In 1978, plans for a massive expansion of DC's publishing line, which were being promoted as the DC Explosion, crashed and burned as an unusually heavy winter took its toll on comic book sales. The DC line was slashed rather than expanded, and a bunch of staff members were laid off. This became known as … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2
This era of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is often overlooked but I remember enjoying it tremendously. Part of the reason for that is that once he got his sea legs under him, writer Marv Wolfman began to focus on running plotlines based more around the character's life as Peter Parker than his costumed alter ego. I also … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #193
The change in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA wasn't quite so pronounced as what I was experiencing over on THE FLASH, but it was there as well if one were to look for it--which I didn't at the age of twelve. As with FLASH, the book had moved into the hands of a new editor, its … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #167
Three episodes in, and while this season of DOCTOR WHO hasn't quite yet lived up to the heights of the show at its best in years past, it does feel a lot more sure-footed and on-point than it has in recent memory. This week's outing "The Well" isn't a timeless classic by any means, but … Continue reading Doctor Who: The Well
Here's the fifth and final part of our overview of this short hardcover how-to pamphlet authored in 1943 by writer/editor Robert Kanigher. It's a wealth of interesting information about just how comic books were put together back during the Golden Age and what publishers were looking for. The story that Kanigher breaks down here was … Continue reading How To Make Money Writing For Comic Magazines, Part Five
I picked up the latest issue of what had once been my favorite comic book series of all on my weekly excursion to the 7-11 on Thursday. My interest in THE FLASH had started to waver a bit of late, as I'd become more enamored of the Marvel books that were then occupying a lot … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #274
In the late 1970s, the Marvel Universe found itself inundated with visitors from the nation's toy aisles, as the company licensed property after property in the hopes of landing on another hit the scale of STAR WARS. They wouldn't quite get there until the one-two punch of G.I.JOE and TRANSFORMERS in the 1980s--by which point, … Continue reading BHOC: SHOGUN WARRIORS #5
All in all, this was a pretty enjoyable outing for DOCTOR WHO--not quite a return to form per se but at the very least a step in the right direction. I find that the few complaints that I can muster boil down to some dodgy story beats and some thin characters. As a technical achievement, … Continue reading Doctor Who: Lux
This being the fourth part of our review looking back at writer/editor Robert Kanigher's very early hardcover booklet giving a how-to on writing for comic magazines. It was published in 1943 and is therefore probably the earliest repository for such information. If nothing else, it gives a good sense of what the field was like … Continue reading How To Make Money Writing For Comic Magazines, Part Four
As I've recounted before, during this period my younger brother Ken had developed a passing fascination with Conan the Barbarian, such that he'd begun to follow the regular monthly comic title. But he also branched out to the other regular source of Conan material available at this point: the black and white magazine SAVAGE SWORD … Continue reading BHOC: SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #40
The Tom Brevoort Experience 