As comic books entered teh 1940s, it became apparent to publishers that the thing that was really driving sales to kids, at least right at that moment, was super heroes. Larger-than-life costumed do-gooders dressed in outlandish costumes. Superman had shown the way, and every pulp publisher with two nickels to rub together began following suit. … Continue reading The Second Green Lantern Story
AVENGERS was beginning to get itself back on track after a long stretch of fill-ins and stopgapping, but the book was still running perilously behind schedule. This led to even more stopgapping in the future. But just as a reader, none of this bothered me especially, I simply accepted each issue for being what it … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #183
Here's an interesting little book that was a fixture among comic book artists during the 1970s.MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK was co-authored by James Morrow and Murray Suid and strived to teach film storytelling by using examples from the comic book medium. They had gotten the rights from Marvel Comics to reproduce panels and sequences … Continue reading MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, Part One
DC's Dollar Comics program didn't wind up being the industry game-changer that new publisher Jenette Kahn had hoped it would, but it was a format that the company pursued for several years and resulted in some decently-crafted anthologies. Case in point is SUPERMAN FAMILY, which was never a great comic book but which was a … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN FAMILY #195
It's always been something of a mystery to me how the publishers of the Golden Age determined that one of their secondary features was the thing that was driving the circulation of their anthology series. Case in point: when he was first launched, Plastic Man was a secondary character in the pages of Quality's POLICE … Continue reading The Second Plastic Man Story
As we mentioned yesterday, this issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was the first in the title's long history not to be edited and overseen by Julie Schwartz. Julie had innovated the series in 1960 and had stayed with it for 19 years. But for the first time, somebody else was at the wheel. That … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #166
Predating Captain America and a horde of other lesser lights, The Shield was the first patriotic-themed super hero of the Golden Age of Comics, debuting in PEP COMICS #1 in 1939. He was billed as a "G-Man Extraordinary", and over the next eight years, he'd carry on the fight against evil, losing his Superman-inspired super-powers … Continue reading The Last Shield Story
This issue of THE FLASH is where new editor Ross Andru's vision for the title really crystalized. In essence, this took the form of bring on board a new regular penciler. Longtime FLASH artist Irv Novick had departed one issue after outgoing editor Julie Schwartz, and while Ross had stopgapped for two months, here he … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #273
So here's the sort of mental exercise that I undertake on days when I'm trying to ignore the larger world. I just recently celebrated my 35th Anniversary of being hired to work in Editorial at Marvel. Over the course of those 35 years, I've had the pleasure of working on a huge variety of projects. … Continue reading The Fifteen Best Projects That I Edited
Pretty much everyone knows the story by now. Having conceived of their adventure strip about an indestructible, super-strong crusader for justice in the early 1930s, creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (and sometimes other, different artists) spent the next five or six years trying to find a buyer for what they felt confident was a … Continue reading The Second Superman Story
The Tom Brevoort Experience 