A few years ago, writing a story about art-comics publishers Fantagraphics, I was intrigued to learn that Gary Groth, who runs the Seattle comics publishing house, had gotten his start in print by running a now-obscure rock mag titled Sounds Fine. Groth wasn’t the only comics nut who would try his hand at running a music publication in the ’70s; late in the decade, Marvel Comics launched a short-lived “youth culture” mag of its own, Pizzazz, which leaned heavily on the popular tuneage of the day. As Sean Kleefeld notes at the top of his set of 16 covers from the mag’s run, there’s a looot of Shaun Cassidy here. Still, the image of Linda Ronstadt backed by guitarist Dr. Strange, bassist Captain America, and drummer C-3PO is one of those things that make you thank the heavens for the invention of the scanner. [Kleefeld on Comics; HT Jess H]
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Late-’70s Marvel Comics Rocks The Youth Dollar
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I had a couple of these issues. Man, I’m dating myself. Is 34 old?
@NickEddy: But let’s not get into what another Spider-Man villian, The Shocker, had named after him…
hat tip circle of life dictates i note that i actually found this link via the estimable tom spurgeon at the comics reporter:
[www.comicsreporter.com]
Nice job having Dr. Strange use his supreme sorcery to play guitar, because as we all know, his fingers are virtually useless due to that horrible car crash her suffered. They cost him his job as a high paid, high profile surgeon!
I’ll go stuff myself in a locker now…
there’s a looot of Shaun Cassidy here
DESERVEDLY SO. (My first rock idol. And I have even have murky photographic proof — that’s a poster of him there above the orange record player.)
Maybe there’s a lesson in it about how gender-divided youth pop culture has become - picture the Jonas Brothers and Wolverine on a cover today; it’d provoke scorn. Of course, mainstream superhero comics now cater almost exclusively to adult collectors. But that Hulk/Shaun Cassidy cover warms my heart.
I’m surprised that Marvel didn’t go the obvious route, and stick Power Man on bass.
Spiderman villain Electro had a whole genre named after him.
I actually had that very magazine. This was Marvel’s attempt at trying to tap into the Dynamite Magazine(which was way better) market.