Groovy Age Walls

I recently had one of those dark spots where memory has dropped through one of the gaping holes in my head unveiled, much to my delight. We'll get into details a bit more soon, when we get to the title itself.
But this is going to be another one of those annoying tease posts heralding more to follow, so let's skip those important details for the moment.

Instead, like the title says, let's go to the walls and what covered them in my room way back then. In the early 70s an oversized newspaper publication emerged, and from the first issue they used that size to cool purpose - providing big posters for the readers. And, even better, being an un-stapled newspaper centerfold, you didn't even have to destroy the issue to display them.

After being reminded of the existance of this publication, i went digging into the forgotten archives with much joy as i rediscoverd over a dozen posters that used to hang upon my wall. (And a treasure trove of cool stashed inside the pages)

So, here's some of what covered my walls back in the later days of the Groovy Age. (A few have been edited to remove identifying text.)

This was way back in 1971, before Wrightson's famous Frankenstein work.

Star Trek by Gray Morrow!

Wendy Wenzel's rocking this Valley Of Gwangi poster - an old favorite film.

posters from... but that would be telling (1970s)

Post-Groovy Heroes

...and then they came...

As the Groovy Age wound down, society turned an eye inward to reflect upon what we learned, if anything, during this time of turmoil and growth. With all the radical changes, what was the new "normal" in our world?

We've seen before that Esquire will gaze upon the comic world upon occasion, even tapping great talents like Jack Kirby to create for them. So it's not a great surprise to find them looking at comics and superheroes, and calling upon some great talents to do so. Their suggested new heroes for the new era in this month of 1972 featured creations by (in order of published pages) Berni Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Mike Ploog, Barry (no Windsor yet) Smith, Ralph Reese, and Alan Lee Weiss. Each was given one page to present their options to fill the void left

...and so it went...

pages by Berni Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Mike Ploog, Barry Windsor Smith, Ralph Reese, and Alan Lee Weiss for Esquire (1972 Mar)

Back In The R.B.C.C.

As mentioned recently, i've been digging through old fanzines as a part of my dive into the Groovy Age.
One of the biggest of those was the Rocket's Blast Comic Collector from editor James Van Hise, which ran for at least 150 issues in the 60s and 70s. I described the RBCC previously as a fanzine "that featured a great pool of talent and the print equivalent of the dealer's room from conventions of later eras" and that's still the best description i have for it.

But, y'know - That doesn't touch upon how delightfully Odd it could be, too. So let's take a look at a little tale from Brad Caslor that ran in issues 85-87 back around the end of 1971 entitled The Massacre Of The Innocents.

But first, the covers of the issues to offer another taste of the talent that passed through their pages-

Bill Black

Berni Wrightson

Don Newton

As a further indicator of how appealingly odd RBCC could be, note that they considered the title to be a completely optional feature for the cover.

Now, on to our story...

 

Alas - while it may have been a Groovy Age, not all Happenings were groovy.

Though, perhaps, foreshadows of kingdoms to come...

story by Brad Caslor, covers by indicated artists, for RBCC #s 85-87 (1971, 1972)

Meanwhile, 40 Years Ago In 1977...

Double Natural was a big year for me - lots of good things happening.

I got married again (to the same woman).

We conceived our first child, but #1 Son didn't arrive until '78.

I was a scifi geek, and we'd been listening to this Lucas guy talk (at Space Con, i believe - one of the local Los Angeles conventions we used to attend) about his big movie concept before it came out, so i was among those wearing Star Wars t-shirts at the opening of the first film. (Of Course he was selling t-shirts there before the movie opened - he had the merchandising rights in his contract)

But there was one thing happening on my birthday that occurred on the other side of the country, in New York City, and online galleries were many decades away - so i missed it: The Berni Wrightson Exhibition.

The ads for his Frankenstein Portfolio, with those incredibly luxurious inks that merged fine art and comic art so deliciously were appearing at the time, and inspiring great lust for the collection. Seeing that his work was going to be hanging in a gallery seemed so right, son, that we wanted very much to be there.

At least i eventually found a gallery catalog for the show - one of 500 signed by The Artist - so we can get a glimpse of what was on display:

Yeah, i never made it there.
But, it was still a good year.

(Better?)

art by Bernie Wrightson from the NYCA Gallery Catalog (Oct 1977)