Remembering Artist Russ Heath

Remembering the talented artist Russ Heath (September 29, 1926 - August 23, 2018) on his birthday.  

Usually known for his war comics, Russ could do some fantasy art as well....though hidden through the view of a scuba mask, as he did these incredible covers for the Sea Devils....an intrepid group of adventures including Dane Dorrance, Judy, Nicky and Biff, with Dane later leaving the group to become a member of the Forgotten Heroes, who fought incredible mystic menaces and fantastic creatures of the deep.

Showcase #27 and #29 (July-August and November-December, 1960)

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Sea Devils #1 and #2 (September-October and November-December, 1961)

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Sea Devils #4 and #5 (March-April and May-June, 1962)

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Sea Devils #6 and #7 (July-August and September-October, 1962)

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Sea Devils #9 and #10 (January-February and March-April, 1963)

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Sea Devils #14 and #15 (November-December, 1963 and January-February, 1964)

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National Pancake Day 2022

Little Archie came up with a great idea for making pancakes easier (and Jughead can't wait), as you can see from this cover to Little Archie Comics Digest Magazine #42 (May, 1990), here, on National Pancakes Day!

Captain America Vs Conan

Long before the Savage Avengers, fans wondered what it would be like if Conan the Barbarian faced off against one of the Marvel heroes...

...case in point, the cover of Comic Reader #150 (November, 1977), as illustrated by Larry Houston, where Captain America tests his shield against the sword of Conan!

 

Remembering Artist Joe Kubert

Remembering artist Joe Kubert (September 18, 1926 - August 12, 2012) on his birthday with a look at a few covers he did for fantasy characters over the decades, including the Viking Prince and Claw The Unconquered.

Claw The Unconquered had 9 issues done before it disappeared for a while, but when it returned in 1978, Joe Kubert provided its last 3 covers for the warrior with the demon hand.

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Musician Jim Rook found himself in another dimension, where he welded a different sword as Nightmaster, for 3 issues of Showcase in 1969.

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Viking Prince was a series Joe Kubert provided the interiors for from Brave and the Bold #1, but only covers for the last three issues of the Viking Prince's run in 1959.  

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Joe Kubert was usually know for war covers, but, as you can see, he could sneak some fantasy into those as well!

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Even more than the covers above, there was a team-up of Sgt. Rock and the Viking Prince...and you can read more about that here!

  

Batman Day 2022

Celebrating Batman Day with an iconic image of Batman and Robin from Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, which was a poster available at the height of Batman's popularity during the 1966 Batman TV series.

This visual proved so popular, that it served as the inspiration (with slight modifications) for two different collections of Batman stories: Batman From the 30s to the 70s (1971) and Tales Of The Batman: Carmine Infantino (July, 2014), along with the image being reprinted in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-44 (June-July, 1976) and Batman In The Sixties (March, 1999). 

But, it was originally a fold out pin-up in Detective Comics #352 (June, 1966), where Batman and Robin faced off against Mr. Esper (who would later return to cause the calamity that helped form Titans West!).

A Little On Mike Grell's Warlord

 

Just wanted to give a little coverage to Mike Grell's Warlord, and the best way to do that is to cover DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #10 (June, 1981), that has this spectacular wraparound cover by Grell!

Though the digest doesn't include these issues, readers are introduced to USAF pilot Travis Morgan, who crashes in the lost world of Skartaris (a world inside a world), where he meets the lovely queen Tara and evil sorceror Deimos, with more info here.  This starts a battle between Travis and Deimos that spans many issues of Warlord, which the major parts are reprinted in the digest (and coverage of issues #3, #4 and #5 have been done, with more to come!).  

The issues that have parts reprinted are:

Warlord #3 and #4 (October-November, 1976 and December-January 1976/1977)

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Warlord #5 and #6 (February-March, 1977 and April-May, 1977)

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Warlord #7 and #10 (June-July, 1977 and December-January, 1977/1978)

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Warlord #15 and #19 (October-November, 1978 and March 1979)

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Warlord #20 and #21 (April, 1979 and May, 1979)

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A truly entertaining read of a modern man in a wonderous fantasy world, and presented to celebrate the birthday of Mike Grell, creator of the Warlord, who was born September, 13, 1947, but DC needs to collect more of the Warlord saga!

Archie The Barbarian

When Riverdale's season ended, and the Archie gang were transported to the 1950s...they could have ended up in worse times. 

They could have ended up in pre-history, with Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead having to get used to a more barbaric life, as imagined by artist Stan Goldberg for this cover of Comic Reader #216 (February, 1984).

