And on and on it went! I continued to steadily eat my way through the complete run of DC's SHAZAM, which had been lent to me by my grade school friend Donald Sims. I have to say, it's fun looking back at these issues and seeing how deftly (or not) the editors were in avoiding … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #29
That next weekend, my family had some reason to journey down to the South Shore Mall in search of some time or other that couldn't be so easily procured closer to home. This was fine by me, as I'd earlier discovered that the mini-strip mall that was adjacent to the main South Shore Mall structure … Continue reading BHOC: MEET THE DEALERS #13
The next title that Jim Shooter's post-Valiant start-up DEFIANT issued was perhaps the strangest series in their line--and that's saying something. You can't say that Jim wasn't trying to chart new ground here. The book was called WAR DANCER, and it was largely the creation of Shooter's longtime friend artist Alan Weiss. Weiss had been … Continue reading Brand Echh: WAR DANCER #1
This was another comic book that my household had two copies of. For whatever reason, my younger brother Ken was apparently on a buying spree, picking up his own copies of books that I'd already purchased. And again here, there isn't anything so noteworthy about this random issue of SUPERMAN to justify that choice apart … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #339
BRAVE AND THE BOLD had almost run its course at the point when this issue first came out. It was something of a holdover of a rapidly-diminishing era, one in which comic books were largely an impulse purchase by entertainment-hungry buyers. In those days, team-up titles typically did well, giving a reader two characters for … Continue reading FSC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #197
My pal David Steckel had gotten a bunch of his comic books from some older relative who was over them, passed down as such things often were in those days. Consequently, he possessed an assortment of random older issues of various titles, and this was inevitably of interest to me. For example, for no particular … Continue reading BC: DAREDEVIL #68
Despite the fact that it was by all measure a solidly-crafted and consistently entertaining comic book, I avoided picking up issues of SUPER FRIENDS, the tie-in series to the long-running Saturday morning animated show. And that was because it embarrassed me. I knew that Super friends the cartoon was aimed at a younger audience than … Continue reading BHOC: SUPER FRIENDS #23
Larry Lieber, the last surviving member of the original Marvel Bullpen, has been recently divesting himself of some of his possessions, selling off artwork and mementos that he's carried with him for decades. And among what he put up for auction at Heritage Auction House recently is a pair of discarded pages intended for a … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Discarded Pages from INCREDIBLE HULK #4
This was another comic book that my younger brother Ken also picked up a copy of after I had bought one. To this day, i really don't quite understand why he would do that, but it was a pattern that repeated again and again. Sadly, what he got was a bit of a dud--Green Lantern … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #120
At the beginning of the 1980s, after a number of rough years, DC really began to get its act together and to modernize its approach to doing comic books. The primary instigator of this change was new publisher Jenette Kahn and the vehicle through which it became viable was the emerging Direct Sales marketplace of … Continue reading FSC: OMEGA MEN #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 