I turned twelve years old around this time, and while I don't especially remember anything about that event, there were two other things that happened in that same week that I'll never forget. I first saw an advertisement for the live action LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES specials in one of my family's regular newspapers--we got … Continue reading BHOC: LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES AND CAPTAIN AMERICA
Well, not quite. For the members of the Justice Society of America, most of them made their final appearance of the Golden Age of Comics in the last JSA adventure, published in ALL-STAR COMICS #57 in December of 1950. But before that, many of the heroes' home anthology series came to an end, and with … Continue reading The Last Hawkman Story
With a big Omnibus collecting all of them coming out any time, my mind has been drawn to the assorted authorized crossovers undertaken by rival companies Marvel and DC over the years. Some of those stories were triumphs, sagas that compared and contrasted the characters involved skillfully, and which were just crackerjack entertaining in their … Continue reading 5BC: Five Middling Marvel/DC Crossover Books
The legend surrounding the origins of Superman has been codified into a sort of simplistic myth-version over the years, the story of two young friends who had a world-beater of an idea, pursued it over the course of half a decade, facing rejection and ridicule along the way, only for it to turn out to … Continue reading The Seldom-Seen Jerry Siegel & Russell Keaton SUPERMAN samples
Having dedicated themselves to making strides within the new Direct Sales marketplace, an arena in which Marvel had up to this point been overwhelmingly outselling pretty much everybody, DC produced a number of issues of DC SAMPLER, an overview and preview of their line intended to be given out at comic book specialty stores across … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #3
I didn't know it at the time when this issue first came out, but this would be the final issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA edited by its founding editor, Julius Schwartz. He remained the last connection point with the series' origination, and his aesthetic definitely influenced the direction and the flavor of the comic … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #165
It had happened again. I had missed another issue of THE FLASH. Having never seen nor bought #269, now #271 proved elusive to me. And honestly, ever since my subscription had lapsed with issue #261, I was having the devil's own time following the book regularly. You might think this would have prompted me to … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #272
For almost the entirety of its run, I had been a regular reader of BATMAN FAMILY. But during the famous DC Implosion, in which DC's publishing line was significantly pruned back, BATMAN FAMILY had been merged with DETECTIVE COMICS in an effort to keep the series that the company had been named after alive. Clearly, … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #483
Over the course of comic book history, the fortunes of super heroes as a genre waxed and waned as tastes changed and the marketplace shifted. This led to moments where a series that was once popular had fallen upon hard times or was seen as being out of step with the era, and needed to … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Two Heroes Were Better Than One
Super heroes as a genre were on their way out as the 1960s turned into the 1970s and the super hero fad that had driven success throughout the silver age fell away. But this meant that publishers were more encouraged to experiment than they had been previously in an attempt to stave off cancellation--and every … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Best Comic Books of 1970
The Tom Brevoort Experience 