REAL FACT COMICS #5 and the True Story of Batman and Robin

I promised Jerry Ordway that I would do a piece on this particular story, and given that Batman Day was this weekend, it seems like a fitting moment to revisit this story. REAL FACT COMICS was a post-war innovation on the part of DC Comics. It was part of a small but widely-spoken-of effort to … Continue reading REAL FACT COMICS #5 and the True Story of Batman and Robin

WC: DETECTIVE COMICS #319

Among the books that I acquired as part of my Windfall Comics purchase, there were a number of issues of DETECTIVE COMICS. Which stands to reason--the title was one of the very few books to continue to be published uninterrupted from the Golden Age all the way through to the Silver, thanks to the abiding … Continue reading WC: DETECTIVE COMICS #319

WC: BATMAN #146

It must be said that in the early 1960s, BATMAN was a weird comic book. The Caped Crusader was still popular, he was holding down regular positions in not only his self-titled series but also in DETECTIVE COMICS and WORLD'S FINEST (and occasionally appearing in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA whenever his editor Jack Schiff's back … Continue reading WC: BATMAN #146

BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #142

This one would have been an impulse purchase, I think, when it arrived at my local 7-11. I wasn't reading BRAVE AND THE BOLD religiously, though I had picked up a number of the recent issues. Typically, it would all depend on who the guest star was, because I'd worked out that the style of … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #142

WC: ACTION COMICS #290

As I spoke about yesterday, there were about 150 comics in the long box I got in my big Windfall Comics score, all of the super hero books. One of the most plentiful titles was ACTION COMICS. Which makes sense--ACTION was one of the biggest selling books of that era, and yet interest in these … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #290

BHOC: BATMAN #301

I believe this issue of BATMAN was bought by my younger brother Ken--which may help to explain why I remember so little about it. Ken would go through these periods when he'd become interested in a particular character or title, follow it for a little while, then drop it and pretty much never mention it … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #301

The Sales Figures of DC’s Irwin Donenfeld

Irwin Donenfeld was the publisher and editorial director of DC Comics (then known as National Comics and National Periodical Publications) for most of the 1950s and 1960s. Irwin was the son of the firm's founder and majority owner Harry Donenfeld, and he was groomed from a young age to play a role in the family … Continue reading The Sales Figures of DC’s Irwin Donenfeld

Brand Echh: Mighty Comics #40

By 1966, the super Hero fad of the 1960s was in full swing, propelled to the forefront of popular culture by the debut of the BATMAN television show, which became a short-lived national obsession. BATMAN's mix of straightforward heroics with broad self-deprecating humor made it the poster child for middle America in terms of defining … Continue reading Brand Echh: Mighty Comics #40

BHOC: BATMAN #278

Every once in a while I would run across comics in strange places. So it was with this issue of BATMAN, which turned up in the toy department of a particular department store--it was the only comic book in the place, and it had been stickered to move at a quarter. So I bought it. … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #278

TBTV: The Five Best Comic Books of 1974

https://youtu.be/CfCI_B47Ox4 Another new bit of video content, this time showcasing my selections for the five best single issue comic books released during the year 1974.