5BC: Five Comics That Almost Got Me Fired

This is a bit of a break from our usual fare here, more in keeping with the Blah Blah Blog segments that I repost from my old Marvel blog that were relevant to my work situation. But I typically refrain from talking about that kind of thing here, as it seems somehow immodest and self-serving … Continue reading 5BC: Five Comics That Almost Got Me Fired

Lee & Kirby: THE CHARACTER WRITE-UPS OF STAN LEE

I'm fairly certain that I came across these documents at Scott Edelman's blog. In any case, Scott was one of those who found these documents preserved in the back of a drawer in the Marvel offices and hung onto them. Around 1966, as Marvel was beginning to make its first faltering in-roads into other media, … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE CHARACTER WRITE-UPS OF STAN LEE

Lee & Kirby: The 1966 Testimony of Jack Kirby

In the mid-1960s, thanks to the way that copyright law was set up at the time, Captain America co-creator Joe Simon filed legal paperwork in an opportunity to win back the rights to the Star-Spangled Avenger and the work that he and Jack Kirby and a variety of other hands had performed in the first … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The 1966 Testimony of Jack Kirby

5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains

Feels like it's been quite a while since I put together one of these surveys of absurdity. So what say we take a look at five more Marvel villains from the past who tried their hardest, but who somehow failed that ineffable test towards being legitimately dangerous--and who instead came across as ridiculous, absurd, and … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains

Television’s First Captain America

When the syndicated Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon debuted in the fall of 1966, it was fashioned in such a way that each individual station could run it in whatever manner they pleased. As every story had been broken up into three 7-minute chapters, there was the freedom to mix and match segments, or to run an … Continue reading Television’s First Captain America

CAPTAIN AMERICA #208

This is another old cover that triggers no nostalgia for me, because I got my copy of CAPTAIN AMERICA #208 out of one of those plastic-wrapped packages of coverless comics sold by my local Drug Store. These were books where the covers had been stripped and returned to the publisher for credit, but the insides … Continue reading CAPTAIN AMERICA #208

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #223

By this point in my life, things had settled down into a rhythm. I was somehow bringing in enough spending money where I could afford to go to the 7-11 every week on Thursday to buy the new comics I wanted. I was doing this largely through a combination of saving the money my parents … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #223

BHOC: MARVEL SUPER ACTION #2

This is one of those comics where I'm not 100% certain where I got it from, or when. But I think it turned up in a 3-Bag at around the same period as IRON MAN #100 and AVENGERS #161--it's of the same relative vintage anyway. So let's go with that. During the 1970s, as a … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER ACTION #2

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.

Secrets Behind The Comics 4

Continuing on in our review of this 1947 behind-the-scenes pamphlet published by Timely editor Stan Lee Here, Stan brings back Mario Acquaviva to talk about the skills involved in lettering comics, and he shows off some pages from a recent Sub-Mariner story. I have no idea where this story actually ran, so I can't pull … Continue reading Secrets Behind The Comics 4