With a big Omnibus collecting all of them coming out any time, my mind has been drawn to the assorted authorized crossovers undertaken by rival companies Marvel and DC over the years. Some of those stories were triumphs, sagas that compared and contrasted the characters involved skillfully, and which were just crackerjack entertaining in their … Continue reading 5BC: Five Middling Marvel/DC Crossover Books
It was almost the end of the road for INVADERS, though I didn't know that at the time. But looking back, it seems almost inevitable. The artwork had been progressively getting less and less polished, and editor and series creator Roy Thomas had been letting other people write his baby. I can't imagine that the … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #39
The legend surrounding the origins of Superman has been codified into a sort of simplistic myth-version over the years, the story of two young friends who had a world-beater of an idea, pursued it over the course of half a decade, facing rejection and ridicule along the way, only for it to turn out to … Continue reading The Seldom-Seen Jerry Siegel & Russell Keaton SUPERMAN samples
Another issue featuring Marvel's TV sensation THE INCREDIBLE HULK dropped on my local 7-11's spinner rack, and I bought it dutifully, even though my interest in the title was only middling. But I had signed on aboard the series at some point previously, and through this era, that tended to keep me steadily buying the … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #234
Having dedicated themselves to making strides within the new Direct Sales marketplace, an arena in which Marvel had up to this point been overwhelmingly outselling pretty much everybody, DC produced a number of issues of DC SAMPLER, an overview and preview of their line intended to be given out at comic book specialty stores across … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #3
My brother Ken was the monster movie buff in our family, I certainly wasn't. And yet, Marvel got me following their ongoing GODZILLA comic book series for its final half-dozen issues. How? They used the Marvel Universe, of course. In the issue before this one, the King of the Monsters had battled the Fantastic Four, … Continue reading BHOC: GODZILLA #21
And so, we come at last to the end of the road for MIGHTY COMICS, Archie's attempt to replicate and cash in on the popularity of the Marvel titles of the day. By late 1967, the super hero fad that had driven sales to enormous numbers across the past few years had cooled off considerably, … Continue reading Brand Echh: Mighty Comics #50 and the Last Web Story
From time to time, my younger brother Ken would become interested in one comic book title or genre or another, and for a brief period of a few months read and collect it. I'm not entirely sure what caused his attraction to CONAN THE BARBARIAN at this particular moment, but for the next couple of … Continue reading BHOC: CONAN #97
And so, after four months, we finally come to the end of the titanic clash between the World's Mightiest Mortal and the vastly-overmatched foe of subversives as the running Captain Marvel vs Spy Smasher conflict reaches its inevitable climax. Once again, there isn't any clue given on the cover that this colossal story has been … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: The Epic Battle Between Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher, part four
That week, another issue of AVENGERS appeared at my local 7-11, and I picked it up without even much looking at it, as the book was on my regular buy list. Which is perhaps a good thing, because I don't know that this generic cover would have enticed me into completing the sale on its … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #182
The Tom Brevoort Experience 