Favorite Songs: "Sort of Haunted House" by Too Much Joy

 I  had about three or four different friends who would regularly make cassette tape mixes for me just like John Cusack in that High Fidelity movie, and over the years I’ve been introduced to many, many terrific groups (many of which I have mentioned here on this blog!)!

   Now, it doesn’t happen very often, but once in  a while there will be a certain group or artist that will appear on ALL my friends mixes at one time. None of these friends know each other, and a couple of them don’t even live here, but somehow, sometimes there is something in the air and  ALL my friends will get “turned on” to a new artist simultaneously! Even stranger was that most of the groups didn’t have radio or TV airtime, so most of these songs reached my friends through “the vine” as it were!

  Some of the groups I remember appearing simultaneously on two or three cassette mixes at the same time  were groups like Suddenly Tammy, Throw That Beat In the Garbage Can, Voice of the Beehive, and more recently groups like Bishop Allen.

  Anyway, back in 1991, one of the groups that appeared on a bunch of tape mixes was a insanely wacky and catchy group called Too Much Joy. Apparently, their album Cereal Killers managed to make its way to three friends of mine at the same time, and they in turn, all attempted to turn ME onto it…and I liked it, I liked it! With Songs like “Long Haired Guys From England”, “My Past Lives” and  “Crush Story” , this was certainly a GREAT way to be introduced to the band, to be sure!

  Afterwards, I would see TMJ appear regularly on tapes and I got to know other songs like their zany take of “Seasons In The Sun” and the downright cracked “Take a Lot Of Drugs”, but the song that really stood out for me and became my favorite track from the group was a ditty called “Sort of Haunted House”.

   Although the song appeared on the Mutiny Album somewhere in the middle, my friend Gerg had used the song as the cassette mix closer, and what a melancholy closer it was! Filled with catchy guitar picking, groovy bass riffs and that traditional Dark Humor TMJ was famous for, it instantly won me over the very first time I heard it!

 The song is about a guy whose house is haunted by the memory of his late girlfriend, He welcomes her ghost because he loves and misses her, but as the song progresses, we find she got killed by a stray bullet when he shot her lover in their house! He is riddled with guilt and wants to be punished, but when he gets acquitted of the crime, he decides to make amends by  killing himself. He wants to join her wherever she is, stating, “I join you now, in Heaven or in Hell”, but in true Too Much Joy black comedy fashion, adds the thought, “I pray HE’S not there as well!” Hahaha!

 As I recall, the album Mutiny didn’t fare that well, and many blamed it on Too Much Joy’s change from a zany punky band to a more insightful (if not still decidedly skewered) outlook, but whenever I hear this bittersweet, brilliantly crafted song, I always feel that they were heading in the right direction!

 A perfect song to get you all into the Halloween Spirit!

Sort of Haunted House by Too Much Joy

Super-Vixens: Colleen Wing

Funny thing about Colleen- it seemed like as time went by, little by little she lost her “ethnic” look, looking less and less chinese with every issue she appeared in!

In fact, by the time she appeared in X-Men #118, she looked positively caucasian, and this being the first issue I ever saw her in, I was in a world of confusion…Here was this white girl with a chinese last name, but talking Japanese, and claiming to be “Bushido”! In fact, she actually said “I Am Bushido”, which isn’t really the correct term, as bushido is a code of ethics more than an affiliation.

  Anyway, moving on to collecting the Byrne/Claremont Marvel Team-Up issues, by this point Colleen more closely resembled The Wasp than Suwan, and It wasn’t until I managed to collect the early IRON FIST stories that I got to see her as a “chinese” girl proper.

  In an interesting side note, my friend Gerg gave me a bunch of issues from the new Iron Fist series by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Colleen looking oriental again, albeit retaining her auburn hair!

 Colleen Wing

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #19

by Doug Moench and Larry Hama

Super-Vixens: Laurel Kent

Back in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #219, a mysterious girl named Laurel Kent appeared before the group with powers of super-strength, and the twist at the end of the story revealed that the girl was a future descendant of Clark Kent, who was, of course Superman. So this chick was Supes’ great grand niece, or something like that.

 Apparently when Jim Shooter created an invulnerable, indestructible super-girl, Mike Grell decided with all that strength, she didn't’t need no stinkin’ costume, and garbed the super heroine in a skimpy red silk bikini outfit cut into a design he’d recycle over and over again…and I was all for it!

