Happy New Year

All the best to everyone for 2026. I sometimes wish it was 1974 as in the above SHAZAM! Bob Oksner cover, but at least we can revist the 1970s from time to time through our old comics .

The Groovy 1970's Christmas Countdown: Son O God by Neal Adams, Michel Choquette and Sean Kelly

It’s been some time since I mentioned the cheerfully blasphemous “Son-O’-God” comic strip that appeared in the National Lampoon magazine in the 1970’s. I picked up the pages shown here 6 months ago on eBay for a pretty decent price, and was waiting until Christmas to show them. In the “Lampoon” stories the “Son-O-God” is Benny Davis a nerdy young man in his late 20’s who still lives with his parents in Brooklyn. When he says “JESUS CHRIST!” he transforms into a muscular super-hero version of Jesus with a six-pack, cape, and halo, ready to do battle with Catholicism, Islam, and the Antichrist. It still surprises me that no publisher has taken on the chore of collecting all the National Lampoon comic strips (not just "Son O God") – then again maybe we are less tolerant today of anything poking fun at religion.

The Groovy 1970's Christmas Countdown: Hot Wheels #6 -Neal Adams & Alex Toth

In 1970 DC Comics released what seemed to be a pretty strange comic book series based on the highly successful kids toys "Hot Wheels". In the comic the action revolved around the main character Jack Wheeler and his friends as they race and save the day in Hot Wheel cars. Only 6 issues where ever publish but everyone is an artistic triumph with ourtanding art by Alex Toth (# 1-5) and Neal Adams who drew the above final Christmas themed issue.

Although not pat of this comic series below is a stunning advert for Hot Wheels cars by the legendary Alex Toth.

The Groovy 1970's Christmas Countdown: Spider-Man the Newspaper strip -Stan Lee & John Romita Snr

I don't recall ever reading the Spider-Man newspaper strip in my local/national papers but I did read them when I picked up vol 1 of the collected strips in 2005. Most newspaper adventure strip rarely had much of a Christmas storyline to them as they were probably in the middle of an ongoing adventure as the festive season arrived. However, the Spider-Man newspaper strip went all out and featured a specially written Christmas themed tale.

This story follows on from an earlier segment involving J Jonah Jamieson who hires Kraven the Hunter to capture Spider-Man. As can be seen from the above colour Sunday strip, in the story Peter heads to a department store to buy Christmas presents but it is so busy that he decides to shop as Spider-Man. The strip then meanders a bit and over the next few instalments Peter basically goes through the presents he bought and calls Mary Jane and Aunt May. The action improves (very slightly) when Spider-Man see a crook and captures him. This is not the best Christmas tale but it has a. certain charm to it and of course it is nicely illustrated by the late great John Romita.

Next up: Hot toys, comics, and Santa all in a Christmas comic!

The Groovy 1970's Christmas countdown: Amazing Adventures #5 - Black Widow by Colan, Everett and Thomas

As we begin the countdown to the big day, I thought I would look out some of my favourite 1970's comics which contained a Christmas story, or at least a tale that occurred in winter (basically anything with snow!). First up is "...And to all a Good Night" from Amazing Adventures #5 (1970) by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Bill Everett. I didn't actually pick this comic up until around 1976 a year in which the UK experienced an unusually hot summer, so the winter theme of this tale may have been lost on me, but the stunning art and the Black Widow made up for that.

In 1970 when Marvel decided to launch a couple of anthology titles the Black Widow was chosen to get her own series. John Romita who was initially going to draw the feature, designed her new costume (gone were the spectacles and frumpy clothes etc) bringing her into the 1970's. As it turned out John Buscema drew the first few issues before Gene Colan took over the art chores.

In 1976 my knowledge of the Black Widow was limited to her occasional appearances in the pages of the Avengers (UK weekly) and in the Iron Man tales that were reprinted in "Spider-Man Comics Weekly". Most of these tales were drawn by Don Heck so it came as a pleasant surprise to 16-year-old me to see Gene Colan's wonderfully sexy art on Natasha showing her in the shower naked (although covered up by a strategically placed towel).

In this story a young man is about to kill himself when Ivan, the Black Widows chauffeur saves his life. It turns out the young man is mixed up with a dangerous gang led by the Astrologer who want him dead. Ivan gives the teen the Black Widows card telling him that she can help him. In the end the young man sacrifices himself to save Natasha. A rather dark tale for 1970.

To wrap up a wonderful issue was the lead "Inhumans" strip in Amazing Adventure illustrated by the great Neal Adams. Below is the cover to this excellent comic.

Next up, Spider-Man at Christmas, but not the Spidey of the comic books!

Naughty comics: Bernie Wrightson & Vaughn Bode - Purple Pictography

In 1971, legendary underground comix artists Vaughn Bode briefly teamed up with then newcomer and future comic book superstar, Bernie Wrightson for a strange collaboration on a series of "adult" themed comic shorts called "Purple Pictography" for the US men’s magazine "Swank" . At the time Bode was very busy on other work and had asked his friend Bernie if he would illustrate some of his stories. The result was a series on beautifully painted strips in a cartoon style by the man that would soon take on the artistic chores on DC's "Swamp Thing" comic. Below are a few of the first pages featuring Bernie’s art in what was one of the most bizarre collaborations in US comics.

Bode had drawn a few of the strips in his own style before he asked Wrightson for his assistance. Together the team produced five 3 page strips before the series ended.

The Bode and Wrightson strips were collected by the Fantagraphics Eros line. Originally the above strip as printed in black and white but the colour version of Bernie's art was printed in this collection.

Below as a special treat is the full 3 pages from the "Monster's Thing" (Frankenstein ) strip. It's strange to think that in 1971 these comics would have been considered pretty risky whereas today they are for the most part (some of Bode's pages are still a bit out there) pretty tame.

Next up the Christmas countdown.