As tended to be my custom, as soon as I started buying a new Marvel series I'd be driven to dig around in my local drugstore's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics to see if any earlier issues could be found and purchased, five for a dollar. And so it was that I came into … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #92
The distribution of new comic books in the late 1970s wasn't so wonderful. Only a couple of years earlier, it was possible to find comics in several local locations, and the number of titles available were plentiful. But somewhere along the way, comics began to lose their status, and disappeared from a lot of storefronts. … Continue reading BHOC: MACHINE MAN #3
It's always good to roll with what works. So here are a bunch more vintage photographs of assorted comic book creators in years past. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, promotional photo, 1940. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (whose name is mispelled on that sign) at a promotional event for the premiere of the first Superman … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 3
There were only a couple of the mainstay Marvel super hero titles that I wasn't buying at this point in my comic book development, and so I began starting to sample those books as well, as I was enjoying so much of the Marvel line. Iron Man hadn't made much of a positive impact on … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #111
Well it just goes to show: you never know what is going to resonate with an audience. Last week's kickoff installment of Comics Creators in the Wild received more notices and attention than I ever would have thought it would. So that being the case, I figured I ought to follow up on it sooner … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 2
Just like with our sequences on vintage comic books seen out and about in the world, so too do I have a relatively large collection of vintage photographs of writers, artists and editors either at work, in public or just generally goofing around. So why not show some of these vintage pictures off? Collected from … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 1
Continuing on in our review of this 1947 behind-the-scenes pamphlet published by Timely editor Stan Lee Here, Stan brings back Mario Acquaviva to talk about the skills involved in lettering comics, and he shows off some pages from a recent Sub-Mariner story. I have no idea where this story actually ran, so I can't pull … Continue reading Secrets Behind The Comics 4
More secrets revealed by Stan Lee in 1947! Alan Sulman isn't terribly well remembered these days. So it's nice to have these names and caricatures. It's also nice to see what a script looked like at Timely in 1947. Stan helpfully provides empty panel layouts for the readers of this book. Syd Shores was a … Continue reading Secrets Behind The Comics 3
This past week I was called upon to do some work on the upcoming AUGUST 1961 Omnibus that Marvel is going to be releasing as part of the 60th Anniversary of the publication of FANTASTIC FOUR #1. The massive book will collect all of the other Marvel titles that were also on sale on or … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Cover to FANTASTIC FOUR #1
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
The Tom Brevoort Experience 