Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Back during the Groovy Age, companies like Scholastic, Xerox, and Marvel produced magazines with names like Dynamite, Bananas, Smash, and Pizzazz. These periodicals were aimed at tweens and teens and covered pop culture, sports, and school. They usually had puzzles and games, as well as some sort of comics or comics-related material. Marvel's Pizzazz (fall 1977-winter 1978) was a late-comer into the tween/teen mag sweepstakes, but they certainly learned as many lessons from their competitors as possible, producing a slick and lively (and often funny) mag. Best of all, they knew how to use comics. Every issue included a three page Star Wars strip (which Ol' Groove'll share with ya if ya ask real nice) and a variety of humorous comics (ditto). The first eight issues also featured a strip starring Edgar Rice Burroughs Young Tarzan. The first strip was written by Roy Thomas, with David A. Kraft taking over for the remaining eight. Most of them were inked by Ernie Chan. Best of all, each and every one of 'em was penciled (and sometimes inked) by Big John Buscema. You might'a missed it then, baby, but here it is now!
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