 Gorgeously drawn by Mr, Grell, Laurel was the perfect oxymoron of a beautiful, petite waif with the power to knock you into next Thursday! Sadly, later artists wouldn't take it from this angle, and beefed up Laurel’s physique to match her strengths, thereby turning her into “just another super heroine”.

 Laurel Kent

First Appearance: Superboy #217

By Jim Shooter and Mike Grell

Super-Vixens: Laura Lee Landers

The year was 1976, and the news of the most unbelievable incidents going on around New York! The Villain Jester had emerged as the newest  do-gooder on the block! His arch-enemy Daredevil had supposedly turned bad, toting a machine gun, robbing banks, and murdering NY policemen! And if that wasn’t enough, assassinated brothers Robert and John F. Kennedy had allegedly been found alive and well!

  It was at this time that pretty Laura Lee Landers used her powers of Super-Apathy and took to the sunny shores of Sydney Australia’s beaches, where temperatures were topping the 90º mark!  The question on everyone’s minds was “Did she know something we didn’t?”! At least, that’s how they printed it in the April 11, 1976 edition of the Daily Bugle that day!

Laura Lee Landers

Daredevil #136

By  Marv Wolfman and Bob Brown with Jim Mooney

Dave Clark Five + KISS = Any Way You Want It!!

Dave Clark Five song “Any Way You Want It”  was covered by 70’s Rock giants KISS

-and was included on their famous live album KISS ALIVE II!

Dave Clark Five was one of the major players in that very first “British invasion of the 60’s…in fact, they were right up there with the Beatles when it came to hit singles! Their songs always rocked because they seemed to have pounding, solid backbeats to them, (no doubt partly because Dave Clark was the DRUMMER of the band!) but they also had a flair for the sweet pop tunes too-witness the single “Because”.

 I’ve always felt that lead vocalist Mike Smith sounded an awful lot like Paul McCartney on most of their early tracks, although everyone I tell that to looks at me like I’m hearing things! Whenever I hear “Bits and Pieces” I’ve always had a vision of Paul McCartney singing it, and probably always will! Here’s DC5’s “Any Way You Want It”, complete with Dave’s pounding backbeat and Denny Payton’s driving saxophone!

 During their mock interview in the video KISS-EXPOSED, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley talk about how, in their early days as a duo, they would sit on street corners and sing Beatles songs. They even give us a little sample of “I’ll Be Back”, complete with Liverpudlian Harmonies! Their love of The British invasion was never more clear than when the phenomenal album KISS ALIVE II came out.

These were live recordings of the years touring for Destroyer, Rock N Roll Over, and Love Gun, and a kick ass album it was. The concert footage filled up three sides, and they decided to fill side four with unreleased songs. These songs are great to listen to-songs like All-American Man, Rocket Ride and Rockin’ In The U.S.A.are as good as any of their official album tracks…but it was the album closer that really made my day: “Any Way You Want It” by the DC5!

 Of course this song was probably just a novelty recording for them, but even so, you can really hear the love the boys have for this early sixties song. Gene and Paul trade off vocal lines as they rock, all building up to cool dual harmonies during the chorus! This is a very faithful cover of the Dave Clark Five song, with two very cool additions: A build up to a sweet Peter Criss drum roll snap, and a VERY Beatley guitar twang at the end!

This song always creates a cool "vicious Circle" for me-whenever I hear the DC5 version, I have to listen to the KISS version, and whenever I hear the KISS version, I have to dig out my old Dave Clark Five collection again!

Super-Vixens: Beverly Switzle

Up next are two beautiful gals who are (or WERE) usually associated with talking ducks a la Donald Duck, the two being Marvel’s Howard The Duck, and Frank Cho’s same-named fowl Frank in his original strip University (squared)

 First we have the gorgeous red head Beverly Switzler, your typical “Damsel in Distress”, til Howard came along and rescued her. The two began a lifelong partnership, one that was filled with many separations and diversions, but they always found themselves back together in the end!

 As conceived by Steve Gerber, Bev was supposed to be the optimistic, steadfast character (albeit a bit naïve at times) to contrast Howard’s grouchy, pessimistic outlook on life, and as such, always radiated a sunshiney aura whenever she was in the story. In fact, every reader would wonder how Howard could be such a downer when he had such a beautiful maiden as his partner!

 Originally pencilled by Frank Brunner (he of Red Sonja fame, among others), the role of penciller ultimately fell to Gene Colan, and I personally think his version to be THE version that all others must compare to!

