Continuing on in our analysis of the construction of the first three issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, our attention now turns to issue #2. But first, a bit of a statement of purpose. Somebody over the course of the last week asked me why I was writing these pieces, what the point I was trying to … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #2
I'm not 100% certain after all this time where I found this issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. I have a gut feeling that it was in a department store or toy store in the Smithhaven Mall, which my family frequented often. Possibly it was a remnant of one of those 3-Bags of comics that were once … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #173
Seems as though people were pretty interested in the first installment of this particular topic: in the short time that this page has been operating, nothing has drawn anything close to the number of views that piece has. Which is great! What's also great is the amount of discussion that the initial installment generated, as … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part Two
FANTASTIC FOUR #1 was the beginning of what would grow into the Marvel Age of Comics, where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revolutionized the field and unleashed a wave of characters and concept that have achieved worldwide popularity and renown in the decades since. So it's now seen as an important issue. And from what … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part One
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, both on the left, at the National Cartoonists Society in 1966 A few years ago, over at the Marvel Age of Comics Tumblr account, I did a string of posts over a period of three days analyzing the first three issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, the opening salvo of the Marvel … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: Introduction
We start off this time with a bit of a forgotten masterpiece (despite the fact that it's been reprinted at least once.) This issue of INCREDIBLE HULK, with its horrifying story of children and cannibalism packed a punch and really stayed with you--top notch work by writer Len Wein and illustrators Jim Starlin and Alfredo … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1978
Another older issue of FANTASTIC FOUR that showed up one day in the drug store's big bin of slightly-older comics. This was the oldest issue I had found to date. Reading these stories, particularly in this sequence, was a little bit like putting a puzzle together. There'd be some bit of information presented in one … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #170
The big bin of slightly-older comics at my local drug store chain continued to toss up additional treasures as the summer went on, often ones older and older than the ones that had preceded it. So the next issue of FANTASTIC FOUR I found therein was this one, the oldest I'd yet encountered. That's a … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #172
A new issue of what was rapidly becoming my favorite comic book turned up at my local 7-11, and at this point I was clearly an avowed FANTASTIC FOUR reader, if not truly a full-on Marvel convert quite yet. (That event would take place in a few weeks.) A lot of that had to do … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #188
The other issue of MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS that had turned up in my drug store’s big bin of slightly-older comics was this one, the start of a four-part Doctor Doom sequence inspired by the television series The Prisoner. I hadn’t seen the Prisoner at the time when I first bought this issue, so it seemed … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #66
The Tom Brevoort Experience 