SHAZAM #3 was another issue in the complete run of the title that I had borrowed to read from my grade school friend Donald Sims. That's a nice cover in the spirit of a number of Fawcett pieces spotlighting the Marvel Family. It's only undone by how chunky all of the linework seems to be. … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #3
EC's science fiction titles were the weak link in the publishing line at least from a sales point of view. They never performed at much beyond a break-even level. But publisher Bill Gaines liked them, and so he kept them running regardless, using capital from his more profitable titles to underwrite them. Gaines was rightly … Continue reading BHOC: EC CLASSIC REPRINTS #5
By far the best-selling titles in the well-regarded EC Comics line of the early 1950s were the company's horror books. Horror was a big genre during this time, and nobody in the field did it better than EC. As with their other offerings, their horror comics were story-driven and literate, with high-quality artwork throughout. These … Continue reading BHOC: EC CLASSIC REPRINTS #4
If there's ever a competition to determine the single most batshit crazy issue of a comic book released during the Bronze Age of Comics, this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has a real fighting chance to take the title. Just the cover alone gives you a tiny sample of the absurd and operatic events that are … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #131
So it was around this time that I ordered a set of EC Classic Reprints from the Superhero Merchandise catalog. I wasn't in any way a fan of the mystery/horror series that were then coming out, mostly from DC. But I had read about the heyday of EC in the pages of THE COMIC-BOOK BOOK … Continue reading BHOC: EC CLASSIC REPRINTS #3
This next issue of UNCANNY X-MEN was a bit of a favorite of mine, possibly down to the fact that the central villain of the piece, Arcade, was a bit closer in tone and spirit to the Flash's rogues gallery members than most Marvel villains. The series had been steadily rising in my estimation, and … Continue reading BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #123
As I mentioned previously, my grade school friend Donald Sims possessed a complete 35 issue run of SHAZAM, the DC Comics revival of the original Captain Marvel of the Golden Age of Comics published in the 1970s. At one point, I convinced Don to let me borrow the run so that I could read it … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #2
I continued to make MARVEL TALES a regular purchase, it being one of the few remaining reprint titles at this point. My circle of comic book reading friends looked down our noses at reprint books, the understood belief was that they were "worthless" because they wouldn't accrue in value as back issues, something that we … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #105
This issue of INCREDIBLE HULK was another comic book that my household owned two copies of growing up. As had happened in the past, for some reason my younger brother Ken bought himself a copy of this issue at some point after I'd gotten mine. This may have simply been an opportunistic purchase on his … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #237
Among the other comic books that I borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims in order to read them was WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #200. I was interested in it mostly due to my understanding of how centennial issues were managed: they always contained a seminal story for the series involved, and so they were … Continue reading BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #200
The Tom Brevoort Experience 