By 1983, SUPERMAN was feeling a bit like a product of a different age. While some effort was being made to modernize the Man of Steel, including having Gil Kane provide covers as he does here, the actual contents of the magazine were still very much of a piece with the kinds of stories that … Continue reading GH: SUPERMAN #382
I can remember this stretch of issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA trying my patience a little bit. As writer Gerry Conway continued to unravel the mystery of Zatanna's mother and her upbringing, I increasingly was checked out on the series. A lot of this had to do, I expect, with my absolute inability to … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #164
Ever since I was six years old, the Flash has been my favorite super hero. There was something about the combination of elements--the slick costume, the simple power, the gallery of recurring villains, the sort of serious-but-not-too-serious tone of the strip--that really connected with me. But as time went on and I got older, both … Continue reading GH: THE FLASH #319
During the Silver Age of Comics, it was still a rare thing for a character of any significance to be killed off in super hero comics. Only two decades later, having realized the audience appeal that the demise of a beloved favorite would have, companies would turn death into a revolving door situation more promotional … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Resurrections
As I've mentioned often in the past, growing up, I was never all that much of a fan of Batman. I didn't dislike the Masked Manhunter, it was more a question of liking a particular flavor of him. I first encountered the Caped Crusader in daily reruns of the 1966 live action television show, and … Continue reading GH: BATMAN #359
For some reason that I can't really recall, I had taken a short break of about three months from buying both SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS. I came back to both titles before too long, and eventually filled in the missing issues with 3-Bagged Whitman copies once they became available. But as for what drove me … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #492
I have to confess that I found the next three issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA pretty dull and forgettable. Which is unfortunate, as this was the last storyline edited by Julie Schwartz in this series that he'd brought back in the extremely early 1960s. As with THE FLASH, which Julie exited this month, his … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #163
Well, it had happened again: I had missed an issue of a beloved comic book series, this time THE FLASH. While my ardor for it had cooled somewhat as my attention was taken up with my exploration of the Marvel Universe, the character and the book remained a sentimental favorite. But in recent months, my … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #270
This is an amazingly impactful cover, especially as originally seen in the context of a 1968 newsstand. There's no way that this image wouldn't grab your attention more violently than the comics scattered around it. That extreme close-up--so much so that the logo is shunted off to the side and made smaller--the danger to Batman … Continue reading Great Covers: BATMAN #205
It was at around this time that JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA had begun to feel tired to me. It had once been a favorite series, but in recent months, coupled with a growing interest in the Marvel style of storytelling, the venerable JLA had seemingly been slowing down, becoming a bit trite and simplistic and, … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #162
The Tom Brevoort Experience 