ELFQUEST was one of the seminal self-publisher titles in the very early Direct Sales market place of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a very personal fantasy series conceived and created by artist Wendy Pini with input from her husband Richard Pini, who also ran the business end of their operation, WaRP (Wendy … Continue reading FSC: ELFQUEST #1
In the early 1980s, Frank Miller had a transformative run on DAREDEVIL. Starting out as only the book's penciler, he began to shift it in tone, moving it away from the ersatz Spider-Man clone it had been towards something with a bit more of a noir sensibility to it. This process accelerated when he took … Continue reading FSC: DAREDEVIL #192
By 1982, Marvel had been making inroads into establishing itself as a children's book publisher as much as a periodical comic book publisher. This was apparently Marvel president Jim Galton's plan for where the future of the organization should lie. He had no idea how the emerging Direct Sales marketplace was going to explode, nor … Continue reading FSC: X-MEN MARVEL ILLUSTRATED Paperback
In my memory, the second volume of the two-book X-MEN COMPANION series that was released by Fantagraphics, the publishers of the Comics Journal, took forever to arrive. But looking back, while the second book was late, it was only by a few months--time goes by slower when you're younger. Anyway, the big difference in what … Continue reading FSC: THE X-MEN COMPANION II
When it was first launched, there was a veneer of respectability about the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL line. Based on the format of European albums, these books were a place where creators could tell stories that were a bit more sophisticated and adult-oriented than the typical Comics Code-approved fare that filled the pages of the monthly … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #4
I seem to remember picking up this issue of DC COMICS PRESENTS at some non-traditional outlet that my family had visited rather than one of my regular haunts for new comics. I was reading the book on a semi-regular basis, and even if I hadn't been, the appearance of the Doom Patrol in this issue … Continue reading FSC: DC COMICS PRESENTS #52
Now this was a book that we fans had been waiting for ever since the Rocketeer had first debuted in the back pages of STARSLAYER #2 and #3 a short while previously. https://tombrevoort.com/2021/06/19/brand-echh-starslayer-2/ The strip had caused a huge stir in fandom, largely because it came seemingly out of nowhere and was so accomplished. Rocketeer … Continue reading FSC: PACIFIC PRESENTS #1
So now we come to a momentary diversion, as a new monofocus cropped up that took some of my attention and a lot of my funds away from comic book collecting. Since relocating to Delaware with my family, I had started watching STAR BLAZERS, this science fiction cartoon that aired on WTAF Channel 29 at … Continue reading FSC: BIG-100 SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO MOOK & PERFECT MEMORY BE FOREVER YAMAO
This issue of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES was the culmination of the Great Darkness Saga, a storyline that had been building in the tile over the preceding couple of months. It was the storyline that really put the Legion on the map in terms of becoming an enormously popular fan favorite series. Prior to this, the … Continue reading FSC: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #294
In 1982, there was no comic book that I thought more highly of than NEW TEEN TITANS. It was a perfect synthesis of all of the elements that I liked in both the Marvel and DC titles of the day, a time when the two had very different flavors. But NEW TEEN TITANS bridged that … Continue reading FSC: NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1
