This issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA turned up at the 7-11 the next time I visited there. The series had been somewhat shaky for months, ever since the departure of Jack Kirby. it was plagued with back-ups and fill-ins, and so its running storyline concerning Steve Rogers attempting to learn more about his past prior to … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #227
If there's one thing that's become apparent over the past 80 years of comic book publishing, it's that death sells. The demise of a beloved character can create great interest in a series, as well as potentially delivering an emotional impact that the audience will remember. The whole job of storytelling is to evoke a … Continue reading The First Marvel Fatality
Here is another example of the phenomenon that we looked at last time: a perfectly fine cover image by Jack Kirby that has been deliberately colored in such a way as to render it unattractive and unappealing. As I said last time, going to this sort of monochromatic color scheme was a last ditch move … Continue reading (Not So) Great Covers: FANTASTIC FOUR #81 (and MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #63)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #186 represented something of a turning point for the character, as new writer Marv Wolfman began charting out the direction he wanted to take the wall-crawler's life in next. Last issue saw Peter Parker graduate from college, which seemed monumental for a series so associated with that environment, and now he was ready … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #186
Now this is one of my favorite Justice League stories of all time. The fact that I read it as a reprint at a very young and impressionable age probably has something to do with that. But also, it played upon one of my personal fears as a child. Having watched an especially terrifying episode … Continue reading WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #19
A further look at CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1, the home-printed volume comprised of stories that DC Comics was writing off as their line was dramatically downsized in 1978 in what became known as the DC Implosion. CLAW THE UNCONQUERED, one of DC's more successful series in capturing a percentage of the market for barbarian sword … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1: CLAW THE UNCONQUERED #14
The second half of this year's annual Justice League/Justice Society team-up story turned up around here. In recent years, apparently not thinking that an absolute mob of super heroes from two worlds was enough, editor Julie Schwartz and his writers had taken to mixing in additional characters and elements from yet others. So different years … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #160
It's been a year and a half since I last wrote about comedian Jerry Lewis' team-ups with the core DC super heroes in the pages of his implausibly long-running comic book series, so it's probably time to tick this final one off of the list. Having previously rubbed shoulders in prior years with Batman and … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: Jerry Lewis Meets Wonder Woman
You'd see this happen from time to time in the mid- to late-1960s on the Marvel books. There's be a cover like this one that somebody--either editor Stan Lee or publisher Martin Goodman--didn't like, feeling that it was too cluttered and difficult to read from a distance, and it would get colored in a horrific … Continue reading (Not So) Great Covers: THOR #153
My regular 7-11 still wasn't getting copies of THE FLASH, so I wound up keeping up with the title by running across them in other further-off locations, during family shopping trips and the like. And so, I came across this particular issue at a distant 7-11 that was across the street from the fast food … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #267
The Tom Brevoort Experience 