WC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #160

Editor Mort Weisinger wound up inheriting the oversight on WORLD'S FINEST COMICS in the DC editorial shuffle that passed the flagging Batman titles into the hands of editor Julie Schwartz in the hopes that Julie could reverse their fortunes. One gets the sense that, while he was happy enough to have another series that regularly … Continue reading WC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #160

WC: SUPERMAN #167

Now, this was a noteworthy issue of SUPERMAN for a number of reasons. In addition to being the first time that the Man of Steel's two most persistent enemies, Lex Luthor and Brainiac, met and teamed up, it also introduced an entirely new backstory for Brainiac--up to this point, he's simply been an alien space … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN #167

WC: ACTION COMICS #304

This issue of ACTION COMICS was another book that was part of my haul of around 150 Silver Age comic books that I bought from a guy that I met by coincidence at my local Post Office while mailing something out. The entire box cost me fifty bucks, so each individual issue amounted to an … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #304

WC: SUPERMAN #159

Now this was a thoroughly excellent issue of SUPERMAN, one I acquired as a part of my much-discussed windfall comic book purchase of 1988, wherein I scored about 150 Silver Age vintage comic books for the sum of only $50.00. The SUPERMAN titles during this period were always wildly imaginative, even as they tended to … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN #159

WC: ACTION COMICS #298

You can expect to see a lot more coverage of obscure issues of the less-popular-with-collectors Silver Age titles going forward in this feature, as those are the books that I got the most issues of in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, for obvious reasons. Which didn't at all keep them from being entertaining reads. … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #298

WC: ACTION COMICS #295

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that pink is a great background color for the cover of a super hero comic book. And yet, it got used with some regularity back during the beginning of the Silver Age, most often in my memory on editor Mort Weisinger's Superman titles such as this one. … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #295

Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part 4

And we are back, with the last of our sequence looking at Marvel's archived stats from FANTASTIC FOUR #1 to see what they might tell us about how the book and the stories had been put together. Before we get into the fourth and final section of the issue, though, I want to share something … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part 4

Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part 3

Continuing our sequence looking at Marvel's in-house production stats for FANTASTIC FOUR #1--the closest thing that still exists to the original artwork--and studying them up close to see if they can tell us anything about how the book was put together. So let's go! We're moving into the back half of the issue now, a … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part 3

Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1

As those who have been following this page for some time are aware, there are a bunch of mysteries wrapped up in FANTASTIC FOUR #1, the seminal publication that kicked off the Marvel revolution in the 1960s. There have been several theories as to how this book may have been put together--whether it was all … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1

WC: ACTION COMICS #290

As I spoke about yesterday, there were about 150 comics in the long box I got in my big Windfall Comics score, all of the super hero books. One of the most plentiful titles was ACTION COMICS. Which makes sense--ACTION was one of the biggest selling books of that era, and yet interest in these … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #290