This issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was another one that I read courtesy of my grade school friend Donald Sims, who lent me his copy for a day or two. Already by this time, the Green Goblin had become somewhat legendary as Spider-Man's greatest foe, his reputation somehow enhanced due to the fact that he wasn't … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136
As comic book conventions began to grow and become a thing in the 1970s, Marvel decided to try their hand at organizing shows specifically dedicated to that one single company. The first Mighty Marvel Comic Convention was held on March 22-24 of 1975 at New York's Hotel Commodore. The event did well enough that a … Continue reading MIGHTY MARVEL COMIC CONVENTION Program Book
It was clear early on that the most important and successful new super hero character introduced during the Silver Age of Comics was Spider-Man. The work that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita had put into the series had paid dividends, and the wall-crawler was soon a worldwide icon able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against … Continue reading 5BC: Five Attempts to Replicate Spider-Man
It's been a while since we dropped one of these on you. So here are more photographs taken over the years depicting practitioners of the medium, both editorial and creators. As usual, there's a lot of Stan Lee. One of the earliest photographs that survives of Jakob Kurtzburg, who would come to be called Jack … Continue reading Comic Creators in the Wild 12
We're almost done with our review of MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED, THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, which uses examples culled from the pages of Marvel comics to illustrate different points of film theory. This was a ubiquitous tome among comic book artists in the mid-1970s. A trio of IRON MAN panels from Johnny Craig lead off this final section. … Continue reading MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, Part Six
We're back with more of this early 1970s reference volume which illustrated points of filmmaking through the use of examples culled from Marvel Comics. I find this chapter interesting, in that it instructs in the use of sound in a motion picture by using examples from a medium that doesn't have any sound. Some George … Continue reading MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, Part Five
Continuing on with our survey of this long-lost volume that uses examples from comic books to illustrate points of filmmaking theory. A Don Heck panel there on the lower right. Some Gene Colan here. More Gene Colan. A Steve Ditko panel on the right. A Gil Kane Spider-Man panel. More Gene Colan and a Dick … Continue reading MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, Part Three
Continuing back with our look at this 1973 release that explained elements of filmmaking storytelling and composition by using visual examples selected from contemporaneous Marvel comic books. This was a volume that could be found in many an artist's drawing space during the 1970s. A sequence illustrated by Larry Lieber. Here are two sequences by … Continue reading MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED: THE COMICBOOK FILMBOOK, Part Two
This issue of MARVEL TALES reprinted the story where the series concluded its transition from the Silver Age into the Bronze Age. The book had been there for several months already at this point, with writer Gerry Conway taking over for Stan Lee. But this was the first issue in forever not illustrated by John … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #102
The end of the Golden Age of Comics wasn't especially kind to super heroes. Whereas once they'd been the primary drivers of sales of the colorful magazines, in the postwar period, their appeal among readers dwindled, and other genres such as teen humor, westers, romance, war, crime and horror began to be those that primarily … Continue reading When Captain America Wasn’t In Captain America
The Tom Brevoort Experience 