It's perhaps difficult to see from the vantage point of so many years later, but this issue of X-MEN was a game-changer when it came out, and cemented the popularity of the series at the top of the Direct Market sales charts for a decade and a half. Powerful, unexpected, emotional, this comic generated both … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1980
Here's another issue of SGT ROCK that was purchased for my younger brother Ken during the year or so when he was vaguely interested in war comics. It eventually ended up in my possession, as did most of the comics he had. That's a really nice Joe Kubert cover, with some thoughtful coloring making a … Continue reading BHOC: SGT ROCK #311
My brother Ken went through a period during which he was somewhat enamored of war comics. War comics never did much for me for the most part--I had no aspirations to fly into battle, shooting at the enemy. That seemed like a good way to get hurt--and I was far from an athletic kid to … Continue reading BHOC: SGT ROCK #310
It seems appropriate to write about this particular comic book today, the 6th anniversary of the passing of comic book titan Joe Kubert. This is another book that was purchased by my younger brother Ken, and eventually found its way to me. He went through a period where he had a passing interest in World … Continue reading BHOC: SGT ROCK #309
This next issue of SUPER-TEAM FAMILY I bought while on a trip to a more distant supermarket than the one my family typically frequented. it was the second part of the “Atom’s Quest” serial, a four-part story that owed a bit of its style to the Marvel approach of the era–writer Gerry Conway had been trying … Continue reading BHOC: SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #12
This was the beginning of the end for the regular reprint series at DC, as DC SPECIAL went from being all-reprint to half-new, half-reprint, a format that the FAMILY books had for the most part been following. Which sounds like a good thing, but not so much from my point of view; I tended to … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL #22
BRAVE AND THE BOLD wasn’t really my book of choice, so I’m guessing that it was the 100-Page format that made the difference in this case. Either way, this got picked up at the 7-11 (by this point, the little post-Church candy store had stopped stocking comics–I had gotten in right at the very end.) … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #115
Nobody did covers of extreme emotionalism better than Joe Kubert, and this FLASH cover is a good example. It’s drenched in melodrama, the huge word balloon dripping with pathos. Great use of color pulls your eye to the Flash uniform in Barry Allen’s hands, and silhouettes crybaby Kid Flash very nicely. And the drama of … Continue reading Great Covers – THE FLASH #189
Despite the visual clutter of that list of titles down the left side, here’s the great Joe Kubert telling an entire story in one dramatic image on this cover for SUPER DC-GIANT #S-14. That mirror lets us see both combatants, as well as the confederates of the bad guy who are about to massacre the … Continue reading Great Covers – SUPER DC GIANT #S-14
A beautiful, simple and effective design on this G.I. COMBAT cover from 1961. The color contrast between the red-orange fade of the background perfectly silhouettes the shattered helmet in the foreground, and the frame of the sniper’s bullet hole perfectly focuses your eye on the gunner himself. In an instant, this cover tells a complete … Continue reading Great Covers – G.I. COMBAT #88
The Tom Brevoort Experience 