Another similar thing that I did during my first trip to my very first comic book shop, Heroes World in Levittown, was to buy the oldest issue of THE FLASH that I could. As with FANTASTIC FOUR, there were some older releases on the wall--I seem to recall that SHOWCASE #13 with its pirate torpedo … Continue reading BHOC: FLASH #158
As I mentioned earlier, my first trip to an actual comic book store, a Heroes World outlet in Levittown, was a huge game-changing event for me. On the way there, I had intended to purchase the earliest issue of FANTASTIC FOUR that they had. This plan was foiled when the oldest FF issue they had … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #51
I had thought at first that this was another comic that I got out of a 3-Bag, but looking at my copy closely, I think that rather I must have gotten it from my friend and classmate Donald Sims. Don was the first other kid I knew who regularly read comic books, and while we … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #70
This issue of ETERNALS came out of the same 3-Bag as yesterday's FANTASTIC FOUR, I believe. As I've related earlier, my prior encounters with the series didn't make me a fan--Jack Kirby's work in the 1970s was an acquired taste, and one I hadn't quite acquired yet. There was always something fascinating and powerful about … Continue reading BHOC: ETERNALS #11
In their masterful two-issue summation of the WORLD'S WORST COMICS, James Schumeister and Rich Larson gave a particular adroit description of the books put out under the Mighty Comics banner. They said that it was as though Russian spies had smuggled out a copy of a Marvel book and had tried to reverse-engineer it. That … Continue reading Brand Echh – Fly Man #35
Marvel Bullpen Bulletins item - Cover Date March 1966 It has to be said that I love bad comics of a certain type. Not lousy comics per se, but ones that are just a little bit clueless, that are trying to hop on board a given trend, or that are just so weird that they're … Continue reading Brand Echh – Introduction
I wrote this post twelve years ago, on my 40th birthday. 40 April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General Today I am 40. It doesn't feel like all that long a time, certainly no longer than it felt a week or a month ago. At the same time, it's one … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – 40/1967
By 1948, things were growing progressively more difficult for super heroes on the sales front. In te aftermath of World War II, other genres--crime, romance and horror chief among them--were increasingly popular, and the fad for super heroes had just about run its course. Over at Timely Comics, things were no different. As a bulwalk … Continue reading The Death of Bucky!
The postwar era provided challenges for many of the super-powered costumed crusaders who filled the pages of the nations comic books as, without a ready-made national enemy to fight, they were faced with a crisis of irrelevancy. And none encountered this existential ennui more directly than Captain America. Cap had been created to win the … Continue reading Captain America Musters Out!
It was one of the most exciting days of my young comic book collecting career. I found it in the bookstore in the Smithhaven Mall, a regular stop whenever my family went out shopping there, which was often. I had no idea that it was coming out--which is strange, because ads for it appeared in … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOKS
The Tom Brevoort Experience 