With the fact that Maus was banned from circulation in some school districts making national news this past week, the time seemed to be good to discuss COMIX BOOK, the short-lived Marvel magazine that published work by underground cartoonists--including the prototype short story for Art Spiegelman's Maus. COMIX BOOK was an outgrowth of Marvel's concerns … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: COMIX BOOK #2 and the first Maus
I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but as things turned out, I wound up getting both the beginning and the end of the initial Masters of Evil cycle in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. For, like AVENGERS #6, this issue also features Zemo and the Masters, and begins to bring their … Continue reading WC: AVENGERS #15
Marvel's decision to launch a licensed comic dedicated to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in 1976 is a bit of a mysterious choice. Clearly, the outfit was trying to move into licensed properties--in addition to 2001, they did STAR WARS and LOGAN'S RUN at about this time, and had great success with expanding on the mythology … Continue reading BHOC: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY #5
While it's perhaps lost its uniqueness a little bit given the sheer number of latter day crossovers between characters originating at different companies (and in some cases, in different forms of media) it would he difficult to understate the significance of SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. For those who were there when it came out, … Continue reading The Outline for SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
This was the very last issue of TWO-GUN KID that Marvel published. A string of issues that went back to 1948 (with admittedly several gaps) came to a final end here. I wasn't aware of that when I got this comic, nor did I get to enjoy this great Gil Kane cover--Kane was doing new … Continue reading BHOC: TWO-GUN KID #136
Ever since the departure of Jack Kirby some months earlier, CAPTAIN AMERICA had been a title that had struggled to maintain its schedule. Between then and here, there'd been unannounced reprints, and emergency back-up stories dropped in when full issues hadn't been completed in time. And now this time, an out-and-out fill-in story. It was … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #224
So SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME appears to be one of the most successful movies ever put to film (metaphorically, since these days teh media is largely digital.) But it wasn't all that long ago, relatively speaking, when the idea of a Spider-Man film was a long-chased dream. Because the rights had been optioned in the … Continue reading Giving Notes on the Spider-Man Movie
This was another issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that I bought new during one of my weekly trips to my neighborhood 7-11 on the Thursday when new comic books were put out. It's the first book I encountered where Marvel has restored the cover months to its covers, a change I was in favor of for … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #183
This book has been on my list to write about for a while now, but given the sad news regarding the health of artist George Perez, it now seems like something I should get too sooner rather than later. For those who are unaware, george has been diagnosed with inoperable and terminal cancer, and he's … Continue reading Personal Best: AVENGERS #1
This is a weirdly awkward cover, but one that works nonetheless. And I think it was new to me when I got this book, although I had read the story in this issue both in the third AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Pocket Books collection of classic issues, and MARVEL TALES (where a new cover had been commissioned.) … Continue reading WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #17
The Tom Brevoort Experience 