From the vantage point of hindsight, we view the Hulk as a super hero, the second in a string of new creations unleashed in the earliest years of the 1960s on an unsuspecting public, the building blocks for what would become known as the Marvel Universe. But that's really an impression that has been colored … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Ditko: The Development of INCREDIBLE HULK
Once again, here are a batch of vintage photographs of comic book creators taken in years gone by. We might also call this feature "Stan and friends" since there are proportionately so many more Stan Lee photos from the past than anything else. Stan Lee in the Marvel offices, publicity photo circa 1980 Stan Lee … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 4
I picked up this issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE during that selfsame first visit to The Batcave, the comic book specialty shop located just off of the South Shore Mall, the first ever genuine comic book shop that I had been to. And I bought it for a singular reason: its age. I could tell … Continue reading BHOC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #30
This was yet another back issue that I picked up during my first trip to the Batcave, the very first full-on comic book specialty store that I had ever been in. I was drawn to this issue for a single, specific reason: somewhere in my travels, I had learned that this issue reprinted the 1950s … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #20
In 1947, still more than a decade before the Marvel revolution that would forever change the comic book industry and make his name a household word, Stan Lee toiled in obscurity at the editor of Martin Goodman's Timely Comics. It was a safe postwar job to go back to, but not one with a lot … Continue reading Secrets Behind the Comics 1
A few days ago in the post concerning the prototype versions of Aunt May and Uncle Ben that had appeared in an earlier Lee/Ditko fantasy story, I mentioned an actual prototype for the Hulk that Lee and Kirby worked on prior to launching that character in his own title in 1962. So I thought it … Continue reading Lee, Lieber & Kirby: The Prototype for the Incredible Hulk
This was another comic that came from the drug store's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics, this one selected by my younger brother Ken. He never got into comics quite in the same way that I did, but he dabbled with them throughout his youth in a way that was common for kids of that … Continue reading BHOC: TWO-GUN KID #126
Not every idea that gets published in a comic book story is a good one. Especially over the long periods of time that most of the mainstay comic book heroes have been in existence, there have been any number of developments that turned out to be a bad instinct, and which were subsequently either overturned … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Forgotten Early Marvel Story Developments
Let's face it, lightning doesn't strike every month, and sometimes inspiration can be difficult to come by. But comic books still had to come out, ready or not. And so, occasionally, our favorite heroes of Marvel's silver age would find themselves contending with opponents who--well, let's just say they weren't quite up to the usual … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Dopey Marvel Silver Age Villains
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby famously introduced the mighty Thor in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83 in 1962. But before that, there were a number of antecedents for that story and that character, based as he was on actual Norse mythology. For example, here's an obscure story from OUT OF THIS WORLD #11 in … Continue reading The Hammer of Thor
The Tom Brevoort Experience 