The reason i borrowed this issue of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS from my grade school friend Donald Sims should be fairly obvious to anybody who has been reading this page for any length of time: I was enamored of DC's 100-Page Super-Spectacular format. I loved these big, fat books, a mixture of a new story or … Continue reading BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #224
There would typically be some specific reason why I asked to borrow a particular comic book from my grade school friend Donald Sims. Usually, it was because I'd gotten interested in a specific character and was invested in learning more about them. So it was with this 100-Page issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, which I borrowed … Continue reading BC: DETECTIVE COMICS #441
Now this was another comic book that I welcomed--not so much for the lead Thunderbolt story as for the back-up featuring my new obscure favorites, the Sentinels. As with the other issue I had sampled, this one was reissued by Modern Comics in the 1970s. They had contracted to provide and sell 3-Bags of comic … Continue reading BHOC: THUNDERBOLT #58
The entirety of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's BATMAN: YEAR ONE story was must reading, and this final installment wrapped the story up beautifully--a story more of hard-boiled cop Jim Gordon than really of Batman (who doesn't appear in costume all that much throughout it. ) Mazzucchelli channels the best attributes of Alex Toth in … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1987
Back in the days when he was the Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, Jim Shooter had a particular story that he liked to use as an example when explaining to people what he thought needed to be on the page in a well-crafted Marvel story. It was this one, the Human Torch story from … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Narrative Techniques of Jack Kirby
One more book from the Modern Comics 3-Bags reprinting vintage Charlton releases, VENGEANCE SQUAD was very much of a kind with a lot of Charlton’s output during the 1970s: it resembled a low-budget television show, it lacked in personality and individuality, and it was a bit shoddy and dull. The key thing that got it … Continue reading BHOC: VENGEANCE SQUAD #6
My Uncle Jerry Blazer was a house-painted by trade. He and his wife, my Aunt Clementine, lived with my grandparents in a big house that they’d all moved into simultaneously around 1955. So he was a constant fixture in my life, though not seen quite so often as my Grandparents were. He was also the … Continue reading BHOC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #226
This was another Treasury Edition that I loved. I can recall intending to duplicate Dick Giordano’s cover as an art entry in a Block party art contest that summer–it would also be used as the basis for a key frame in the opening credits to CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER-FRIENDS. More interesting to me, the back … Continue reading BHOC: LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION #C-46
I had just begun third grade when I bought this SUPER-FRIENDS treasury edition. And it represented a bit of a leap on my part. As much as I watched it every Saturday morning, I felt that Super-Friends was more kiddie than the regular comics I’d been reading, and thus somehow beneath my level as a … Continue reading BHOC: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION #C-41
This is a fanzine cover, rather than an actual comic book cover, but it’s just too good to pass up. Here, Alex Toth, the master of minimalism, creates a fully-realized depiction of an alien fighter attack on an unwary ship, using design and the stark contrast between black and white to convey the information. It … Continue reading Great Covers – CONTEMPORARY PICTORIAL LITERATURE #11
The Tom Brevoort Experience 