The Last Airboy Story

As we covered not long ago, Airboy was one of the most successful characters of the Golden Age of Comics. Not quite a super hero, more an adventurer aviator, the characters was perhaps better positioned to adjust to the changing tastes of the evolving audience, particularly in the postwar period. Created in 1942, AIRBOY COMICS … Continue reading The Last Airboy Story

BHOC: SUPERMAN #337

I was still routinely buying SUPERMAN and enjoying it for the most part, despite the fact that it was never quite as electrifying as the Marvel books that I was most into during this period, nor also the DC titles that I loved the best. What SUPERMAN had going for it was familiarity. It was … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #337

BC: SHAZAM #6

I was still making my way through the complete run of SHAZAM that I had borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims. SHAZAM #6 featured the series' second photo cover, and it was a bit less successful and convincing than the prior one which had run on issue #2. But there was something appealing … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #6

BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #118

It speaks to the essential appeal of Green Lantern as a character that I continued to follow his series for long stretches of tie even when I wasn't really enjoying it all that much. And this period that we're in right now is something of a nadir. Hal was still paired up with Green Arrow … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #118

Brand Echh: TOTAL ECLIPSE #1

In 1988, Eclipse comics was celebrating its ten-year anniversary as a publisher. Founded by Jan and Dean Mullaney, Eclipse was one of the earliest entrants into the nascent Direct Sales marketplace of Comic Book specialty shops. The company was also a proponent of creator-ownership and offered a better publishing arrangement than the mainstream outfits of … Continue reading Brand Echh: TOTAL ECLIPSE #1

BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #152

I picked up another idiosyncratic issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD when it arrived at my local 7-11 spinner rack. By this point I was buying the series semi-regularly, even though I typically found its contents to be a bit weird and off-putting. There were no other writers in the field at that point like … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #152

The Unseen MAGNUS, ROBOT RIGHT #29 Script

Last weekend, we posted a piece containing the original artwork to a never-completed 1969 MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER story intended for issue #29. The art had been auctioned off a few years ago, and the Heritage Auction listing indicated that the full script was included with it. However, the listing only showed the first page of … Continue reading The Unseen MAGNUS, ROBOT RIGHT #29 Script

BC: DETECTIVE COMICS #441

There would typically be some specific reason why I asked to borrow a particular comic book from my grade school friend Donald Sims. Usually, it was because I'd gotten interested in a specific character and was invested in learning more about them. So it was with this 100-Page issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, which I borrowed … Continue reading BC: DETECTIVE COMICS #441

BHOC: ACTION COMICS #497

Despite the overwhelming global popularity of SUPERMAN THE MOVIE, DC for years refused to make any but the most cursory moves towards reflecting that iteration of the Man of Steel in the comics. It's really wasn't until Post-CRISIS when John Byrne took over the character that the influence of the film version came to the … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #497

The Unseen MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER #29

MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER is a well-remembered adventure series published by Gold Key comics during the Silver Age. Set in the far-off year of 4000 AD, it concerned the exploits of Magnus, a quasi-super hero who used his steel-shattering strength to battle threats to humanity caused by the plethora of robots that had been created to … Continue reading The Unseen MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER #29