As we've been talking about these past couple of weeks, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the long-gestating DC 50th Anniversary project designed to streamline and tidy up their universe and their continuity was such an immediate and huge hit that plans were made even before the series had run its course to produce a sequel, a … Continue reading Crisis II – Julie Schwartz’s Idea
As DC's editorial hierarchy began to develop its ideas for a sequel to the monstrously popular CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, they ran into a number of false starts and blind alleys. One of those never-was attempts was called CRISIS ON CAPTIVE EARTH, and while some minor aspects of it eventually made their way into LEGENDS, … Continue reading Crisis on Captive Earth: DC editors and creators respond
As we've spoken about over the past couple of weeks, given the overwhelming success of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, even before that series had run its course, DC Editorial had been soliciting concepts for a sequel series of the same sort. The development of this project went through a lot of gyrations and reversals of … Continue reading Crisis on Captive Earth
As we saw last week, even as CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was getting under way in 1985, DC Comics' leadership realized that they had an enormous hit on their hands. And so, even though only the first issue or two had reached the stands, Executive Editor Dick Giordano solicited ideas from both his editorial staff … Continue reading Crisis II – Roy Thomas’ Ideas
In 1972, Marvel Comics entered its second phase. Editor Stan Lee had been promoted to Publisher and, momentarily, President, and Roy Thomas had been made his successor. What's more, former owner Martin Goodman was gone, as was the limitation on how many releases the company could put out which had been imposed upon them by … Continue reading THE CLAWS OF THE CAT #5: The Lost Issue
It's no secret that DC found itself with an enormous hit on its hands in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the anniversary limited series produced by Marv Wolfman and George Perez designed to restructure and streamline the DC continuity. It was that rare Event series that both left a lasting change upon the line in its … Continue reading Crisis on a Brave New Earth
This issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, #31, was another book that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, in which I wound up buying a long box of about 150 Silver Age comics for the dirt-cheap price of $50.00. I had read this story previously in its later MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS reprinting, but it … Continue reading WC: FANTASTIC FOUR #31
If there's a moment that truly crystalized the Direct Sales marketplace and helped to forge it into a meaningful distribution pipeline for comics, it was with the release of X-MEN #137 in which creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne wrapped up what is today known as "The Dark Phoenix Saga" in a double-sized issue that … Continue reading FANTASTIC FOUR #286 John Byrne’s Way
I would have to say that arguably X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS is the single best-executed, best-realized single release in Chris Claremont's long time as the writer of the X-Men. It does exactly what the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELs were intended to do: crafts a story with a beginning, middle and end that encapsulates all of … Continue reading X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS Neal Adams’ way
As I talked about some months back, both longtime Marvel editor Ralph Macchio and I were enlisted as unofficial consultants by producer Avi Arad when he was first attempting to get a big budget live action Spider-Man movie off the ground. This amounted to us meeting irregularly to have conversations to talk about the character … Continue reading Giving More Notes on the Spider-Man Movie
The Tom Brevoort Experience 