After fifteen issues in which other artists illustrated his stories, Matt Wagner returned to both write and draw this and the following three issues, a flashback tale to the time of the original Grendel, Hunter Rose. Besting WATCHMEN, Wagner subdivided each page into 25 panel areas, carrying out his story with masterful syncopation. The back-up … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1988
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
It's impossible to encapsulate how seismic the effect of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was on the field of comic books. Not only did it introduce a more prestigious package for comics (and a then-unheard-of cover price of $2.95) but interest in the series also inaugurated the now-common process of repackaging collections of recent storylines into … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Best Comic Books of 1986
Here's another book that was bought for my brother, Ken--it seems as though at this time, he was trying to match me book-for-book. And eventually it ended up with me in any case. That's a pretty dramatic cover by Sal Amendola. I wasn't as wild about his work on the interior of the book--he took … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #296
Shortly thereafter, my local mailman also brought me my subscription copy of that month's issue of THE FLASH. I have to admit, this cover really freaked me out when I was younger. There was something about the manner in which the Flash's skin was melting off his bones that I found especially disturbing. When coming … Continue reading BHOC: FLASH #258
I bought this comic on our regular weekly trip to the supermarket. During this time, they had started carrying a few comics, mostly DC's Dollar Comics and a few other higher-priced items. This Special had been promoted in ads over the course of the past month, so it had an air of being special about … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #8
I got this issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD while on another shopping trip, in a store where the selection of titles was rather limited. I was beginning to follow the book semi-regularly despite the fact that it was often weird, that writer Bob Haney's approach to super heroes and continuity wasn't really in tune … Continue reading BHOC: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #139
It's been bettered but never equaled, the granddaddy of all inter-company crossovers. At a time when a comic book featuring Superman and rival Spider-Man sharing the same pages was a positively shocking idea, this enormous tabloid spent its 100 pages synthesizing the narrative styles of both the DC and Marvel house approaches into a single … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Marvel/DC Crossovers
My brother Ken also dabbled around with super hero comics from time to time, which is where this issue of BATMAN came from--it's another that was purchased for him but which I eventually wound up with.I liked Batman well enough, but in this period I found his adventures a bit too colorless for my tastes, … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #295
I was regularly haunting the section of the Sachem Public Library that contained books on or about comics, not just for that elusive copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS (which I never did find there) but also for anything else of interest. I took out and read a bunch of books from that section, many … Continue reading BHOC: ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME
The Tom Brevoort Experience 