This book has been on my list to write about for a while now, but given the sad news regarding the health of artist George Perez, it now seems like something I should get too sooner rather than later. For those who are unaware, george has been diagnosed with inoperable and terminal cancer, and he's … Continue reading Personal Best: AVENGERS #1
As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths
One of the things that I tell people when we're talking about the history of Marvel Comics is that one of the amazing things about what those earlier pioneers created is the fact that, if you wait long enough, even the failures become successes. It was true of the Hulk, it was true of the … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #37
STRANGE TALES had been a long-running suspense/monster series that transitioned into becoming a super hero title as the Silver Age got under way. But it was a lesser Marvel title, especially at the early part of that transition, and so back issues were relatively plentiful and relatively affordable when compared with FANTASTIC FOUR or AMAZING … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #111
At this point, there's interest in pretty much any comics from the 1960s and the early Marvel period, but that hasn't always been the case. In particular, the western and girl humor titles of that period remained affordable for years, as did the pre-hero monster/suspense books. As did this series, SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING … Continue reading WC: SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #8
Here's another book that I took ownership of as a part of my Windfall Comics purchase in 1988. I had seen the cover to this issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY before in the pages of George Olshevsky's Marvel Comics Indexes, but I hadn't had the opportunity to read the story before this point. It's an … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #85
I picked up this issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE during that selfsame first visit to The Batcave, the comic book specialty shop located just off of the South Shore Mall, the first ever genuine comic book shop that I had been to. And I bought it for a singular reason: its age. I could tell … Continue reading BHOC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #30
Over the years, DC Comics (mostly while still operating under the name National) would occasionally buy out the rights to characters and titles from other publishers who had either gone out of business or were about to. This is how the original Captain Marvel and his family, Plastic Man, G.I. COMBAT, YOUNG ROMANCE, the Blackhawks … Continue reading 5BC: Five Characters Marvel “Adopted”
Even with the limited output allowed to them under the terms of their distribution deal with Independent News (which only permitted the Marvel of the 1960s to release a certain number of titles every month), Marvel often ran into situations where the talent they had on hand in order to complete everything wasn't enough. During … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Everett & Grandinetti & Friends – The Messy Story of Tales to Astonish #84
It was the scourge of the decade, and virtually every comic book collector of the period experienced it on one occasion or another. You would go to your local newsstand outlet, drug store or convenience store that stocked a spinner rack, pick through it to find exciting new releases, then pay for your books and … Continue reading A Guide To Marvel’s Unannounced 1970s Reprint Issues
The Tom Brevoort Experience 