The more time went on, the more that the Human Torch series appearing in STRANGE TALES had become something of an afterthought. There was a distinct feeling that neither editor/scripter Stan Lee nor any of the artists who drew it were really putting a lot of energy or imagination into it. It was a bit … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #122
David Steckel wasn't the only new person I met during those weeks in the Sachem Gifted Program that I went to every Friday. I also made the acquaintance of Frank Torres, who was similarly a comic book reader. While I was never quite exactly as tight with him as i was with Steck, he remained … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #188
One of the changes to my school routine that happened during this year of sixth grade is that I was placed into the Gifted Student program. It had been clear for several years that I was ahead of most of the other students in my grade academically. But it was also clear that I had … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #47
This was the final issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, and it was a story that I'd read before, when it was published years earlier in SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION. Nevertheless, i was still happy to get the original printing, which my circle of comic book readers … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #123
This particular week, I also picked up the latest issue of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES which reprinted stories published a number of years earlier in INCREDIBLE HULK. Since the Hulk now had his own television series, this reprint title began performing better as young viewers sought out the Green Goliath's adventures in print. Marvel tended to blurb … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #78
As in the case of FANTASTIC FOUR #200 and UNCANNY X-MEN #115, I had also missed DEFENDERS #65 during that same period--all of them were released during the same month and so it's obvious to think that they must have all been part of the same waylaid shipment. But as opposed to the other two, … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #66
This next issue of DAREDEVIL featured the return of a hallmark of the series. Not DD's original yellow costume--something that I was excited to see, having read the first DAREDEVIL issue in SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS--but rather artist Gene Colan returning to the book that he'd labored on for many years throughout the … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #156
So after last week's piece on STRANGE TALES #103 where we tried to work out who might have been behind the story therein, Larry Lieber or Jack Kirby, I received, as you'd expect, a lot of pushback from the "Everything Kirby" contingent, who believe that Jack did at least 100% of all of the stories … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Lieber & Hartley & Sinnott: Examining JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #89, 90 & 91
I believe that it's inarguable that, when it comes to the creation of the early stories and characters of the Marvel Universe, Jack Kirby was for many years denied his rightful due, reduced to the level of a mere penciler of other people's stories and ideas. Clearly, Kirby was more than that--he was an equal … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Provenance of STRANGE TALES #103
I had skipped the last couple of issues of PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, having come to the conclusion that the series was relatively superfluous to the life of Marvel's wall-crawling hero. The stories were mostly fine, but nothing of any particular consequence seemed to happen in them, I can recall looking at both issues … Continue reading BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #25
The Tom Brevoort Experience 