Tis was a slightly more noteworthy issue of STRANGE TALES than many of the other ones that were in the box of comics that I bought as my Windfall. For the most part, any issues that could have been considered "keys" for one reason or another had been extracted. But this one was close, and … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #120
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Marvel Comics carried with it a certain amount of counter-culture cache. This was due in part to the new faces coming into the business sharing some of those sensibilities naturally, as they were then the same relative age as most members of that youth group. But also, in … Continue reading CREEM v4 #11: And Now, Spider-Man and The Marvel Comics Group
One of the benefits to the Doctor Strange television movie airing was that there was suddenly an interesting in doing a bunch of Doctor Strange-themed ancillary publishing. I hadn't really connected with the character before this. Especially in the 1970s, his stories tended to be heady and metaphysical in the manner of the time, and … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE POCKET BOOKS #1
I've heard it said that this issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA shows a bit of the influence that the growth of the new Marvel comics was having upon DC. I don't know that I really believe that, though. Certainly, for as long as there had been team-up comics, there had been stories in which … Continue reading WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20
Throughout the 1970s, as he removed himself more and more from the specifics of writing and putting together comics, Stan Lee, now Marvel's Publisher (and briefly its President) spent a lot of his time doing publicity for the firm--and for himself as its charismatic and creative wellspring. These pieces certainly tended to over-inflate Stan's creative … Continue reading OUI v6 #3: Conversation with Stan Lee
Now this was a bit of a surprise when I rolled up into the 7-11 that week. Up until this point, MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION had featured reprints of earlier issues of AVENGERS. But with no warning whatsoever, this latest one instead contained a classic issue of X-MEN. The clue as to the reason was apparent … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #45
As the Direct Sales comic book market opened up as a viable alternative to mainstream distribution at the start of the 1980s, all sorts of different publishers leapt into the fray with their own offerings, hoping to strike it big. More than a few of these were initially offered as black and white magazines along … Continue reading Brand Echh: Galaxia #1
Last time out, we looked at the proposal for another potential sequel to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the "Villain Crossover" as masterminded by a small consortium of DC editors and creators. As we know in hindsight, this storyline was never put into production, and eventually the story that became LEGENDS was used in its place. … Continue reading Crisis II – The Villain Crossover: Responses
There was a slow but steady transformation of the Marvel titles under editor Jim Shooter. When he was given the job, Shooter realized that no single editor could shepherd the huge number of releases that Marvel was then putting out. So he went about slowly building up a staff of editors, each one of whom … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #228
This issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY featuring Thor was another one that I came by as part of my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, wherein I paid a guy I had bumped into at the Post Office $50.00 for a long box filled with close to 150 Silver Age comic books. It was the best … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #121
The Tom Brevoort Experience 