The final series that got launched under the DEFIANT comics banner was PRUDENCE & CAUTION. Like the previous DOGS OF WAR, this title was also a direct spin-off of the company's core WARRIORS OF PLASM book. And as I said when talking about DOGS OF WAR, there doesn't seem to have been any indication that … Continue reading Brand Echh: PRUDENCE & CAUTION #1
A few years back, I wound up on an X-MEN convention panel along with Louise Simonson, and I was able to express just how impossible a bar she'd set for everybody who came after her as an editor on that particular line. In the space of a very short time, she'd finished up the DARK … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #5
One of the new mainstay players in the emerging Direct Sales market comprised of comic book specialty stories in the 1980s was First Comics. An outfit out of Chicago, First boasted an initial eclectic line-up but slowly and surely crystalized into a reliable player in the field. Debuting in 1982, among the series First published … Continue reading FSC: E-MAN #2
UNCANNY X-MEN was on a roll at this point in time, and while this latest issue was something of a transition story, moving events in the direction of resolving some long-percolating plotlines, it was still ultra-enjoyable. These days, this whole era is considered a classic period, but at the time, we just looked at it … Continue reading BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #125
By 1982, Marvel had been making inroads into establishing itself as a children's book publisher as much as a periodical comic book publisher. This was apparently Marvel president Jim Galton's plan for where the future of the organization should lie. He had no idea how the emerging Direct Sales marketplace was going to explode, nor … Continue reading FSC: X-MEN MARVEL ILLUSTRATED Paperback
In my memory, the second volume of the two-book X-MEN COMPANION series that was released by Fantagraphics, the publishers of the Comics Journal, took forever to arrive. But looking back, while the second book was late, it was only by a few months--time goes by slower when you're younger. Anyway, the big difference in what … Continue reading FSC: THE X-MEN COMPANION II
After a steady run, CAPTAIN AMERICA was about to enter the doldrums, a period of frequent fill-ins and creative instability. I obviously didn't know any of that when I picked up this latest issue at the Stationery store, but I did find that I didn't especially care for it. It was fine, but not a … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #237
When it was first launched, there was a veneer of respectability about the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL line. Based on the format of European albums, these books were a place where creators could tell stories that were a bit more sophisticated and adult-oriented than the typical Comics Code-approved fare that filled the pages of the monthly … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #4
A year or two ago, I was on a convention panel where I was able to tell former X-MEN editor Louise Simonson just how much she'd screwed all of those X-MEN editors who came after her with her performance in that role in 1982. An incredible number of high-quality releases came out of the X-Men … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL AND DC PRESENT THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1
At the very end of the 1970s, comic books began to take a cue from network television. There, the concept of a limited series of broadcasts had become popular as important destination viewing, garnering ratings that proved such programming to be attractive to potential viewers. Accordingly, first DC and them Marvel began to experiment with … Continue reading FSC: WOLVERINE Limited Series #1
