It's a well-known story at this point, but just to recap the basics: in 1938, after years of attempting to sell the strip that they'd come up with to any prospective buyer, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster agreed to sign away all of the rights to their four-color wunderkind Superman for the sum … Continue reading The Last Jerry Siegel-Written Golden Age Superman Story
This INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL (or KING-SIZED SPECIAL as it was blurbed this particular year) was yet another book that had been given to my friend David Steckel by an older cousin who had outgrown comic books some time earlier. The books David got from this relative were pretty haphazard--it's clear that his cousin wasn't really … Continue reading BC: INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL #3
I'd mentioned earlier that in my latest trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall, I had started going backwards in buying back issues of DOOM PATROL, a series that I really adored. The reason for this move is very simple: the next issue that I needed, #103, wasn't available. I don't know … Continue reading BHOC: DOOM PATROL #104
I got asked about this story this week by Marvel editor Wil Moss, who had learned about it for the first time. And while I told him that I hadn't covered it largely because the story in question had been translated into English and serialized in the pages of TwoMorrows' magazine ALTER EGO, edited by … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: When Captain Marvel Met the Human Torch–in 1963!
On that same trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall, I purchased this back issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN. I didn't buy it for Jimmy, nor for the big guy. Rather, I had discovered that this issue had reprinted a classic Plastic Man story from the Golden Age and I was … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #150
Comico was another of the new entrants into the field of comic book publishing once it had been proven that the Direct Sales marketplace was capable of supporting such publishing activities. The company was started by a group of art students who all went to school together in the Philadelphia area, and it proved to … Continue reading FSC: COMICO PRIMER #2
Both my friend David Steckel and I were fans of THE INVADERS, the World War II-era comic book that writer/editor Roy Thomas had launched a short while earlier. Part of this was simply that the book included the original Human Torch--as we both loved FANTASTIC FOUR, this affection kind of transitioned over. Additionally, though, it … Continue reading BC: MARVEL PREMIERE #30
This issue of DOOM PATROL was another that I purchased at Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall on a Saturday when my grandparents had taken me there. Ed had a big chunk of DOOM PATROL back issues, a group that I was fascinated by, and so I had started by buying #100 and … Continue reading BHOC: DOOM PATROL #99
The second comic book release put out by Jim Shooter's last new comic book company Broadway Comics was SHADOW STATE #1. And to begin with, what a lousy cover--badly composed, poorly colored, overly designed. A real eyesore, for all that it definitely did the job of making a prospective buyer's eye linger on it on … Continue reading Brand Echh: SHADOW STATE #1
It was the summer, so it wasn't all that difficult to convince my grandparents to take me on another buying trip to the Sun-Vet Mall not far from our home wherein Ed's Coins and Stamps, a collectables shop, could be found. My grandparents lived about an hour away from our home, and they would come … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #198
