerber as he battled Marvel for the rights to Howard the Duck. A few pages in the back and we had on our hands one of the most successful and durable comic book characters of all time.

Created by MAD man Sergio Aragones, the wildly talented humor artist, Groo tapped into the then-popular sword and sorcery lore which permeated comics like the seminal Conan the Barbarian among a multitude of others such as Warlord, Red Sonja, Arak, and many others would-be barbaric contenders.

(First Groo Story!)

Mark Evanier is the Groo-whisperer, a longtime writer for TV and comics who adds words to the stories that Aragones develops and draws. This team along with letterer Stan Sakai and colorist the late Tom Luth have been at the wanderings of the boobish Groo for a great many moons now. Generations have come and while Destroyer Duck and other shiny objects of the Indie wave have diminished into the West, still the moronic Groo abides. He was the "Dude" before the Dude. 

Before awarding Groo his own comic the mavens at Pacific Comics previewed him in Starslayer (another of those straight barbarian types). After getting his own title, Groo plugged along for a cool eight issues before Pacific fell victim to financial woes. Groo though, stronger than the company that nourished him found a momentary footing at Eclipse (where he'd debuted) before finding a rather permanent home at Epic Comics, the Indie brand of sorts for mighty Marvel. There Groo out-lasted nearly everyone and went to bounce around at Image and Dark Horse and all over even down into our modern day. 

I keep an eye out for Groo projects which pique my interest such as his team-ups with Conan the Barbarian and Tarzan of the Apes. Both projects brought in the talent of Tom Yeates to handle the illustration of Groo's partners. 

Here are the covers from Groo's very excellent original 1980's run from Pacific Comics. 

It seems there's no killing this doughty barbarian, as much as we might want that. He's the Energizer Bunny of comics, he just keeps running. I don't have many regrets when it comes to my comic book reading, but not including more Groo might be one of the few. Good stuff!

This post is dedicated to the late Tom Luth. 

This Post is a Revised Dojo Classic. 

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The Skate Man Cometh!

It's time for our monthly dose of Neal Adams. This is a weird one. 

What a strange, strange world we live in where such a comic book actually exists. I have no earthly idea what prompted Neal Adams to create the notorious Skate Man, but he did and then he used his sway with Pacific Comics to get them to publish it. I'm sure they were eager enough to put more Adams on the stands with their brand on it, but really.

Actually, the story of Skate Man is pretty straightforward if overwrought. He has enough motivations for a good half dozen vigilantes, but Adams keeps adding in the angst. Our hero is named Billy Moon and he's a nice enough fellow, motivated by a need to serve, he took martial arts lessons young and went to Vietnam. Saddened by what he saw he returned home and sought some release but found work difficult to keep until he became a roller derby wonder. But the suspicious death of his best friend Jack caused him to move away with his lovely girlfriend Angel who worked with migrant workers. But those migrant workers are being exploited by a motorcycle gang and Angel gets killed by them and all this might have something to do with Jack's death too, but that's left open.

He has been hanging out and helping a youngster named Paco who likes comics and inspired by those Billy becomes a roller-skate hero named...wait for it..."Skate Man". Skate Man then takes off after the cycle gang and other villains and gains a small rep. But he gets his butt kicked as our story opens and we see him recuperating and remembering all of his origin while a new girl named Jill tends to his injuries. Then she gets kidnapped and he's off again to save her which of course he does as the story abruptly ends.

A lot of stuff is jammed into a short space and there's no small dose of action, so why don't folks like this book better. Well. the premise is pretty lame, a guy uses roller skates to gain an edge on drug pushers and has a costume which would look lame at Halloween. "Skate Man" is arguably the stupidest name in the annals of comics, though its brutal directness is admirable in a strange way.

To my knowledge there's never been more Skate Man adventures and after reading this story again after all these decades, I'm good with that. Looking at some prime Neal Adams art though is always nifty.

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A Dave Stevens Cover Gallery Showcase!

Dave Stevens is properly renowned for his magnificent Rocketeer. But he did do other things in his all-too brief career. He was often tapped to draw some covers for various books, bringing his smooth good-girl approach to many and sundry comic books over several years for several different companies. I've attempted in this gallery to bring together all of his non-Rocketeer covers from the years of his working career for Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics among many others. Some few of these are instances where he inked a prominent artist. 

(Inks over Wally Wood pencils)

(Inks over Jack Kirby pencils)

If I've forgotten one let me know. Dave Stevens was a special artist. For more Stevens and more Rocketeer check back later today.

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