 At some point, Beverly was semi-written out of the comic when she heroically married the evil Dr. Bong to spare Howard’s life, but Steve managed to bring her back every now and then, and years later, in the pages of THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK, brought her back (sort of ) for good!

Beverly Switzler

First Appearance: Howard the Duck #1

By Steve Gerber and Frank Brunner

Super-Vixens: Brandy Carter

Casual readers of Liberty Meadows may wonder what I’m doing calling Frank a duck, but the fact of the matter is, that’s just what he was during his original manifestation in the pages of University(squared) before ultimately becoming the neurotic human in Liberty Meadows!

 Of course, the change didn’t make all that much difference since most of the readers were reading the strip for Brandy, anyway!

 Originally part of an ensemble cast, Brandy has gone on to become Frank Cho’s signature character. She’s supposed to be styled after Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame, and Frank even wrote hilarious story where Brandy goes to a comic-con, and all the nerds and geeks obesessively follow her around!

 I remember when my friend Gerg first introduced me to the strip, after reading a few weeks of stuff, I said “It seems like this guy Frank Cho is using thin plots and storylines simply as an excuse to draw Brandy!” Then I thought about it, and added, “Gee, what a dream job! I wanna draw a strip like this!” Ahahaa!

Brandy Carter

in University2 and Liberty Meadows

by Frank Cho

The Ghost On Saturday Night

One of my favorite Children’s books growing up in the 4rd grade was The Ghost On Saturday Night, written by Sid Fleischman with terrific illustrations by Erich Von Schmidt.

   This was the tale of a young boy named Opie who was trying to save up money to buy a Horse Saddle. You see, His Great-Aunt Etta had promised him that when he saved up enough money to buy a good saddle, she’d buy him the horse to go underneath it!

   Unfortunately, Opie was a small boy, and all the really good after-school jobs went to the bigger kids, but there was one talent that Opie had that no one else did- He knew his way around town like the back of his hand. He could walk anywhere in town blindfolded, and so his way of earning money was to run errands or guide people around town whenever there was a thick fog in the town (which there usually was) !

  One night during an extremely thick fog, he is asked by the barber to guide a csutomer to his hotel. The stranger is a chilling, scary looking man, who says nothing, but gives Opie a free pass to attend a show he is performing. Opie later finds out the man is Professor Pepper, a famous GHOST-RAISER, and that Saturday Night he planned on ressurecting the Ghost of Outlaw Crookneck John!

   "That night, Opie went, and it turned out to be the scariest night of his life!"

Favorite Albums: Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera

As a HUGE fan of THE WHO, I can tell you there are very few groups that managed to get the same feeling and sound of The Who during the Quick One/Sell Out period…

But ELMER GANTRY’S VELVET OPERA sure does a great job!

 The first time I heard the opening track “Mother Writes”, I was already awestruck at how much John Ford’s Bass Guitar playing sounded like John Entwistle of The Who. And everyone knows how much of a feat that is in itself!

Listening to this makes me wonder if John Ford was using "Rotosound Strings" like Entwistle, too!

Then the next song “Mary Jane” was equally as catchy, with more brilliant bass playing! Then onto “I Was Cool”, a song that had a real “After The Fox” feel to it…a real zany song. 

Then “Air”, “Lookin’ For an Easy Life”..track after track…they were all so good!  The song “Flames” features some snappin’ drums and killer guitar, and  “Long Nights of Summer” is a winsome song, complete with a David Bowie-ish flair to it! “Now She’s Gone” is a heavy song with a very “Sparks”-ish backing track ! What a driving Bass line!  

And if there was any doubt about the Who influence here, “Dream Starts” even features a VERY John Entwistle flavored FRENCH HORN solo a la “Pictures Of Lily”!

   The arrangement and structure of these songs are what really hooked me, though…they are so darn catchy!!

The CD re-release features some very nice extra songs, faves include the really sweet “Dreamy”, The “Whipping Post” flavored “Salisbury Plains” and the rockers “Volcano” and “A Quick B” (a spoof of the WHO title a Quick One?), which features some San Francisco Jorma Kaukonen style guitar!!

An AWESOME under-appreciated and unknown album!

Favorite Comics: Avengers #53

I began reading Marvel Comics’ X-MEN series during the highly acclaimed Byrne/Claremont run featuring the “All-New, All-Different” team, and so had no real knowledge of the original 1960’s team. But as my love of the “Uncanny” X-men grew, my curiosity of the Lee and Kirby team grew too, til I HAD to know more about them!

