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
When we talk about the forces that came into play in the creation of the original Marvel super heroes, in particular the Fantastic Four and attempt to apportion credit (or blame) between the two men who worked on those early strips, one earlier feature that is inevitably invoked is Jack Kirby's series for DC, CHALLENGERS … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: When Challengers of the Unknown Presaged Fantastic Four
It's maybe hard to believe when viewed from the vantage point of 60 years of additional history, but heading into the Silver Age of Comics, the Atom was at one point a successful and viable character--more viable than, say, Hawkman, whom he beat to having a series to call his own and in gaining membership … Continue reading WC: THE ATOM #16
When the strip was first introduced (in the pages of DETECTIVE COMICS of all places), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Boy Commandos was an immediate sensation. Graduating into its own title several months later, the earliest issues of the series were among the best-selling that DC put out during that period--on a par with SUPERMAN … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: When Brooklyn Was Superman
It was time for a new issue of SUPERMAN FAMILY to drop, and so I dutifully purchased this Dollar Comic from the 7-11 that week. SUPERMAN FAMILY was a bit of an inertial pick-up from me--I wasn't particularly or especially drawn to any of its myriad of strips, and yet I liked Superman and his … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN FAMILY #191
Much as with its sister title ACTION COMICS, ADVENTURE COMICS had adjusted to shrinking page counts by reducing the number of features that it ran from three to two. That second feature position eventually wound up handed over to the Legion of Super Heroes, who promptly took over the entire magazine. But before that, it … Continue reading WC: ADVENTURE COMICS #295
We covered one of the previous SHOWCASE issues featuring the Inferior Five not that long ago--and in fact, here's a link to that piece for anybody who missed it. https://tombrevoort.com/2022/10/15/the-first-hulk-parody/ But the gist is that the Inferior Five were the brainchild of writer E. Nelson Bridwell, originally conceived as a satire of the Fantastic Four … Continue reading The First X-Men Parody
This issue of ACTION COMICS was another book that was part of my haul of around 150 Silver Age comic books that I bought from a guy that I met by coincidence at my local Post Office while mailing something out. The entire box cost me fifty bucks, so each individual issue amounted to an … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #304
In the Golden Age of Comics, it was a real rarity for the stars of any two comic book features to meet one another. It happened occasionally, but outside of the regular get-togethers of the Justice Society of America in ALL-STAR COMICS, it was rare to see two different super heroes occupy space in the … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: When the Star-Spangled Kid met the Caped Crusader
During the Silver Age of Comics, there was a prevailing wisdom that it was the cover that sold the magazine, rather than any quality within the book itself. Comics were largely an impulse purchase on the part of numerous casual young readers, so coming up with a cover image that would grab their imagination and … Continue reading WC: WORLD’S FINEST #151
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