Star Trek 56th Anniversary

On September 8th, 1966, fans were treated to the first episode of Star Trek.

Now, 56 years later, time to celebrate that science fiction classic, with a look at comic covers from Star Trek's long history in comics, with one being a little sadder than the rest.

Gold Key was the first to publish Star Trek, and IDW is the current license holder, and here are the covers of their 56 issues of their respective series....with art by an unidentified artist (October, 1978) and Tony Shasteen (April 2016).

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DC had two concurrent series running with Star Trek, one on the original series and one based on The Next Generation, with covers by Rod Whigham and Carlos Garzon and by Deryl Skelton (both issues cover dated January, 1994)

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But, the sad part of this anniversary, is this, the 56th (and last issue) of DC's original run of Star Trek comics, with cover art by Jerome Moore (November, 1988....and read more on the history of Star Trek comics here).  

But, not unlike Spock, Star Trek would return to comics, including the Next Generation and beyond!

Mike Zeck's Punisher Marvel Tales 2

 

Celebrating the birthday of Mike Zeck, and taking a second shot at some of his Punisher work....

...not his celebrated 5 issue mini-series, but instead, more of Mike's redos of old Spider-Man covers for Marvel Tales....

...issues of Spider-Man titles that also featured the Punisher, before the mini-series!

Amazing Spider-Man #174 (November, 1977)/Marvel Tales #216 (October, 1988)

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Original cover by Ross Andru and Frank Giacoia.

Amazing Spider-Man #175 (December, 1977)/Marvel Tales #217 (November, 1988)

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Original cover by Ross Andru and Frank Giacoia.

Amazing Spider-Man #201 (February, 1980)/Marvel Tales #218 (December, 1988)

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Original cover by John Romita and Bob McLeod.

Amazing Spider-Man #202 (March, 1980)/Marvel Tales #219 (January, 1989)

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Original cover by Keith Pollard and Joe Rubinstein.

Spectacular Spider-Man #81 (August, 1983)/Marvel Tales #220 (February, 1989)

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Original cover by Al Milgrom.

Spectacular Spider-Man #82 (September, 1983)/Marvel Tales #221 (March, 1989)

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Original cover by Al Milgrom.

Spectacular Spider-Man #83 (October, 1983)/Marvel Tales #222 (April, 1989)

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Original cover by Greg LaRocque and Al Milgrom.

But, why start so late with these?  Well, back a while ago, the first batch of issues were covered here!

A great way to compare artistic styles, and how the different ages designed covers!

Happy Birthday Arvell Jones

Happiest of birthdays to artist Arvell Jones (September 5, 1952), a Detroit native known for his work for Marvel Comics, Milestone Comics and DC Comics.

To celebrate, we present his covers for All-Star Squadron, featuring Amazing-Man, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Tarantula, Starman, Hourman, Phantom Lady, Firebrand and more!

All-Star Squadron 40 and 41

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All-Star Squadron 42 and 43

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All-Star Squadron 44 and 46

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All-Star Squadron 52 and 55

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All-Star Squadron 58 and 64

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All-Star Squadron 65 and 66

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Strange Adventures With Frogs

Think Ray Milland and Sam Elliott had it bad?  Well, at least he didn't have to face off against GIANT frogs!

Here's the story of that little strange adventure from Strange Adventures #130 (July, 1961) by Gardner Fox and Sid Greene, all under a ribbiting cover by Sid Greene!

War With The Giant Frogs!

The story starts off with scientists Jim and Rhoda Trent, who are doing a little underwater exploring with their new experimental scuba gear in the Pacific Ocean, where they find the remains of an ancient advanced civilization, destroyed by atomic war.  Oh...and a giant frog, who follows them to the surface!  They return to tell their fellow scientists (while, Thaxt, the giant frog, tells his people of his discovery of the humans to the forces of the city of Sthill).  Both the Trents and Thaxt return to the spot of the original encounter, where Thaxt takes the duo to his city.  In Sthill, the leader explains how his race destroyed their society with a nuclear war, with this batch of frogs surviving in their now domed city.  

With the discovery of humans, the frogs plan to return to the surface and conquer the humans with their advanced weaponry.  The frogs attack humanity from their mobile city, causing much destruction, until the Trents figure out their weapons are powered by titanium, and, using some experimental science, demonstrate to the frogs that they can explosively destroy their power source, which convinces the frogs to go back to the depths of the sea (with the Trents knowing they couldn't release the full power of their weapon against the frogs, for fear of destroying the Earth, making this the second time the Trents saved Earth, with the first being in an earlier strange adventure against dinosaurs, but that will be covered later!).