That enormous banner touting the fact that DC's line has shrunk back down to a 32 page package for twenty cents does this piece a little bit of damage--not only does its color scheme not integrate well into the aesthetic of this piece, but it also causes the logo to crowd the head of the … Continue reading Great Covers: PHANTOM STRANGER #20
I remember this issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN as being pretty good, even though it's been likely decades since I last read it. It headlined another Imaginary Story, editor Mort Weisinger's way of allowing his writers to work outside of the confines of the tight continuity that he'd established across all of the Superman … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #56
I've mentioned before that my father worked at Chase Manhattan Bank out of a branch in the same Levittown Mall location that housed a Heroes World store. And so, needing somebody to perform a massive data-sorting project, one day he made a deal with me: if I would go to work with him on a … Continue reading BHOC: DOOM PATROL #91
This was a noteworthy issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, though not for especially good reasons. Because this was the final issue to be edited by Jack Schiff before the Batman titles were moved over into Julie Schwartz's editorial stable in an attempt to buoy their sinking sales. And one glance at this cover tells you precisely … Continue reading WC: DETECTIVE COMICS #326
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
The Tom Brevoort Experience 