One of the new mainstay players in the emerging Direct Sales market comprised of comic book specialty stories in the 1980s was First Comics. An outfit out of Chicago, First boasted an initial eclectic line-up but slowly and surely crystalized into a reliable player in the field. Debuting in 1982, among the series First published … Continue reading FSC: E-MAN #2
The last two series launched by Jim Shooter's new company DEFIANT were both direct spin-off of the firm's inaugural title WARRIORS OF PLASM. Which seems to me like a strange choice. At this point, was there any indication that WARRIORS OF PLASM was so popular that it could support multiple projects/ In any event, Shooter … Continue reading Brand Echh: DOGS OF WAR #1
One of the last series launched by Jim Shooter's ill-fated venture DEFIANT, CHARLEMAGNE was a title that a obvious amount of effort and expectation had clearly been spent on. The initial issue is oversized, and the launch was preceded by the publication of a CHARLEMAGNE #0 lead-in story, which was attached to an issue of … Continue reading Brand Echh: CHARLEMAGNE #1
In 1982, I was still ordering my comics through the mail order service offered by Geppi's Comic World in Maryland. I didn't yet have a driver's license, and my family's new homestead was in a new development that was too far away from any center of civilization to get to easily by walking or bike-riding. … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL AGE #1
The next title that Jim Shooter's post-Valiant start-up DEFIANT issued was perhaps the strangest series in their line--and that's saying something. You can't say that Jim wasn't trying to chart new ground here. The book was called WAR DANCER, and it was largely the creation of Shooter's longtime friend artist Alan Weiss. Weiss had been … Continue reading Brand Echh: WAR DANCER #1
The second release from Jim Shooter's new company DEFIANT was DARK DOMINION, which seemed like it might prove to be something interesting. The series was co-created by Shooter and legendary creator Steve Ditko, and it's clear that Jim was intending to build a title that would allow Ditko to flex the same kind of visual … Continue reading Brand Echh: DARK DOMINION #1
As we've talked about here briefly in our sequence on the assorted early launches from VALIANT, Editor in Chief and primary creative voice Jim Shooter found himself ousted from that company shortly after completing work on that company's UNITY crossover. Different people have given different accounts of exactly what happened and how it all went … Continue reading Brand Echh: WARRIORS OF PLASM #1
Jim Shooter, who had been the Editor in Chief and main creative driver of the Valiant super hero universe didn't last for very long with the company following the UNITY crossover. Not to get into any of the specifics of his departure, about which assorted parties have very different recollections, the key factor germane to … Continue reading Brand Echh: RAI #0
When it was first launched, there was a veneer of respectability about the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL line. Based on the format of European albums, these books were a place where creators could tell stories that were a bit more sophisticated and adult-oriented than the typical Comics Code-approved fare that filled the pages of the monthly … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #4
The next series that Valiant released was launched as a part of the UNITY crossover. Labeled as Chapter Two, it really wasn't such a thing, as the only connective tissue to the crossover storyline is a short epilogue at the end that repurposes panels from UNITY #0 to bring Gilad as well as Archer and … Continue reading Brand Echh: ETERNAL WARRIOR #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 