Black and White Wednesday: RIP Ken Barr

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! As most of you probably know, artist Ken Barr passed away about a month ago, just a few days after his 83rd birthday. Barr was an artist of international renown (you can read a wonderful tribute to the man on Down the Tubes), but to kids like Young Groove, he was the master cover artist for many of Marvel's b&w mags. Ol' Groove posted a few of them back in 2012 (which you can see here), so here are a few more faves from the brush of a master of action and adventure!

Thursday Team-up: "Hell Is for Heroes" by Haney, Estrada, and Giordano

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Ya know, after 35 or so years, Ol' Groove still isn't sure to make of DC Special Series #8 (November 1977) aka 1978 Brave and the Bold Special. I love the kooky quartet of heroes: The Batman, Deadman, Sgt. Rock, and...Sherlock Holmes?! The plot goes anytime and anywhere-our heroes fight the devil, himself, fer crine out loud--but of course, what else would you expect from the magnificent mind of Bob Haney? Ric Estrada's layouts our good-to-great, but not flashy, while Dick Giordano's inks gives everything a nice, slick sheen. Oh, and the Jim Aparo cover rocks! See what you think, baby...

Grooviest Covers of All Time: Walt Simonson's Groovy DC Days

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! How'd ya like to dig on a bounteous bevy of brain-blasting Walt Simonson covers from his early DC days? Thought ya might...

And yeah, he did several more for Hercules Unbound and Metal Men. Wanna see 'em sometime?

If You Blinked You Missed: DC's Sherlock Holmes

Y'know, for the life of me, Ol' Groove cannot figure out why I haven't done a post on DC's Sherlock Holmes #1-and-only (June 1975). Ah, well, whatever the reasons, I'm making up for that awesome oversight right now! While Marvel Comics had already taken a shot at Sherlock Holmes (discussed here and here), DC was, as usual, right behind them with their own version. While Marvel adapted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, The Hound of the Baskerville over two extra-length, magazine-sized issues of Marvel Preview, DC went the total opposite route by adapting two short Holmes stories in one 18 page issue. Written by Denny O'Neil with art by E.R. Cruz, the same team that had given us the final issue of The Shadow the previous month, it appears that Sherlock Holmes was to have been a bi-monthly comic--perhaps intended to fill The Shadow's berth on the spinner-racks? The world may never know. Whatever DC's intentions, O'Neil and Cruz did the best they could with the minuscule page-count they were given and captured the spirit of Holmes quite well. Unfortunately, the mag must've gone unnoticed (I know that seems impossible considering the far-out Walter Simonson cover) because when August rolled around, there was no Sherlock Holmes #2. I s'pose it's just as well if every issue was to have two tales crammed into them, but man, the mind boggles at what O'Neil and Cruz could've done had the powers-that-were turned them loose...