In 1973, there was a growing segment of comic book fandom made up of people who aspired to enter the field themselves. A number had already crossed that threshold in the later 1960s, but the floodgates were thrown open wide in the early 1970s--for all that the field was in pretty bad shape and getting … Continue reading The Comic Book Guide For The Artist-Writer-Letterer
As anybody who knows me knows, my favorite Marvel comic book is FANTASTIC FOUR. It was my entranceway into the Marvel Universe in the first place, and it and its characters remained close to my heart. Once I became a full-fledged editor, I made it very clear to people that the next time there was … Continue reading Personal Best: FANTASTIC FOUR #60
This one isn't about a comic book feature that saw print but rather one that didn't--at least not in its original intended form. SHOWCASE was the round-robin series that would move from editor to editor throughout the DC stable, each of whom was expected to debut some new feature within its pages as a try-out … Continue reading SHOWCASE #50 and the Non-History of Yankee Doodle Dandy
This is a story that's been kicking around for a number of years now, and yet, despite the fact that the pencils for this job are complete, it's never been finished or published officially. It's a short 10-page Wonder Woman adventure produced in the late 1970s, and if nothing else, it gives us the rare … Continue reading Wonder Woman and the Unpublished Pencils of Curt Swan
In the latter part of the 1960s, change was beginning to be felt within the halls of venerable old DC Comics (then operating as National Periodical Publications.) The culture at large was going through a shift, and so the tried-and-true methodology that had kept the giant publisher on top was no longer working as well … Continue reading TEEN TITANS #20: Titans Don’t Fit the Battle of Jericho
The SHAZAM Award given out by the Academy of Comic Book Arts for Best Dramatic Story in 1972 went to a memorable short piece that ran in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #201. It was written by John Albano, drawn by the great Jim Aparo and edited by Joe Orlando. It was titled "The Demon Within", and … Continue reading Making “The Demon Within”
This post is going to wind up being virtually identical to the one I did a few years back on the 3M to the cover of FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5, but as I came across a similar 3M for FANTASTIC FOUR #63 in the wild, I thought it was still worth sharing with everybody here. … Continue reading 3M Cover Proof – FANTASTIC FOUR #63
It's somehow a little bit too self-aggrandizing for me to talk about any of the comics I've edited over the years as a PERFECT GAME, the category that I might have featured this issue under. Given that it won the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2016, though, I feel as though there's a … Continue reading Personal Best: SILVER SURFER #11
The first and apparently only issue of the Mighty Marvel Messenger was published in the opening months of 1967--it's announced on the Bullpen Bulletins page of Marvel titles cover-dated June 1967--and sent for free to all current members of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. It was a little four-page newsletter fanzine that gave some promotional … Continue reading The Merry Marvel Messenger
Here's another look at some sales figures, these ones from the Direct Sales marketplace of comic book specialty shops in June of 1990--the month in which Todd McFarlane's SPIDER-MAN #1 launched. This document was compiled by Carol Kalish, then the head of Marvel's Sales Department and an important and largely-forgotten figure in comic book history. … Continue reading The Direct Market Sales Figures of Marvel’s Carol Kalish
The Tom Brevoort Experience 