The ongoing CAPTAIN AMERICA storyline had turned into an epic while I wasn't looking. This was the fifth chapter of a storyline that was still going on at issue's end, one that had begun in such an understated manner that I would never have guessed it would run so long. During this time, even a … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #235
Like the Green Arrow who we talked about last week, Aquaman was another of three features created to fill the back pages of the ailing MORE FUN COMICS and hopefully reverse its fortunes by creating some additional reader interest. The Sea King was the brainchild of newly-hired editor Mort Weisinger, who collaborated with artist Paul … Continue reading The Second Aquaman Story
The next issue of AMAZING SPIDER_MAN that came out introduced a character who would prove to possess remarkable staying power over the years, though it didn't really seem that way the first couple of years. This was the Black Cat, a sexy sneak thief who would go on to become a recurring love interest for … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #194
Flo Steinberg came to the notice of comic book fandom during the early 1960s, during the initial flowering of what became the Marvel Age of Comics. As Marvel's corresponding secretary, she was, among other things, charged with answering the volumes of fan mail that came in for editor Stan Lee, and so the various active … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: BIG APPLE COMIX #1
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Marvel Comics had a thriving business licensing properties from outside of the field--movies, television shows, toy lines and the like--and turning them into comic books. Some of these titles were remarkable successful and functioned as a gateway into the wider Marvel line. Others disappeared quickly when the material they were … Continue reading BHOC: SHOGUN WARRIORS #6
When editor Mort Weisinger was first hired by DC Comics (then Detective Comics Inc) in 1941, one of the first tasks he was given was to improve the fortunes of one of the firm's longest-running titles, MORE FUN COMICS. The popularity of headliner characters Doctor Fate and Jerry Siegel's The Spectre were lagging behind the … Continue reading The Second Green Arrow Story
And now we come to what is generally regarded as the strongest period in the 100-issue run of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE's history. With this newest issue, #53, the six-part Project: PEGASUS Saga kicked off, signaling the arrival of the writing team of Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Macchio had created the titular Project; PEGASUS for an … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #53
And so finally we come to the end of our journey through the pages of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the second of two volumes of material that remained unpublished in the wake of the DC Implosion of 1978 that saw the company's output reduced by 40%. A total of 35 copies were made, one each … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: VIXEN #1
There was something in the air in the late 1960s and early 1970s that made the idea of a swampy muck-monster a thing that several different people were simultaneously thinking about. This sort of thing tends to point to some influence from the mainstream media, but I'm not sure just what that might have been … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #81
We spoke a bit previously about Johnny Quick, DC's alternative super-speedster who occupied the back pages of first MORE FUN COMICS and then ADVENTURE COMICS during the Golden Age of Comics. Johnny was a long-running second banana character whose adventures were typically better-drawn than the company's more mainstay fast hero, the Flash. But also, as … Continue reading The Last Johnny Quick Story
The Tom Brevoort Experience 