Throughout the 1970s, as he removed himself more and more from the specifics of writing and putting together comics, Stan Lee, now Marvel's Publisher (and briefly its President) spent a lot of his time doing publicity for the firm--and for himself as its charismatic and creative wellspring. These pieces certainly tended to over-inflate Stan's creative … Continue reading OUI v6 #3: Conversation with Stan Lee
Now this was a bit of a surprise when I rolled up into the 7-11 that week. Up until this point, MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION had featured reprints of earlier issues of AVENGERS. But with no warning whatsoever, this latest one instead contained a classic issue of X-MEN. The clue as to the reason was apparent … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #45
As the Direct Sales comic book market opened up as a viable alternative to mainstream distribution at the start of the 1980s, all sorts of different publishers leapt into the fray with their own offerings, hoping to strike it big. More than a few of these were initially offered as black and white magazines along … Continue reading Brand Echh: Galaxia #1
Last time out, we looked at the proposal for another potential sequel to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the "Villain Crossover" as masterminded by a small consortium of DC editors and creators. As we know in hindsight, this storyline was never put into production, and eventually the story that became LEGENDS was used in its place. … Continue reading Crisis II – The Villain Crossover: Responses
There was a slow but steady transformation of the Marvel titles under editor Jim Shooter. When he was given the job, Shooter realized that no single editor could shepherd the huge number of releases that Marvel was then putting out. So he went about slowly building up a staff of editors, each one of whom … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #228
This issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY featuring Thor was another one that I came by as part of my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, wherein I paid a guy I had bumped into at the Post Office $50.00 for a long box filled with close to 150 Silver Age comic books. It was the best … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #121
In 1947, Stan Lee had been working for Timely Comics for pretty much his entire adult life, beginning in 1940. He had gone off to war, married, and was now ready to spread his wings and attempt some other ventures. By that same token, Stan also had overhead--a new wife to support--and so he wasn't … Continue reading WRITER’S DIGEST Vol. 27, #12: There’s Money In Comics!
At about this time, I entered Sixth Grade in Elementary School, which would prove to be a year of some significance in my overall journey. I wound up once again in the same class as my comics-reading pal Donald Sims, the last time we'd share classes together, so already I was on somewhat firm and … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #187
While Golden Age publishers in general were relatively averse to having the stars of their assorted strips meet and team up on any sort of regular basis, the folks at DC/National Comics were a little bit more open to the idea of an occasional appearance or reference. Especially when it came to the features and … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: FLASH COMICS #77
We've been looking at some of the ideas that surfaced for what to do as a follow-up to DC's ultra successful 50th Anniversary Crossover limited series CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, which were being discussed and debated well before CRISIS had itself run its course. In the end, a number of different ideas were explored and … Continue reading Crisis II – The Villain Crossover
The Tom Brevoort Experience 