If there's a moment that truly crystalized the Direct Sales marketplace and helped to forge it into a meaningful distribution pipeline for comics, it was with the release of X-MEN #137 in which creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne wrapped up what is today known as "The Dark Phoenix Saga" in a double-sized issue that … Continue reading FANTASTIC FOUR #286 John Byrne’s Way
Another installment of our popular feature where we showcase vintage photographs of popular comic book creators from days gone by. This is sometimes known as "Stan Lee and friends" given how often Lee was photographed over the years. Mark Gruenwald and Nel Yomtov at a convention in the late 1980s Renee Witterstaetter at a party … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 11
This issue of DEFENDERS was another book that I got out of a 3-Bag at either one of my local department stores or toy stores. It had a nice George Perez cover, but it wasn't an especially memorable issue. This was another book that had run into deadline troubles, and so the main story this … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #53
A new crop of 3-Bags started turning up at the department stores and toy stores in my area, though they were beginning to become harder to find as more and more outlets used the space for something else that was presumably easier to keep in order and also brought in more revenue for the square … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #165
It was business as usual back at my 7-11's spinner rack that Thursday, the day when new comic books would be put out for the week. Having jumped aboard the Spider-Man train, I picked up this issue of PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. SPEC SPIDEY was decidedly the second tier Spider-Man title for virtually all … Continue reading BHOC: PETER PARKER, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #21
This issue of AVENGERS was, you guessed it, another book that I bought during my trip to Heroes World in Levittown with my grandparents. It sported a very nice cover penciled by George Perez and inked by an infrequent collaborator, Terry Austin. Terry was at this point making John Byrne's work look its best over … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #174
It's one of the great unfinished symphonies in the history of comics. After having successfully teamed up Superman and Spider-Man twice, Batman and the Incredible Hulk, and the X-Men and the New Teen Titans, in 1983 Marvel and DC were prepared to release JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VS THE AVENGERS, uniting their two flagship teams … Continue reading The Original Plot For The Unfinished JLA/AVENGERS Crossover
This is another unfamiliar cover for me. Unfamiliar because the copy of this book that I got had been stripped of its cover, which was sent back to the distributor for credit. However, rather than destroying the remainder of the book as he was required to do, the wholesaler instead sold it and a mountain … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #144
The All-New, All-Different X-Men hit like a lightning bolt out of the blue when the new iteration of the team debuted in GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. The title had been a reprint book for several years, and so the quantities of the early new issues that made it to the stands were much smaller than most … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #103
As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths
The Tom Brevoort Experience 