MARVELMANIA was the house fanzine of the company of the same name, an outfit which had been licensed the rights to produce Marvel-related merchandise and specialty items to be sold directly to the readership. MARVELMANIA took the place of the earlier MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY as the official fan club of Marvel, though it didn't … Continue reading MARVELMANIA Magazine #1
Perhaps the most popular artist of the 1980s, John Byrne's star truly began to rise when he began drawing (and co-plotting) X-MEN with Chris Claremont. Eventually, irreconcilable differences in the direction to take the characters caused Byrne to leave the book for greener pastures--his long run as writer/artist of FANTASTIC FOUR. But the mark he … Continue reading THE X-MEN COMPANION #2: John Byrne Interview
Continuing with our survey of FOOM #2, the second issue of the fan magazine published by Friends Of Ol' Marvel, Marvel's in-house fan club of the 1970s. The second issue, like the first, was put together by Jim Steranko and reflects his aesthetics in terms of its design and typography treatment. Another puzzle page. As … Continue reading FOOM #2, Part Two
I was continuing to buy MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE every month due to my love for the Thing as a character, but there was no way of avoiding the feeling that the series was at something of a nadir. With the departure of writer/editor Marv Wolfman, a rotating team of creators had ben crafting stories that weren't … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #44
More material from THE X-MEN COMPANION Volume Two, the second of two softcover books devoted to the development and the early days of what had become the most popular feature in the comics world. These two volumes were published in 1982, and so the memories of all involved about the details of their collaboration are … Continue reading THE X-MEN COMPANION #2: Terry Austin Interview
Marvel's reprint line was still going strong, providing a companion reprint title for most of the major series the company was putting out. This helped to reinforce the idea that the Marvel Universe was all one single continuous tapestry--these years-old stories were still important and might factor in to new adventures produced today. Or such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #44
This is actually the opposite of what we usually do here, spotlighting a particular great comic book cover of years past. This time, though, we're going to look at a cover that's all wrong. This cover actually hung in my office for years as an example to people of how not to approach doing a … Continue reading (Not So) Great Covers: QUASAR #56
Another week and another trip to the 7-11 brought me another stack of brand new comic books. Among them was this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA, a title that I was buying regularly despite the fact that it had been listing badly for a while. With the departure of Jack Kirby, who had written and drawn … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #226
There was a bit of a delay in the publication of the second volume of THE X-MEN COMPANION. Part of the hold-up, apparently, was that Neal Adams was meant to do the cover, but he wound up not turning anything in. I can't speculate on whether this was due to some other issue between himself … Continue reading THE X-MEN COMPANION #2: Chris Claremont Interview
This was the second issue of FOOM, Marvel's fan magazine for its in-house fan club of the same name. Established in the early 1970s, the initial four issues of FOOM were produced by Jim Steranko and so contained a variety of graphics from him seldom seen elsewhere. By the fifth issue, production of FOOM was … Continue reading FOOM #2
The Tom Brevoort Experience 