This was back in the pre-internet days when access to information of most comics was almost nil. The only real way to get info on any comic you liked was to talk to the local comic shop dealer or other collectors, and in that I was lucky because I had a couple of friends who were BIG collectors of Marvel Comics, and were always ready to educate me about any Marvel History I needed to know.

So one day after telling my friend I wanted to see what the “old” X-Men looked like, he came to class and handed me a comic. It was issue #46 of a Marvel reprint title called Marvel Triple Action, and it was here I got my very first glimpse of the original X-Men: Cyclops. Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman, and right off the bat I was blown away- WOW! How colorful, dynamic and totally COOL they looked!

The comic also introduced me to the Avengers for the first time, and I IMMEDIATELY dived into the story, relishing the interesting dialog and powerful artwork, not knowing at the time that the tale was concocted by two GREATS of the Silver Age  (Writer Roy Thomas and Artists Big John Buscema), only knowing that the story “In Battle Joined!” was the most KICK-ASS story I’d read in awhile! Begun in the pages of X-Men #45, this was a story of the Avengers and the X-Men united against mutual baddie Magneto. The X-Men have been captured by Magneto, and the Angel has escaped to get aid from the Avengers- but they arrive just in time to see Cyclops knocking out former Avenger Quicksilver…

“In Battle Joined!"

Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp and the Black Panther have come upon X-Man Cyclops standing over the fallen figure of Quicksilver. Not sure of the situation, they tell the youth to freeze. Cyclops, however, suspects they’re only robots created by Magneto, and isn’t taking any chances. He fires at Hawkeye, and when Black Panther jumps down to subdue him, a couple of blasts from his optic visor give Cyclops enough time to get away!

It seems that when the Angel escaped Magneto’s prison back in X-Men #45, he went directly to the Avengers mansion for assistance in rescuing his fellow X-Men. Since Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were last seem leaving with Magneto back in Avengers #49, the Avengers are happy to team up tackling the master of Magnetism.

On the Atlantic flight over to Magneto’s island, Janet discovers a miniature bugging device hidden among Angel’s wings. The Avengers now believe he’s in cahoots with Magneto, and is setting them up. While he swears he ‘s innocent, they tie him up and leave him behind when they investigate the fortress. Thus we return to our opening scene where the Avengers have just arrived to see Cyclops flee!

 Magneto is watching the entire drama play out, delighted that his plans are coming to fruition. Of course, it was all part of his plans for Angel to escape and get caught with the monitor on his wings. “ Now they and the X-Men, who might otherwise been allies- will be at each other’s throats!”

  Toad doesn’t like the idea of bringing in the Avengers…they should have been satisfied capturing the X-Men- their REAL enemies! Magneto electrocutes Toad for his doubt, and Toad questions why Magneto always abuses him when he alone out of ALL the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has been loyal. “Because I don’t NEED your Loyalty!” snaps Magneto. He explains that he’s only kept Toad around because it amused him, and now Toad is just angering him. Wanda steps in and begs Magneto to leave Toad alone, and Toad says “One day soon, Magneto shall know who his true friends are.”

  Meanwhile, The Avengers have become antsy sneaking around the hidden fortress, and as usual, Hawkeye and Goliath start to bicker and fight. Soon the Black Panther, who initially tries to STOP the fight, is involved, and it is up to Jan to step in and remind them that there is a task at hand.

This moment of discourse is just what Magneto has been hoping to hear, and he releases a machine that unleashes crackling electronic commands upon the unsuspecting X-Men.  When the sensations vanish, we realize just what the machine has done to their minds when Cyclops states, “There was something we were going to do! Yes- We were going to find the Avengers…and DESTROY THEM!”

  Any doubt that the X-Men are on the wrong side of the good guys is gone when the Avengers confront the angry teen mob and Cyclops orders: “Kill Them! Kill The Avengers!”

  Beast strikes the first blow at Black Panther, and the others follow his lead. After fighting for a while, the Avengers they find they are having a hard time beating them. Then Black Panther realizes it is because they subconsciously think of the X-Men as heroes, not villains. With this change in attitude, the Avengers make quick work of the youths, much to the confusion of Magneto, who thought the X-Men would be the victors!

