In 1953, after an absence on the newsstands of four years, Martin Goodman resurrected his company's three big successful super hero characters from the 1940s; Captain America, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. By all accounts, this decision to bring back these heroes appears to be in response to the strong reaction the new ADVENTURES … Continue reading The Last Sub-Mariner Story (of the 1950s)
It would have been at about this time that I read the Pete Hamill column in the New York Daily News that is reproduced at the link below, which had a huge impact on me. As I describe in that piece, while Hamill's writing about his friend Casey was intended to underscore the emptiness and … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #327
it cannot be overstated how much of an impact the 1950s ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN had in keeping both the character and the entire comic book business alive and vibrant throughout that decade and the next. While the Man of Steel was a red-hot fad at the start of the 1940s when he first burst onto … Continue reading TV Guide: How They Make Superman Fly
Here is another issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN that I got in my Windfall purchase of 1988, when I bought a long box of around 150 silver age comics for $50.00, the best lucky stroke I've ever encountered in terms of collecting vintage comic books. It seems strange to modern sensibilities that a character … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #36
This issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN was I believe the oldest book that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of about 150 prime Silver Age comic books for $50.00 in 1988. It's really a pre-Silver Age 1950s issue in tone and spirit, and a good example of the kinds of stories the Superman … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #23
After the piece we ran a couple of weeks back on former DC publisher Irwin Donenfeld's big book where he would chart the sales figures of the various DC titles on an issue-by-issue basis in an attempt to ascertain what elements might make a given issue of a comic book sell better, a bunch of … Continue reading More of the Sales Figures of DC’s Irwin Donenfeld
This issue of ACTION COMICS was heavily advertised in DC house ads in the weeks leading up to its release, and so I was prepared for it to show up on the spinner rack at my local 7-11. And as you'd expect, it was being promoted as the for-real, no-fooling story of Superman marrying Lois … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #484
I was excited to get my hands on this issue of BLACK LIGHTNING after the cliffhanger of the previous one, where the new crime-fighter found himself confronted by an angry Superman. And the issue was pretty good! The one place it really fell down is in the incomplete inking of Vince Colletta. I know that … Continue reading BHOC: BLACK LIGHTNING #5
The Tom Brevoort Experience 