1981 was a year of many anniversaries, and many anniversary issues as a result. This 25th anniversary issue of FLASH was built around a premise that was even then a bit old: Barry Allen wakes up in a hospital room, his body paralyzed and horribly scarred from the accident when lightning struck his police laboratory. … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1981
It caused quite a stir a couple of years ago when the entirety of the original artwork to AMAZING FANTASY #15, containing the very first Spider-Man story, was anonymously donated to the Library of Congress. The art was among the earliest to go missing from Marvel's warehouse back in the late 1970s/early 1980s and nobody … Continue reading Lee & Ditko: AMAZING FANTASY #15
I bought FANTASTIC FOUR #189 at my regular 7-11--I can remember biking home up Granny Road with it. But the book was about to hit a prolonged production snag, as it turns out, and like CAPTAIN AMERICA #216 before it, it was the second seemingly-new Marvel title that would turn out to contain a reprint. … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #189
It’s time to take a look at FANTASTIC FOUR #3. While I won’t be posting every page, I will be going a bit more in-depth on this one, as it’s the earliest issue for which some of the original art still exists, and examining those original pages tells us a number of interesting things about … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #3
Ever since I had become interested in the Fantastic Four, I had a burning desire to read the first issue of that series. from having haunted the Humor section in my local bookstores over the years (which is where anything even vaguely related to comics wound up being shelved), I knew that this first story … Continue reading BHOC: SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS
Continuing on in our analysis of the construction of the first three issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, our attention now turns to issue #2. But first, a bit of a statement of purpose. Somebody over the course of the last week asked me why I was writing these pieces, what the point I was trying to … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #2
Seems as though people were pretty interested in the first installment of this particular topic: in the short time that this page has been operating, nothing has drawn anything close to the number of views that piece has. Which is great! What's also great is the amount of discussion that the initial installment generated, as … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part Two
FANTASTIC FOUR #1 was the beginning of what would grow into the Marvel Age of Comics, where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revolutionized the field and unleashed a wave of characters and concept that have achieved worldwide popularity and renown in the decades since. So it's now seen as an important issue. And from what … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part One
On that same weekly trip to the 7-11 I came across and was delighted by this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA, a title that I didn't normally read. And it had everything to do with this cover, where, rather than Cap's usual masthead partner the Falcon, the co-star in this particular issue was the Human Torch. … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #216
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, both on the left, at the National Cartoonists Society in 1966 A few years ago, over at the Marvel Age of Comics Tumblr account, I did a string of posts over a period of three days analyzing the first three issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, the opening salvo of the Marvel … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: Introduction
The Tom Brevoort Experience 