  His confusion only increases when he turns and finds The Angel has infiltrated the control room! Soon, the Avengers smash in, as well! Goliath knows Magneto must be dying of curiosity to find out what went wrong with his plans, and elucidates. “We guessed the bug on Angel was a plant, and tied his hands loosely! Wasp whispered in his ear our plans, then pretended to quarrel to lure you into an ill-timed attack!”

  Magneto knows the only option is escape, and brings down a wall of metal parts onto the Avengers, giving himself enough time to get away! He orders Toad to get the escape ship, hitting him to get a move on. “He orders me to save him - and strikes me as he does so! Thus has he EVER rewarded my unwavering Loyalty!” thinks the Toad.

  With a quick move, the Toad sets the machine generators to overload- soon the entire island will be decimated by the huge explosion!  He leads the Scarlet Witch and a still dazed Quicksilver to a waiting escape ship. As the ship takes off, Magneto reaches out with his magnetic powers to lift him to the jet, but finds that his powers have no effect! Toad reminds him that he once built an entire ship out of non-metals, just to prove he could do it. As Magneto tries to hold onto the ship, He says, “Toad…Stop!! I am Your Master!” to which the Toad solemnly replies, “No Magneto. The Toad calls no man master- ever again!!”  He steps on Magneto’s fingers and sends him hurtling to the jagged rocks below!

  Meanwhile the Avengers and X-Men (who seem to have recovered from the hypno-ray) have made it back to their ship in time to witness the Toad and his crew leaving.  They quickly shove off themselves, and a few minutes later, the very horizon rocks as the entire island goes up in a fiery explosion! Soon, the ocean is littered with smoking debris and machinery from the fortress, and among the bits of twisted metal floats the remains of Magneto’s once mighty metal helmet!

*    *    *    *    *

What a STORY!! I loved and re-read this issue so darn much that not only did I eventually collect all the back-issues of Marvel Triple Action featuring The Avengers (as well as Triple Action successor Marvel Super Action) but immediately began subscribing to the current issues as well -and what do you know- John Byrne was the artist HERE, too When I got older, I made it a priority to get my hands on all the ORIGINAL Avengers issues, and I was simply beside myself the day I got my very own copy of AVENGERS #53, the issue where that X-Men/Avengers story originally ran and the very issue you see scanned here!

Besides the overwhelming “pride of ownership” that came with obtaining this piece of Marvel history, there are several other good reasons to own the actual copy, and not just that they got the COLORS of Beast, Angel and Goliath right(!) in the original comic-I was ECSTATIC when I read the original issue and found there were TWO EXTRA PAGES that Marvel Triple Action had cut out! HOLY TOLEDO! This was like the Modern-Day equivalent of a DVD bonus! If I thought I loved that story BEFORE…MAN! Now it was BEYOND LOVE!!! Ahahahaha!

To this day, those Avengers issues from around issue #46-60 are still some of my favorite stories ever; Roy Thomas is still one of my favorite writers, and John Buscema one of my very favorite artists… When you consider that back then I was simultaneously reading both Thomas/Buscema stories AND Byrne/Claremont stories, there’s no wonder I call this my own personal “Golden Age” of comic reading in my life! 

For The Love of Charmian

There isn’t a single thing I can add about having a crush on Liesl in The Sound Of Music that hasn’t already been uttered by countless generations of guys ever since the movie debuted in 1965!

But for the record: I saw Sound Of Music. I set eyes on the oldest daughter Liesl, played by Charmian Carr. Developed Crush. Wheee!

In fact, out of all the wonderful songs featured in the Rodgers & Hammerstein soundtrack, my favorite just has to be “Edelweiss”, simply because I always waited for that scene where she sang it along with her father, playing his guitar.

Growing up I would hear “The Sound Of Music” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” regularly sung on TV variety shows, regarded as the braodway classics they are, and in elementary schhol, we sang songs like “Do Me Ri” and “My Favorite Things” during assemblies, but until I saw The Sound Of Music (and fell in love with Liesl), I never noticed Edelweiss!

When The Sound of Music got the “Special Edition” treatment on DVD back in 2000, there was a terrific addition for us Liesl fans! Included in the bonus section was a little-seen documentary short called Salzburg Sight and Sound, which was basically a 36 minute little featurette they shot during the taping of The Sound Of Music of Charmian Carr wandering around the beautiful city of Salzburg!

She narrates the short, and besides taking in the beautiful scenery, we get glipses of the cast behind the scenes as the work on the moive, we even get to see Charmian getting lesons with her vocal coach! Ah, what a great bonus!

