What it is, Groove-ophiles! What d'ya say we truck on back to March 1979 for a scary tale (from Scary Tales #20, and the only non-reprint scary tale in the ish, no less) by Joe Gill (as Thomas Tuna) and Jimmy Janes? With "Adversaries" like these--who needs friends? (Huh?)

Ah, yeah, ya gotta love those Boys from Derby! Here's another swamp monster, this one a pretty obvious combination of both DC's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Man-Thing, but with a very cool (and unexpected) twist. "Fear-Feeder" came to us from Scary Tales #4 (November 1975), but this scan is from the reprint in Scary Tales #15 (April 1978), which includes the credits for writer J. Anderson and artist Carlos Vila that somehow fell off the first printing! Can you dig it?

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Paul Kirchner, best known for his work in Heavy Metal, High Times, and Sports Illustrated for Kids was, indeed, once a Boy from Derby. One of his very best for Charlton was originally published in Scary Tales #2 (July 1975). To moi, "Valley of Death" is like a four-color episode of The Twilight Zone. Such a cool tale (a cowboy has a literal showdown with Death), and what an ending! Are you ready to slap leather with the Grim Reaper?

Cover art by Tom Sutton

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's been a while since Ol' Groove laid a bunch'a Items of Interest on ya, so let's get right to 'em, shall we?

ITEM! Ol' Groove recently got his paws on a copy of Charlton Spotlight #8 and man, do I ever dig it! A huge interview with my fave Charlton writer Nick Cuti, an awesome article from another fave author, Life With Archie's own Paul Kupperberg, about his breaking in at Charlton. (Paul mentioned that his first published work was a short-shocker illustrated by Mike Zeck that found a home in Scary Tales #3 (September 1975). You can read it below--after you finish reading these important items, okay?)If that weren't enough, amidst the other dy-no-mite articles lurks an unpublished Doomsday +1 comic plotted and illustrated by the great Tom Sutton (way back in 1979) and scripted by none other than Nick Cuti! Do yourself a favor: if you don't have a copy of Charlton Spotlight #8 track one down! It's a slick, lovely, totally professional zine with full color throughout! You'll love it!! 

ITEM! You may have noticed (I hope you've noticed) that a Kragor cover has joined the Daring Adventures cover over on the right of this page. That's 'cause Ol' Groove's barbarian creation Kragor has been published by Red Leaf Comics (who've been publishing Ultimus, Power Corps, and many of my other stories from my Blue Moon days). I hope you'll either order a digital or hard-copy of Kragor (and/or other Red Leaf mags)--I'd really appreciate it! Kragor is special to moi, and if we get the support there will be more issues of Kragor to come! Even if you don't dig my stories, I'm sure you'll flip over Kragor's artist, Serbian sensation Mihaijlo Petrovic! Give us a try, won't ya?

ITEM! While Red Leaf is mining my late 90s/early 2000s Blue Moon stuff, my old pal T. Warren Montgomery has reached waaaaay back to the earliest Blue Moon days--1988 for the Exiles! Why would Will Lill Comics' peerless publisher wanna do a thing like that? 'Cause back in 1988, I created/designed the Exiles and handed the concept over to an awesome young writer named Lonnie Weems and an extremely talented young artist by the name of...T. Warren Montgomery! For the first time ever, Warren's earliest work is seeing print in the first three issues of Monty's World! The story will be concluded soon in The Warriors of Panlan Special! Warren is expanding his Will Lill Comics line to include more anthologies and some single-character mags so check 'em out. Ol' Groove knows you'll dig 'em!

ITEM! Getting even more personal, you know Ol' Groove is a proud dad, so with that in mind I've gotta brag on my darling daughter's very personal and beautiful blog, Buying the Farm. Jessica and her awesome husband Walter bought a farm about a year ago, and Jessica has been chronicling the trials and tribulations of renovating a 70-something year old farmhouse (not to mention the acreage, barns, and second house), as well as the day-to-day stuff that living in Southeastern Kentucky entails. I have to say so m'self, Jessica is an outstanding wordsmith (with a wicked sense of humor and huge heart) and she and Walter fill the blog with gorgeous photographs of both the dark and bright sides of farm living/renovating. Even if you're not into do-it-yourself or farms, I think you'll love the photos, heart, and insights you'll find on Buying the Farm. 

One of the barns...

Buying the Farm author Jessica and her faithful Ruth...

Ol' Groove catching his breath...

ITEM! Whew! Now, here's that Paul Kupperberg/Mike Zeck mini-masterpiece Ol' Groove promised ya way up there in the first item! From Scary Tales #3, here's "Distress"!

Before earning acclaim with his art on Master of Kung Fu, which led to his becoming a top Marvel super-star of the 1980s (Secret Wars, Punisher), Mighty Mike Zeck drew tons o' mystery/horror strips for Charlton comics. The best of them, naturally, were written by Nightmarish Nick Cuti, so Ol' Groove dug up a couple'a those terrifying Zeck/Cuti team-ups to treat ya with today. First up, from Scary Tales #8 (August 1976), here's "A Grizzly End"! (Wonder if Mike got paid twice for that splash/cover art...?)


And to top things off, dig Mike and Nick's contribution to Scary Tales #9 (October 1976), "Hades University".