This week brought another issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, the third and concluding chapter to the League's body-swapping adventure with the Secret Society of Super-Villains, a group whose short-lived series I was a big fan of. This story was also influential on novelist and future DC writer Brad Meltzer, who made it a key … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #168
I would occasionally venture over to my friend Don Sims' house across town, located several blocks behind my regular 7-11 haunt (which became a communal space for us on Thursdays) down on the access road that paralleled the Long Island Expressway. Don had a nice little collection of comic books, including a bunch that had … Continue reading BC: FOREVER PEOPLE #1
I'm not certain what compelled me to pick up this issue of BATMAN on my weekly trip to my local 7-11 for comics. It could simply have been a function of me having a bit more change to my name than usual and deciding to branch out a bit further. At some point during this … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #313
By the time 1946 rolled around, the excitement over costumed super heroes had cooled considerably on the nation's newsstands. With the war over, the active servicemen who needed portable easy-to-read entertainment went back to public life, and sales of super hero titles fell sharply. Other genres, such as teen humor, funny animals, crime, romance and … Continue reading The Last Starman Story
By 1941, ADVENTURE COMICS was lagging a bit behind DC's other anthology titles, in particular ACTION COMICS which held the popular feature Superman and DETECTIVE COMICS with Batman and Robin. ADVENTURE's headliner Hour-Man clearly wasn't getting the job done, nor was the gas-mask-wearing Sandman. Clearly what was needed was a new feature with popular appeal. … Continue reading The Second Starman Story
Like the Green Arrow who we talked about last week, Aquaman was another of three features created to fill the back pages of the ailing MORE FUN COMICS and hopefully reverse its fortunes by creating some additional reader interest. The Sea King was the brainchild of newly-hired editor Mort Weisinger, who collaborated with artist Paul … Continue reading The Second Aquaman Story
When editor Mort Weisinger was first hired by DC Comics (then Detective Comics Inc) in 1941, one of the first tasks he was given was to improve the fortunes of one of the firm's longest-running titles, MORE FUN COMICS. The popularity of headliner characters Doctor Fate and Jerry Siegel's The Spectre were lagging behind the … Continue reading The Second Green Arrow Story
And so finally we come to the end of our journey through the pages of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the second of two volumes of material that remained unpublished in the wake of the DC Implosion of 1978 that saw the company's output reduced by 40%. A total of 35 copies were made, one each … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: VIXEN #1
We spoke a bit previously about Johnny Quick, DC's alternative super-speedster who occupied the back pages of first MORE FUN COMICS and then ADVENTURE COMICS during the Golden Age of Comics. Johnny was a long-running second banana character whose adventures were typically better-drawn than the company's more mainstay fast hero, the Flash. But also, as … Continue reading The Last Johnny Quick Story
As before, here's another chunk of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the home-printed collection of material intended for print but spiked by the DC Implosion, created to secure copyright and trademark on the material. This time out, we're looking at material intended to comprise STEEL: THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #6, written and created by Gerry Conway and … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: STEEL #6
The Tom Brevoort Experience 