Brand Echh – Unearthly Spectaculars #2

Upon hearing that Captain America co-creator Joe Simon had joined forces with Harvey Publications to release a new line of super hero titles to capitalize on the new wave of costumed hero popularity, both Martin Goodman and Stan Lee were concerned. They both had a ton of respect for Simon's commercial abilities, and feared that … Continue reading Brand Echh – Unearthly Spectaculars #2

Brand Echh – Thunderbolt #57

For a short period in the mid-1960s, under the editorship of Dick Giordano, bottom-rung publisher Charlton had a very nice line of up-and-coming super hero comics. It didn't last long--the market dip in the post-BATMAN TV show craze put the kibosh on all sorts of super hero aspirations. In this instance, though, we're going to … Continue reading Brand Echh – Thunderbolt #57

Brand Echh – Dynamo #4

Having left Marvel in 1965 because he was unhappy with the way the books were created--where the artist was having to do the lion's share of the plotting as well as illustrating, thanks to the "Marvel method"--veteran artist Wally Wood was recruited by the start-up Tower Comics to help create and launch their new line. … Continue reading Brand Echh – Dynamo #4

Brand Echh – Fly Man #36

I promise, all of these entries aren't going to be cribbed from Radio Comics/Mighty Comics. But this issue does give me the opportunity to present my two favorite Mighty heroes in a single two-part tale: The Shield and the Web. That opening blurb is a pretty good evocation of Stan Lee's bombastic rhetoric. They weren't … Continue reading Brand Echh – Fly Man #36

Brand Echh – Fly Man #35

In their masterful two-issue summation of the WORLD'S WORST COMICS, James Schumeister and Rich Larson gave a particular adroit description of the books put out under the Mighty Comics banner. They said that it was as though Russian spies had smuggled out a copy of a Marvel book and had tried to reverse-engineer it. That … Continue reading Brand Echh – Fly Man #35

Brand Echh – Introduction

Marvel Bullpen Bulletins item - Cover Date March 1966 It has to be said that I love bad comics of a certain type. Not lousy comics per se, but ones that are just a little bit clueless, that are trying to hop on board a given trend, or that are just so weird that they're … Continue reading Brand Echh – Introduction