I recently came across a copy of the 1967 MARVEL STORY BOOK ANNUAL, published in the United Kingdom by World Distributors, working in concert with the American company Western Publishing. Such hardcover Annuals were ubiquitous in the UK in the 60s and 70s--there are a number of Marvel releases that reprint various early Marvel stories … Continue reading Marvel Story Book Annual 1967 – The Chains of Abdul Rey
Herbie Popnecker was introduced in a short one-off story that originally saw print in FORBIDDEN WORLDS #73. It was intended as a throwaway tale, one more short strange adventure to fill the pages of the anthology series. But the story and the character proved popular with readers, and creator Richard Hughes subsequently brought him back … Continue reading The First and Last of Herbie
It's been a little while, but who could ever forget our old friend Ego-Man, the ridiculously inside baseball strip parodying Stan Lee in the pages of SICK Magazine in the late 1970s. Exactly who these stories were meant for (apart from creators Arnold Drake and Jack Sparling) is anybody's guess, but they didn't run for … Continue reading Brand Echh – Sick #124 – The Death of Ego-Man
It's been a while since we looked in on ol' Herbie--so here's another classic story, the origin of his costumed identity as the Fat Fury. This story was produced in the midst of the super hero craze set off by the Batman television show in 1966, which suddenly made costumed crusaders a topic of conversation … Continue reading Brand Echh: Herbie #8
The Powers-That-Be at DC Comics in the 1960s could see that something was going on over at Stan Lee's new upstart Marvel imprint, but they were ill-equipped to figure out just what. This is largely due to the fact that the editorial and creative staff remained largely unchanged since the halcyon days of the 1940s. … Continue reading Brand Echh – Inferior Five #6
In 1973, Charlton took one last late stab in getting a foothold into the super hero market with the publication of E-MAN, a light-hearted and whimsical super hero series about an energy being birthed in a star who came to Earth and became a costumed adventurer. It was a fun title and well-remembered, but it … Continue reading Brand Echh – E-Man #2
It seems as though--for good reason or bad--people got a kick out of seeing the Ego-Man story parodying Stan Lee from SICK magazine last week. And so, since there were a number of these done, I thought I would show you another one. In this case, the inaugural installment, from SICK Magazine #120. The Grand … Continue reading Brand Echh – Sick #120 – Ego-Man
In 1978, presumably because Stan Lee had begun to break through into the mainstream with his comic book huckster routine, writer Arnold Drake created the running character Ego-Man in the pages of SICK magazine, then published by Charlton. It was anything but a loving parody of the field and those in it, in particular Stan, … Continue reading Brand Echh – Sick #123 – Ego-Man
For whatever reason, while they would dabble with the genre from time to time, Charlton never quite took the leap into publishing super hero comics on a full-time basis. They seemed content to fill their racks with war, mystery, western, hot rod, romance and even comedy books. But super heroes were an ill-fit for them, … Continue reading Brand Echh – Charlton Premiere #1
In the early 1980s, as the comic book Direct Market began to become a real sales force in the industry, the way was opened up for all sorts of new, smaller companies (and individuals) to publish their own comic books and potentially strike it rich. There was now a ready-made distribution network of specialty stores … Continue reading Brand Echh – The Crusaders #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 