The NATIONAL LAMPOON is one of the great publishing success stories of the 1970s. It was effectively spun out of the long-running Harvard Lampoon published by that institution of higher learning by a number of graduates, and it successfully plugged into the zeitgeist of its era, expanding at its height beyond simply a monthly magazine … Continue reading Brand Echh: National Lampoon and the other Neal Adams Deadman
You know the drill by this point, right? It's old pictures of comic book creators from back in the day! Bob Layton at a convention, 1980s. Me, Tom Brevoort, and Jack Kirby at a New York convention, 1990. I had only been at Marvel for six months. A trio of photos of Joe Sinnott from … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 6
This entry goes out to writer Dan Slott, who posted about SKATE MAN #1 on his Twitter stream this past week, causing me to bump this book to the top of my queue to cover here. SKATE MAN #1 and only was published in 1983 by Pacific Comics, the Direct Market comic book company spun … Continue reading Brand Echh: Skate Man #1
https://youtu.be/fsfBtoEgAOY Hey there! It's another bit of new video content, in this instance a survey of my selections for the five best single issue comic books released in 1973, the year when I first began reading comics. Check it out.
Here's another masterful Neal Adams cover from an issue of HOUSE OF SECRETS, one of DC's mystery/supernatural anthology titles. It has to be said that, especially in the early part of the 1970s, these books carried uniformly great covers much of the time--it was a real showpiece for the artists involved. Here, Adams uses Crafttint … Continue reading Great Covers: HOUSE OF SECRETS #88
This was another comic book that I came into possession of through swapping with my buddy Donald Sims, and it was an acquisition of some great interest. In general, for me during this period, any comic book with a 20 cent price tag seemed old somehow, vintage--even though I had started reading during the last … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #87
Starting in the late 1960s, DC maintained a whole line of "mystery" title, the inspiration of editor Joe Orlando, who saw an opportunity in the marketplace for books that would approximate the thrills of the long-dead EC line and their brethren. Individually, any of the issues within this line would be hit-or-miss, depending on which … Continue reading Great Covers – HOUSE OF SECRETS #91
This was yet another issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP that I wound up getting from my buddy Donald Sims during the last two years of grad school at some point. I definitely wound up with the better end of the deal in this instance. Because in just a few months, the prices on any and all … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TEAM-UP #53
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 particular issue would be my candidate for most underwhelming oversized anniversary issue of the era. It was heavily promoted throughout the DC titles of the era--and who could resist that story hook? It's the day the Batman retires! But honestly, it's a pretty bleh read, tedious, and with the central thesis really being fitted … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #300
