Having dedicated themselves to making strides within the new Direct Sales marketplace, an arena in which Marvel had up to this point been overwhelmingly outselling pretty much everybody, DC produced a number of issues of DC SAMPLER, an overview and preview of their line intended to be given out at comic book specialty stores across … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #3
The first DC SAMPLER must have proven to be a success, because for the next couple of issues, DC did it again--producing a free comic book-sized magazine promoting all of their upcoming series. You can really see that the switch-over to what DC would become was in full swing by this point, and there's a … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #2
By 1983, DC was on a creative upswing. The arrival of new President and Publisher Jenette Kahn had coincided with efforts to expand DC's efforts into the growing Direct Market of comic book specialty shops that had sprung up across the country. At this time, DC's fortunes on the mainstream Newsstand weren't looking all that … Continue reading DC SAMPLER #1
Continuing on with our survey of the "Spirit Jam", the all-new story featuring Will Eisner's celebrated golden age character produced Jam-style by a bevy of top cartoonists and comic book artists and writers of the era, under the auspices of publisher Denis Kitchen and associate editor Cat Yronwode. Picking things up where we left off, … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: THE SPIRIT #30, Part Two
When I think abut the Christmas season, I'm often put in mind of this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, the seminal issue #500. I bought it on Christmas eve, 1980, and I don't know that any of the gifts I received the following morning were a match for that reading experience. It's all tangled up in … Continue reading Perfect Game – DETECTIVE COMICS #500
This issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD was another comic that I wound up with in trade with my classroom buddy, Donald Sims. Even by 1978, those first ten issues of SWAMP THING had gained a bit of a mythical stature among those in the know, so the character still had a bit of an … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #122
The Tom Brevoort Experience 