In 1967, toy manufacturer Wham-O released a single issue of WHAM-O GIANT COMICS not to newsstands, but rather distributed to toy stores and department stores alongside its product line of frisbees and hula hoops .The gimmick here was that this was intended to be the largest comic book ever done in terms of its overall … Continue reading Brand Echh: Wham-O Giant Comics #1
When I think abut the Christmas season, I'm often put in mind of this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, the seminal issue #500. I bought it on Christmas eve, 1980, and I don't know that any of the gifts I received the following morning were a match for that reading experience. It's all tangled up in … Continue reading Perfect Game – DETECTIVE COMICS #500
A blog post from my old Marvel blog about the difference in value between a basic idea and the eventual execution of that idea. The Currency of Ideas May 4, 2009 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General You hear about it all the time as you speak to people at conventions, or … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – The Currency of Ideas
Having left Marvel in 1965 because he was unhappy with the way the books were created--where the artist was having to do the lion's share of the plotting as well as illustrating, thanks to the "Marvel method"--veteran artist Wally Wood was recruited by the start-up Tower Comics to help create and launch their new line. … Continue reading Brand Echh – Dynamo #4
I’ve owned three different copies of THE STERANKO HISTORY OF COMICS Volume 1 over the years. It’s an important milestone book in the development of the hobby, but it’s also more oversized magazine than book, with saddle-stitched binding and a cover that tended to crack down the spine and separate. It fell apart easily. For … Continue reading BHOC: THE STERANKO HISTORY OF COMICS
It had been a while since I’d picked up an issue of ACTION COMICS, but for whatever reason, after passing up the previous few issues, this one made the trip home. Might have been as simple as there being slim pickings on the rack that week in terms of new super hero comics of the … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #470
It was an unimaginable 41 year ago today, on Christmas day of 1976, that I finally got my hands on this much-desired beauty, a gift from Santa Claus. And actually, having asked for it specifically on the Christmas list that my mother would demand that each child write (usually sourced out of the Sears Christmas … Continue reading BHOC: SECRET ORIGINS OF THE SUPER DC HEROES
One of the advantages of the Treasury Edition format is that it was sturdy enough that it allowed outlets that didn’t typically carry comics to stock them, such as department stores. They were also not quite periodicals, so they’d often remain on sale in these stores for months and years at a time. So it … Continue reading BHOC: LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION #C-38
Man, that’s a beautiful cover. It’s a painting of Superman, done in the early 1940s, which hung in the DC offices for years–this was its first actual printing. I bought this Treasury Edition at that regular old 7-11 again, and it’s a pretty good collection of stories. It opens with an extremely early Superman story, … Continue reading BHOC: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION #C-31
Pretty sure that this one came from the 7-11 also, although I have a vague, nagging feeling that I may have sent away for it the same as ACTION #1. Either way, I next came into possession of this reprint of the first appearance of The Batman in DETECTIVE COMICS #27. I think the oversized … Continue reading BHOC: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION #C-28
The Tom Brevoort Experience 