Still one more story written off in the wake of the DC Implosion of 1978 and only ever circulated in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE, a home-copied volume created for contributors and to secure teh copyright to the material. DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE was a late-in-the-game mystery/suspense series edited by Joe Orlando, at least initially. DC was still … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1: DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE #6
Every year, the Smith Haven Mall near to where I lived held a week-long crafts fair. For seven days, assorted artists and craftspeople would set up little booths throughout the Mall and hock their wares. And every year, there wound up being two or three guys selling back issue comic books out of cardboard boxes. … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #1
As I spoke about last week, the early Marvel Comics was relatively consistent with the manner in which it dealt with death. As a general rule, when a character was genuinely killed (as opposed to suffering a "super villain death" at the climax of a story where they fell into the river or some such) … Continue reading The First Marvel Resurrection
It must be said that Jack Kirby's time at DC in the early 1970s was not without its difficulties. There are all sorts of theories for this, ranging from editorial fear to jealousy to a simple dislike for the King's work among portions of the staff. What he was doing definitely didn't fit in smoothly … Continue reading (Not So) Great Covers: FOREVER PEOPLE #3 and MISTER MIRACLE #3
I knew what would be coming up ahead of time in each issue of MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS, as I owned the George Olshevsky FANTASTIC FOUR INDEX https://tombrevoort.com/2019/11/24/bhoc-official-marvel-index-4/ So I knew that we were honing in on FANTASTIC FOUR #100, an issue that I was interested in entirely due to its centennial nature. Even then, the … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #80
By 1965, DETECTIVE COMICS had become something of a schizophrenic title. Editor Julie Schwartz's revamp of Batman had taken hold and increased sales, saving the series from possible termination. Yet, he was still limited by DC/National's deal with Batman's creator Bob Kane. Kane was to be provided a certain amount of work on the series … Continue reading WC: DETECTIVE COMICS #343
Another look at one of the features that was spiked and written off by DC Comics in the midst of the line contraction and round of layoffs that came to be known as the DC Implosion. THE DESERTER was a new western series created by writer Gerry Conway. It had originally been commissioned to run … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1: THE DESERTER #1
This issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA turned up at the 7-11 the next time I visited there. The series had been somewhat shaky for months, ever since the departure of Jack Kirby. it was plagued with back-ups and fill-ins, and so its running storyline concerning Steve Rogers attempting to learn more about his past prior to … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #227
If there's one thing that's become apparent over the past 80 years of comic book publishing, it's that death sells. The demise of a beloved character can create great interest in a series, as well as potentially delivering an emotional impact that the audience will remember. The whole job of storytelling is to evoke a … Continue reading The First Marvel Fatality
Here is another example of the phenomenon that we looked at last time: a perfectly fine cover image by Jack Kirby that has been deliberately colored in such a way as to render it unattractive and unappealing. As I said last time, going to this sort of monochromatic color scheme was a last ditch move … Continue reading (Not So) Great Covers: FANTASTIC FOUR #81 (and MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #63)
The Tom Brevoort Experience 