Life after Sound of Music, Charmian Carr became an interior designer for upper-class home-owners, ans she said that one of her clients was Michael Jackson! In fact, she said that he hired her to do his house, simply because he loved her so much as Liesl!

Well, If I had

1. MONEY for an Interior Designer and

2. A HOUSE in WHICH to redesign,

I’D hire her, too!

Favorite Songs: "My Finest Hour" by The Sundays

Man, if there ever was a hall of fame for  "Feel Good songs of the 90's", The Sundays ultra-catchy song "My Finest Hour" surely gets my vote! The penultimate track off of the band's debut LP "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic", one feels that they only tacked on "Joy" after it because the end would have been too uplifting for the album to end!

A melody about the eternal hope of finding that special someone in your life, tinged with the self-deprecating bitterness (a la Morrisey) all Sundays tracks seem to have, happy or not!

And who can resist the winsome Harriet Wheeler cat-calls at the end?

The Sundays / My Finest Hour

Favorite Songs: "Scarlet” by Lush

“Gala” was the first album I ever owned from 4AD shoegazer band Lush, and though I would go on to love anything and everything the band would subsequently put out(see my blog rantings here), my heart will always hold a special place for that first album.

   Because Gala was more a collection of their EPs Mad Love, Scar and Sweetness and Light than an “album” proper, several songs appeared more than once on the tracklisting, among them two versions of Thoughtforms and two of SCARLET.

 While the “newer” version of Thoughtforms became (to me) the ‘real” version of said song, Scarlet’s two version both had different things to offer for me. The newer version was more polished and dreamy (and bears a slight resemblace to “Monochrome”) while the ealier one was more “raw” in sound, almost live.It was THIS version that I slowly found myself attatched to, especially during the choruses where Emma’s Guitar chords sound positively sonic follwing the lines “But What’d you Say” and “When nothing’s meant ”, “What’d You Do” and “When all is Spent”.The tone of the guitars have this “british” feel to it and I for some reason, it reminds me of “Instant Party” by The Who on their “My Generation” album.

  In fact, the huge, dreamy guitar washes during the lines “No one to fall…in love” and the subsequent spirally guitar picking behind the lines “Faceless, faithless night…vanity’s delight” all have decidedly Townshend-ish flavouring, at least in my opinion, and that’s a major Who fan talking here!

Super-Vixens: Aleta

The next two entries into my personal “Super-Heroine Hall Of Fame”

I’ve dubbed “Super-Vixens are the two leading ladies of the original 1970’s  futuristic heroes, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

  When Gene Colan and Arnold Drake created The Team in Marvel Super-Heroes, the group was strictly a boy’s club, it wasn’t until the Guardians got updated in the hands of Steve Gerber in titles like DEFENDERS and MARVEL PRESENTS.

Seeing an obvious void in femininity in the team, Steve a couple of heroines to join the team, first with Aleta along with her  counterpart Stakar in the pages of DEFENDERS, the duo of course would unite to become the Guardian member Starhawk.

Aleta is one charcter who has been revamped in recent years so far from her original look as to be unrecognizable! Nowadays she sports the modern “pin-up” look of most heroines in the biz, but back then she was portrayed as a more serious character, only occasionally appearing to chew out Starhawk and confuse Vance! I’m not sure if she was supposed to be a “sexy” heroine, but she definitely had that appeal to me, although she always seemed to remind me of Cathy Lee Crosby! And that’s whether Al Milgrom OR George Perez was drawin’ her! Ahahaha

Aleta

First appearance Defenders #29

by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema

Super-Vixens: Nikki

Nikki was created by Steve and Al just one issue after debuting the Guardians of the Galaxy in MARVEL PRESENTS, a Mercurian who became sort of the “juvenile Sidekick” kind of charcter, the voice of laughter and playfulness in a gang of somber grumps! There was (at the time) even a sort of side-story of Nikki and Vance growing closer, but that storyline seemed to have been phased out.

 Nonetheless, she remained the sole firecracker in the group, and one of my favorite portrayals of her is in an issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP , where Nikki , Martinex and Yondu team up with Spider-Man in New York. The Pencils are done by Bob Mcleod, and His rendition of Nikki ranks up there with his “Ororo as White Queen” cover in X-Men!

Nikki

First appearance Marvel Presents #4

by Steve Gerber and Al Milgrom