I didn't know it at the time when this issue first came out, but this would be the final issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA edited by its founding editor, Julius Schwartz. He remained the last connection point with the series' origination, and his aesthetic definitely influenced the direction and the flavor of the comic … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #165
Over the course of comic book history, the fortunes of super heroes as a genre waxed and waned as tastes changed and the marketplace shifted. This led to moments where a series that was once popular had fallen upon hard times or was seen as being out of step with the era, and needed to … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Two Heroes Were Better Than One
If there's one thing that DC did well in the early 1980s, it was producing oversized anniversary issues. They wound up doing a bunch of these, and almost all of them are exceptional in one way or another. This one is no exception, a key moment in Batman history. But still, this was my final … Continue reading GH: DETECTIVE COMICS #526
I had sort of fallen into the habit of buying SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES after having sampled the previous issues. It was a series that I always wanted to like--it seemed right up my alley, with a large and diverse cast of cool super heroes. But the stories often felt "off" to my … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #249
PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN had, for most of its run, been a weak sister second title to the main Spidey series, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. While there had been some good stories along the way, PPSSM operated in the shadow of ASM, never entirely carrying its own weight, and inevitably staffed by talent that wasn't yet … Continue reading GH: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #79
MARVEL TEAM-UP had been practically from its inception a meat-and-potatoes sort of a comic book. Which is to say that it's aspirations were rarely higher than just entertaining an audience for twenty minutes with a solid story. It wasn't trying to stretch the medium or produce works for the ages. MARVEL TEAM-UP was a product, … Continue reading GH: MARVEL TEAM-UP #130
Back at Christmas 1978, I was working my way through the fourth and latest release in the ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS line of Trade Paperbacks from Simon & Schuster: THE SUPERHERO WOMEN. This book was a bit more of a mixed bag than the earlier ones and relied more on material that was more contemporary--the … Continue reading BHOC: THE SUPERHERO WOMEN
The first DC SAMPLER must have proven to be a success, because for the next couple of issues, DC did it again--producing a free comic book-sized magazine promoting all of their upcoming series. You can really see that the switch-over to what DC would become was in full swing by this point, and there's a … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #2
I can remember this stretch of issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA trying my patience a little bit. As writer Gerry Conway continued to unravel the mystery of Zatanna's mother and her upbringing, I increasingly was checked out on the series. A lot of this had to do, I expect, with my absolute inability to … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #164
By 1983, DC was on a creative upswing. The arrival of new President and Publisher Jenette Kahn had coincided with efforts to expand DC's efforts into the growing Direct Market of comic book specialty shops that had sprung up across the country. At this time, DC's fortunes on the mainstream Newsstand weren't looking all that … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 