As the 1940s transitioned into the 1950s, the heyday of the typical costumed super hero appeared to be in its twilight. While big marquee characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman continued to post sufficient sales to continue in their respective titles, all across the field, other less fortunate crusaders were hanging up their … Continue reading The First Silver Age DC Super Hero
During that first excursion to Ed's Coins and Stamps, I did what I always tended to do in these situations: I bought the oldest issue of a key comic book series that I could afford. In this instance, that turned out to be THE FLASH #130, which was my oldest issue of the title for … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #130
Archie Comics' attempt to get back into the super hero marketplace in 1983 under their Red Circle imprint was, by all accounts, a bit of a mess. It was an experiment that played itself out over around two years, and which produced some interesting experiments as well as a bunch of just out-and-out junk. The … Continue reading Brand Echh: The Comet #1
A good deal away from my family's home in Farmingville was the Sun-Vet Mall, situated at the intersection of Sunrise Highway and Veteran's Highway. It was too distant to be any sort of regular shopping destination for my parents, but they did wind up going there occasionally despite the distance--there must have been some specific … Continue reading BHOC: FLASH #179
It's been well covered over the years that in 1964, with sales flagging thanks to editor Jack Schiff clinging to an outdated approach to the character as the Silver Age blossomed, the reins of the Caped Crusader's two titles were handed over to editor Julie Schwartz, in the hopes that Schwartz, who'd had a lot … Continue reading WC: DETECTIVE COMICS #329
It's an argument that comes up every couple of months like clockwork, especially when some new film or television project is announced. There are always those that espouse that Batman, in order to be treated realistically, should carry and use a gun. And these people inevitably point to the character's earliest days as justification, talking … Continue reading When Batman Used A Gun
As more and more of these pieces get written, we begin to get down to those titles that had a number of different issues within that Windfall Comics box that I bought for $50.00 back in 1988. Which is to say, expect to see a preponderance of Mort Weisinger-era Superman titles in the weeks ahead. … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #305
This issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD was the first released under the auspices of the DC Explosion, which saw the line increating its cover price to 50 cents a copy from 35 while adding additional pages of material. Here, the Human Target, a feature that briefly ran in the back pages of ACTION COMICS … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #143
This was another wonderful issue of MYSTERY IN SPACE that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. Just looking at the book, you can get a sense as to how much more invested editor Julie Schwartz was when working on science fiction material. He'd started out as an SF fan, and eventually found … Continue reading WC: MYSTERY IN SPACE #68
I've spoken before about how the very first comic shop I ever encountered, the Heroes World outlet in Levittown, New York, was situated in the same shopping complex where my father worked for Chase Manhattan Bank. What this meant practically is that I could occasionally prevail upon him to stop by the store on his … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #102
The Tom Brevoort Experience 