As I mentioned last week, it was on my first trip to Xanadu Comics in Wilmington, Delaware that I wound up picking up a small selection of copies of the UK weekly 2000 AD. I had a read a little bit about Judge Dredd and the weekly comic book paper that was the backbone of … Continue reading FSC: 2000 AD #123
Especially in the first half of the 1970s in which I grew up, comic books were a ubiquitous item. Almost every kid read them, at least a little bit, and they were on sale in every candy store and convenience store you were likely to encounter. This changed as the decade went on and those … Continue reading BC: BATMAN #263
At around this time, I wound up buying a number of Tempo paperback editions dedicated to assorted DC characters. These were DC's answer to the Marvel Pocket Books format, and they released six volumes through Grosset & Dunlap's Tempo imprint all at once. I wound up owning four of those six, starting with this BATMAN … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN Tempo Paperback
The development of the New Universe line had been a haphazard process. After several months had been spent in pursuit of high-minded goals in terms of creative innovation and the pedigree of those who would innovate said titles, in the end there was a mad dash to the finish line in terms of launching the … Continue reading Brand Echh: JUSTICE #1
There was really no disguising the fact that, for most of its long run, PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN was at best a secondary title, and often a series that wasn't being given A-list resources to succeed with. While there were some bright spots along the way, the series was constantly operating under the handicap … Continue reading BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #33
At the time of my family's move to Delaware in 1981, there was only one comic book shop in the area, and it was in far-off Wilmington. This was Xanadu Comics, best remembered as the store that AMERICAN SPLENDOR cartoonist Harvey Pekar's future wife Joyce Brabner once worked at. It was too far off to … Continue reading FSC: 2000 AD #122
I continued to make my way through the complete run of SHAZAM that i had borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims one week. While it's taking us months to go over these books, I read them all in two, maybe three days when I first borrowed them. This next issue was a return … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #12
SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANOS wasn't a war comic, not in the way that i understood that term. It wasn't at all attempting to get across the true horror and cost or warfare. Instead, it was a war movie, a big, grand, fun adventure where the enemy were clowns and caricatures and nobody really … Continue reading BHOC: SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #153
On the surface of things, KICKERS INC should have been one of the more stable and solidly-crafted of the titles launching as part of Marvel's 1986 anniversary initiative, the New Universe. It had a creative team with an established track record on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, writer Tom DeFalco and artists Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema. But … Continue reading Brand Echh: KICKERS INC. #1
MARVEL PREMIERE was something of a mixed bag as a comic book purchase. While early on it had been dedicated to the adventures of Iron Fist, and before that Doctor Strange, it had turned over time into a SHOWCASE-style try-out series for new concepts (and occasionally a place to wrap up outstanding plotlines from a … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL PREMIERE #49
The Tom Brevoort Experience 