A pair of posts from my Marvel blog of long ago attempting to define what a super hero is. Definition of a Hero January 15, 2009 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General Because we always get a good response whenever I pose a question to the group, I’ve got a new topic … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Definition of a Hero
Dealer and comics historian Bob Beerbohm was recently talking about how the sales of X-MEN skyrocketed in his shop when artist John Byrne came on board the title with issue #108. He indicates that his guess is that the series might have been cancelled otherwise, though I find this difficult to believe. Based on what … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #112
As we spoke about a week or two back, VENUS was a strangely schizophrenic title published by Marvel/Timely in the 1940s and early 1950s. It concerned the Roman goddess Venus coming to Earth and falling in love with the publisher of a women's magazine, BEAUTY, and becoming its editor. It was a bizarre mix of … Continue reading The First (Marvel) Thor Story
I would have to say that arguably X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS is the single best-executed, best-realized single release in Chris Claremont's long time as the writer of the X-Men. It does exactly what the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELs were intended to do: crafts a story with a beginning, middle and end that encapsulates all of … Continue reading X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS Neal Adams’ way
A post from my former Marvel blog concerning the time I made an appearance as a judge on Food Network Challenge. Secret Mission January 27, 2009 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General As those who’ve been following me on Twitter know, I spent the last few days away from New York on … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Secret Mission
I bought this issue of MARVEL TALES from my usual spinner rack at the local 7-11. It reprinted, as usual, a story from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN published about six years before. At that time, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was in the midst of one of its more seismic changes: Stan Lee, having been promoted to publisher of the … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #94
It's one of the great mysteries of the Golden Age of Comics why, after the Justice Society of America proved to be so popular in the pages of ALL-STAR COMICS, other publishers didn't attempt to put together their own teams of costumed crime-fighters to compete with it. There was really only DC's own Seven Soldiers … Continue reading Lost Crossover: MASTER COMICS #41
One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91
A post from my Marvel.com blog of long ago, this one detailing the creation of SKRULL KILL KREW, a series I edited in the 1990s created by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. Formative Crisis January 29, 2009 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General As far as I can remember and work out, … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Formative Crisis
Again, as with yesterday's book, I believe I picked up this issue of INVADERS on that same excursion to the Heroes World in Levittown with my grandparents. I wasn't really aware of it at the time, but the series had definitely reached its peak earlier, and now with the departure of artist Frank Robbins, it … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #31
