A week ago, I posted a feature in which writer Jerry Siegel and artist Paul Reinman revealed the secret origin of the Web, that 1960s-era costumed crusader who was "hen-pecked" by his wife Rosie and her mother to give up the super hero business and settle down to a regular life. https://tombrevoort.com/2022/12/17/brand-echh-mighty-comics-45/ I mentioned that … Continue reading ZIP COMICS #28 and the Origin of the Web
When the strip was first introduced (in the pages of DETECTIVE COMICS of all places), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Boy Commandos was an immediate sensation. Graduating into its own title several months later, the earliest issues of the series were among the best-selling that DC put out during that period--on a par with SUPERMAN … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: When Brooklyn Was Superman
In the Golden Age of Comics, it was a real rarity for the stars of any two comic book features to meet one another. It happened occasionally, but outside of the regular get-togethers of the Justice Society of America in ALL-STAR COMICS, it was rare to see two different super heroes occupy space in the … Continue reading When the Star-Spangled Kid met the Caped Crusader
This was the second of two successive AVENGERS ANNUALS that my father brought home for me one night from the Heroes World outlet in the Nassau Mall in Levittown, where he worked. He was very proud of the fact that he'd gotten such early issues based on the numbers, and I never did explain to … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS ANNUAL #3
We've looked at a bunch of different titles from the short-lived Atlas Comics line of 1975 in the past (and no doubt will continue to in the future), so I'm just going to hit teh basics here one more time. After his son Chip Goodman was passed over for the position of publisher at Marvel … Continue reading Brand Echh: The Cougar #1
FIGHTING AMERICAN is a well-remembered series produced by the Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Studio in the 1950s. It started out as a reaction to the revival of Simon & Kirby's best-selling patriotic super hero at Atlas Comics, Captain America--they figured that if the public wanted that kind of a character, they were better suited … Continue reading Simon & Kirby: When Fighting American Stole From Starman
As we've spoken about before, the super hero fad of the mid-1960s was a juggernaut across popular culture. Reaching its peak during the frenzy surrounding the network premiere of the twice-a-week full color BATMAN television program, this hunger for all things super-heroic compelled publishers to make entries into the field of comic book publishing with … Continue reading Brand Echh: The Spirit #1
The backstory here is something that we've covered in the past, but just to summarize events again: in the mid-1960s, the comic book field was seeing a bit of a resurgence. A fad for costumed super heroes had sprung up, exploding to massive life in the wake of the premiere of the live action BATMAN … Continue reading Brand Echh: Double-Dare Adventures #1
As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, powerhouse artist and creative genius Jack Kirby was becoming increasingly disillusioned by the way the history of the creation of the Marvel characters was being recounted for the public. Beginning particularly with the publication of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS in 1974, Kirby found his role in events diminished, … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Firsthand Account of Jack Kirby
In the mid-1960s, thanks to the way that copyright law was set up at the time, Captain America co-creator Joe Simon filed legal paperwork in an opportunity to win back the rights to the Star-Spangled Avenger and the work that he and Jack Kirby and a variety of other hands had performed in the first … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The 1966 Testimony of Jack Kirby
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