We've talked a bit here about CHARLTON BULLSEYE, Charlton's last gasp attempt at producing new content by soliciting work gratis from fans and would-be creators. Publication would be the only compensation that such hopefuls would receive--but undaunted, and sensing an opportunity to have their work distributed from coast to coast, the response was overwhelming. Honestly, … Continue reading Brand Echh: Charlton Bullseye #7
This one isn't about a comic book feature that saw print but rather one that didn't--at least not in its original intended form. SHOWCASE was the round-robin series that would move from editor to editor throughout the DC stable, each of whom was expected to debut some new feature within its pages as a try-out … Continue reading SHOWCASE #50 and the Non-History of Yankee Doodle Dandy
This is, I think, one of the most discussed comic book stories of all time, so I don't know that I'm going to have a whole lot that's new to add to the conversation. What I can bring to the table is some personal perspective. I would have been 19 years old in 1986 when … Continue reading Perfect Game – BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, Book One
SHOWCASE was a bit of an institution in the latter half of the 1950s and the 1960s. It was a series that birthed a great number of characters and series that would go on to star in their own titles. It was the experimental laboratory in which DC tested out new ideas for comic books, … Continue reading WC: SHOWCASE #39
While suprise reprints were something of a scourge over at Marvel Comics during the in 1970s, they were an almost unheard of occurence in rival DC's titles. Which is what makes this issue of ACTION COMICS such a surprise. Behind a dynamic new cover by Neal Adams (a different version of the image that he … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #485
This is a story that's been kicking around for a number of years now, and yet, despite the fact that the pencils for this job are complete, it's never been finished or published officially. It's a short 10-page Wonder Woman adventure produced in the late 1970s, and if nothing else, it gives us the rare … Continue reading Wonder Woman and the Unpublished Pencils of Curt Swan
Another title that I got a few issues of in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988 was MYSTERY IN SPACE. It was one of a pair of titles edited by Julie Schwartz (the other was STRANGE ADVENTURES) devoted to science fiction adventures, a big genre in the late 1950s. This was the earliest one in … Continue reading WC: MYSTERY IN SPACE #54
On Thursday it was back to the 7-11 for a look at what new comic books had appeared upon the spinner rack in the back corner. This had become a regular weekly pilgrimage for me, one that I took with absolute regularity barring those times when some other requirement or responsibility prevented me from doing … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #106
In the latter part of the 1960s, change was beginning to be felt within the halls of venerable old DC Comics (then operating as National Periodical Publications.) The culture at large was going through a shift, and so the tried-and-true methodology that had kept the giant publisher on top was no longer working as well … Continue reading TEEN TITANS #20: Titans Don’t Fit the Battle of Jericho
Just as with Jimmy Olsen, whose title we covered here a few weeks ago, so too was Lois Lane popular enough throughout the 1960s to headline a series all her won. This is thinks in no small part, I expect, to the portrayal of actress Noel Neill in the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN television series, which … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE #24
