Archie Comics' attempt to get back into the super hero marketplace in 1983 under their Red Circle imprint was, by all accounts, a bit of a mess. It was an experiment that played itself out over around two years, and which produced some interesting experiments as well as a bunch of just out-and-out junk. The … Continue reading Brand Echh: The Comet #1
Quality Comics was one of the best publishers during the Golden Age of Comics, and true to their name, the quality level of all of their titles was high. In part, this was due to the fact that Will Eisner did editorial work for the early Quality line and helped to innovate a number of … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: MILITARY COMICS #1 and the Death Patrol
As interest in comic books and super heroes began to grow in the 1960s, several fly-by-night companies attempted to get in on the action. One such organization was Super Comics, published by Israel Waldman. Waldman's M.O. was to try to make a buck as cheaply as possible, and so for his Super Comics output, he … Continue reading Brand Echh – Plastic Man #16
Some recent comments by reader and historian Ferran Delgado prompted me to go back and to take a closer look at DAREDEVIL #1, the last of what we would consider the formative Marvel titles to be launched and one that was plagued in its delivery by a variety of delays. I've written about those delays … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Ditko & Everett & Brodsky: The Long Road to DAREDEVIL #1
Quicksilver was one of the many second banana super heroes who profligated throughout the Golden Age of Comics, filling up the back pages of assorted anthology titles and providing thrills but not being so memorable or distinct that they ever became stars themselves. Occasionally, one of these back-page crime-busters would break out and become a … Continue reading The First Quicksilver Story
For the first thirty to forty years of super hero comics, it was a rarity for a super hero to meet his maker. While the death and resurrection of super hero characters has now become de rigeur, for much of the publishing history of such characters, stories of this nature were few and far between. … Continue reading The Last Comet Story
The recent series I did on how reprinted Plastic Man stories were altered by the Comics Code got me thinking about when the last original Golden Age Plastic Man story might have been done. So I did some quick research, and now I present it for your entertainment. It was in PLASTIC MAN #52 cover-dated … Continue reading The Last Plastic Man Story
Finishing up our look at the three Plastic man stories reprinted in PLASTIC MAN #63 in 1956 after the advent of the Comics Code, and how they were edited and modified to pass muster so that they didn't destroy the moral foundations of society's youth the way the original printings had. Here's the final story, … Continue reading Your Comics Code at Work – Plastic Man #63 pt. 3
All three of the stories presented in PLASTIC MAN #63 in 1956 were reprints of earlier Plas adventures. And all three of them ran up against problems withe the relatively new Comics Code, requiring them to make revisions. Obviously, these revisions were imperative to prevent the sort of chaos and murder that was generated when … Continue reading Your Comics Code at Work – Plastic Man #63 pt 2
The Comics Code was introduced in 1955 and marked a sea change for the comic book industry. In an attempt to stave off concerns that comics were warping the young minds who were reading them (to say nothing of the minds of the many adults who would occasionally peruse one) the industry created the Comics … Continue reading Your Comics Code At Work – Plastic Man #63
The Tom Brevoort Experience 