WC: ADVENTURE COMICS #271

Now, this was a noteworthy issue, and another one that I acquired as part of my big Windfall Comics purchase in 1988, when I bought a box of close to 150 Silver Age comic books for $50.00. Unfortunately, for me, it's also a book whose lead story was one that I had read many years … Continue reading WC: ADVENTURE COMICS #271

WC: ACTION COMICS #295

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that pink is a great background color for the cover of a super hero comic book. And yet, it got used with some regularity back during the beginning of the Silver Age, most often in my memory on editor Mort Weisinger's Superman titles such as this one. … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #295

WC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #140

This was the oldest issue of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS that I got in among my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. The title was another one that serious collectors didn't much bother with for the most part, so back issues were both plentiful and relatively affordable. There were a few issues of WORLD'S FINEST in the … Continue reading WC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #140

WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #37

One of the things that I tell people when we're talking about the history of Marvel Comics is that one of the amazing things about what those earlier pioneers created is the fact that, if you wait long enough, even the failures become successes. It was true of the Hulk, it was true of the … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #37

WC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #42

Now here was a beauty! This issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE features only the 4th appearance of Iron Man, the super hero who took over the title, ushering it into the Marvel Age of Comics. Like every book covered in this feature, I acquired this issue as part of my Windfall Comics purchase, where through … Continue reading WC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #42

WC: SUPERMAN #132

This 1959 issue of SUPERMAN represented a rare departure from the format of the series, one that would be used more and more often in the coming years as the tastes of the audience changed over time. Rather than featuring three shorter Superman stories, as all of the books in the line were doing, here … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN #132

WC: SUPERBOY #86

It's probably difficult to conceive of it from a 21st century perspective, but going into the early 1960s, SUPERBOY was one of the top three best selling titles in the industry. The entire family of Superman titles led the pack in terms of reader interest, buoyed by the popularity of the Last Survivor of Krypton … Continue reading WC: SUPERBOY #86

WC: STRANGE TALES #111

STRANGE TALES had been a long-running suspense/monster series that transitioned into becoming a super hero title as the Silver Age got under way. But it was a lesser Marvel title, especially at the early part of that transition, and so back issues were relatively plentiful and relatively affordable when compared with FANTASTIC FOUR or AMAZING … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #111

WC: SHOWCASE #39

SHOWCASE was a bit of an institution in the latter half of the 1950s and the 1960s. It was a series that birthed a great number of characters and series that would go on to star in their own titles. It was the experimental laboratory in which DC tested out new ideas for comic books, … Continue reading WC: SHOWCASE #39

WC: SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #8

At this point, there's interest in pretty much any comics from the 1960s and the early Marvel period, but that hasn't always been the case. In particular, the western and girl humor titles of that period remained affordable for years, as did the pre-hero monster/suspense books. As did this series, SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING … Continue reading WC: SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #8