By 1982, Marvel had been making inroads into establishing itself as a children's book publisher as much as a periodical comic book publisher. This was apparently Marvel president Jim Galton's plan for where the future of the organization should lie. He had no idea how the emerging Direct Sales marketplace was going to explode, nor … Continue reading FSC: X-MEN MARVEL ILLUSTRATED Paperback
I was still making my way through the complete run of SHAZAM that my grade school friend Donald Sims had loaned to me. I had purchased and read issue #25 when it had first come out, and I'd read the story from this issue when it had been reprinted a short time after publication in … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #26
This shows you just how in the tank i was for Marvel at this point. The next time I visited the Stationery Store that had become my main outlet for buying new comics, this book was situated among the other stacks on the shelf. Despite the fact that it wasn't a comic book at all … Continue reading BHOC: FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE #1
You never know what's going to turn up, even so many decades after the fact. Over at the Heritage Auction site, they have a variety of offerings on display for an upcoming auction dedicated to original comic book artwork. https://comics.ha.com/c/search/results.zx?dept=1938&mode=live&auction_name=7468 And among the many treasures that can be seen there are the unused pencils for … Continue reading SUPERMAN #43: The Lost Pencils of Joe Shuster
I was never really much of a DOCTOR STRANGE fan, and so outside of a few key runs, it wasn't a title that I read avidly. Especially in the 1970s, when the tone and tenor of the series was being influenced by the wave of interest in the supernatural and metaphysical that was going on … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #36
In my memory, the second volume of the two-book X-MEN COMPANION series that was released by Fantagraphics, the publishers of the Comics Journal, took forever to arrive. But looking back, while the second book was late, it was only by a few months--time goes by slower when you're younger. Anyway, the big difference in what … Continue reading FSC: THE X-MEN COMPANION II
At the time when I started getting into Marvel Comics in the late 1970s, WHAT IF was considered something of a special book, at least among my small circle of comic-reading acquaintances. For one thing, it was oversized, meaning that it was both thicker and meatier than the average comic of that period, more like … Continue reading BC: WHAT IF #1
After a steady run, CAPTAIN AMERICA was about to enter the doldrums, a period of frequent fill-ins and creative instability. I obviously didn't know any of that when I picked up this latest issue at the Stationery store, but I did find that I didn't especially care for it. It was fine, but not a … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #237
Jim Shooter, who had been the Editor in Chief and main creative driver of the Valiant super hero universe didn't last for very long with the company following the UNITY crossover. Not to get into any of the specifics of his departure, about which assorted parties have very different recollections, the key factor germane to … Continue reading Brand Echh: RAI #0
As I revealed when we covered the previous issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, as a young reader I completely bought into the legitimacy of Aunt May's death in this storyline. And part of that was the result of this issue, which does a fine job of making it seem like a real thing (while also dropping … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #196
The Tom Brevoort Experience 