The 1970s saw a rise in representation for African-Americans in popular culture--although that representation wasn't always sensitively done. But with Blaxploitation films bringing in big box office returns (especially as compared to the cost to produce) people suddenly became aware of a large black audience that wasn't being tapped--and a variety of players moved to … Continue reading Brand Echh: Fast Willie Jackson #1
We've talked about CHARLTON PREMIERE in the past. It was Charlton's attempt at a SHOWCASE-style series that would debut a different character or concept every issue. A try-out comic, in other words. No series that appeared in CHARLTON PREMIERE ever graduated into its own book, but a few of the stories are noteworthy in some … Continue reading Brand Echh: Charlton Premiere #3
The American Comics Group was a regular fixture on comic book racks from the 1940s all the way through to the end of the 1960s. The firm specialized in short one-off supernatural mystery anthologies, with a smattering of humor title and the occasional foray into adventure series. What ACG really wasn't interested in for the … Continue reading Brand Echh – Magic Agent #1
As the Direct Market first established itself as a viable venue in which to sell comic books directly to consumers with mitigated risk, there was a bit of a gold rush from new publishers, all attempting to eke out a slice of the marketplace for themselves. This made it an exciting period in which to … Continue reading Brand Echh: Justice Machine Annual #1
As we've spoken about earlier, the 1980s saw the rise of the Direct Sales Marketplace of Comic Book Specialty Shops as a key force in the continued survival of comic books--as well as a new venue in which enterprising creators could release their own home-grown efforts and meet with some success. The early years of … Continue reading Brand Echh – Comico Primer #1
In 1967, toy manufacturer Wham-O released a single issue of WHAM-O GIANT COMICS not to newsstands, but rather distributed to toy stores and department stores alongside its product line of frisbees and hula hoops .The gimmick here was that this was intended to be the largest comic book ever done in terms of its overall … Continue reading Brand Echh: Wham-O Giant Comics #1
There really wasn't a lousier time to try to start up a new color comic book line than the very early 1970s, but this didn't stop Skywald. Skywald was a joint venture of Israel Waldman, who had previously been behind the I.W./Super comics line of unauthorized golden age reprint titles distributed directly to department stores … Continue reading Brand Echh – The Heap #1
Joe Simon was the editor of SICK magazine, one of the assorted knock-offs of the extremely popular MAD that crowded the newsstands in the late 1950s and 1960s. Simon had largely moved away from his involvement in the comic book field, though around the time this issue was being worked on, he had been drafted … Continue reading Brand Echh – Sick #42
As the Direct Market opened up at the beginning of the 1980s, a deluge of new publishers rushed in to ply their wares before this new dedicated comics-dedicated audience. One of the earliest companies in this period was Eclipse, founded by brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney. They had started out as publishers by printing Don … Continue reading Brand Echh: Eclipse Magazine #7
By the very beginning of the 1980s, what we now know as the Direct Market for comic books--specialty shops devoted to the product who would buy new issues on a non-returnable basis, thus eliminating the enormous amount of waste the Newsstand consignment system generated--had grown to the point where it looked as though there might … Continue reading Brand Echh – Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 