It seems like forever since we spoke about the issue of FANTASTIC FOUR that came out before this one. A side effect of me starting to find comic shops and regularly buy back issues as well as new books. But FANTASTIC FOUR was still my favorite series at this point, and I was very much … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #197
Dealer and comics historian Bob Beerbohm was recently talking about how the sales of X-MEN skyrocketed in his shop when artist John Byrne came on board the title with issue #108. He indicates that his guess is that the series might have been cancelled otherwise, though I find this difficult to believe. Based on what … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #112
As we spoke about a week or two back, VENUS was a strangely schizophrenic title published by Marvel/Timely in the 1940s and early 1950s. It concerned the Roman goddess Venus coming to Earth and falling in love with the publisher of a women's magazine, BEAUTY, and becoming its editor. It was a bizarre mix of … Continue reading The First (Marvel) Thor Story
I would have to say that arguably X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS is the single best-executed, best-realized single release in Chris Claremont's long time as the writer of the X-Men. It does exactly what the MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELs were intended to do: crafts a story with a beginning, middle and end that encapsulates all of … Continue reading X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS Neal Adams’ way
I bought this issue of MARVEL TALES from my usual spinner rack at the local 7-11. It reprinted, as usual, a story from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN published about six years before. At that time, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was in the midst of one of its more seismic changes: Stan Lee, having been promoted to publisher of the … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #94
One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91
Again, as with yesterday's book, I believe I picked up this issue of INVADERS on that same excursion to the Heroes World in Levittown with my grandparents. I wasn't really aware of it at the time, but the series had definitely reached its peak earlier, and now with the departure of artist Frank Robbins, it … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #31
As I talked about some months back, both longtime Marvel editor Ralph Macchio and I were enlisted as unofficial consultants by producer Avi Arad when he was first attempting to get a big budget live action Spider-Man movie off the ground. This amounted to us meeting irregularly to have conversations to talk about the character … Continue reading Giving More Notes on the Spider-Man Movie
VENUS was a weird comic book, one that went through a myriad of tone and genre changes across its 19 issue lifespan. It was first launched in 1948 during a time when Marvel (then Timely) was attempting to establish a beachhead of female-led super hero titles. So along with VENUS, also launched at that point … Continue reading The First (Marvel) Loki Story
I think I bought this issue of INCREDIBLE HULK during that same trip to Heroes World with my grandparents. As I've related previously, I wasn't really all that interested in the character to start with, but my brother had begun picking up the book, spurred on by the live action television series that was then … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #226
The Tom Brevoort Experience 