Continuing our survey of the first issue of PIZZAZZ Magazine, published regionally by Marvel in 1977 before eventually earning full national distribution. PIZZAZZ was intended as an answer to such kids' magazines as DYNAMITE and was undertaken as a first step towards getting the company out of teh dying comic book business and moving into … Continue reading PIZZAZZ #1, Part 2
A post from my old Marvel blog giving some behind-the-scenes details about the creation of NFL SuperPro Hut--Hut--Hike! September 10, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General One of our buddies, Sam Humphries from over at MySpace Comics, wrote to ask:With NFL season kicking off this week, I know I’m not the … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Hut–Hut–Hike!
Another issue that I picked up coverless in one of the plastic bundles of coverless comics that had been stripped for credit then sold nonetheless. This was the second issue of NOVA that I got in one of these, and it helped to make me interested in the strip. Before I'd read an issue, I'd … Continue reading BHOC: NOVA #8
This issue of MS. MARVEL was another comic that I got in one of those plastic-wrapped bundles of coverless, stripped-for-credit titles from my local Drug Store. It was certainly a "bonus book" in whatever bundle it was that I happened to purchase, and not the reason why I was making that purchase in the first … Continue reading BHOC: MS. MARVEL #2
UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN was the series that brought me to the attention of fandom, the first truly successful title that I worked on, at least from a critical standpoint. And this didn't have so much to do with me as it did Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe, the creative team that produced most of … Continue reading Personal Best: UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, 1996
There was a bit of a stigma attached to Marvel's regular reprint titles among at least the comic book readers in my community in the 1970s--despite the fact that we all bought and read them. That's because we wanted to experience the stories. But the prevailing wisdom at the time was that these reprints were … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #73
The place where i regularly bought my comic books on a weekly basis was a 7-11 in the center of town. It was close enough to home that even at a young age, I was able to bike there regularly. This led me to work out that new comic books were put out on Thursday, … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #12
In the late 1970s, things were not looking good for the comic book industry in general or for Marvel in particular. As "mom & pop" stores were steadily replaced by large chain outlets such as 7-11, the venues for comic book sales continued to dwindle. Comics were a small-margin business, and even those places that … Continue reading PIZZAZZ #1
This issue of THOR was another book that came to me inside a plastic 3-Bag along with two other comics, likely ones we've already covered. I had started to follow THOR by this point, although I was still a bit ambivalent about it. As I've said before, it still felt too much like a barbarian … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #264
As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths
The Tom Brevoort Experience 