There was a little store in one of the mini-malls where my Mother regularly shopped--I can't recall if it was a candy store or a stationary store or what. But the important bit here is that it carried a tiny selection of comic books. Tiny--just a few titles at any given time. So each time … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #140
I saw this posted by its current owner and I thought it was worth both sharing with a wider audience and explaining in a bit greater detail. What you see below is the 3M proof for the cover to FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5. Also sometimes called a progressive proof, this would have been sent to … Continue reading 3M Cover Proof – FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5
Here's another book that was bought for my brother, Ken--it seems as though at this time, he was trying to match me book-for-book. And eventually it ended up with me in any case. That's a pretty dramatic cover by Sal Amendola. I wasn't as wild about his work on the interior of the book--he took … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #296
It's been bettered but never equaled, the granddaddy of all inter-company crossovers. At a time when a comic book featuring Superman and rival Spider-Man sharing the same pages was a positively shocking idea, this enormous tabloid spent its 100 pages synthesizing the narrative styles of both the DC and Marvel house approaches into a single … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Marvel/DC Crossovers
My brother Ken also dabbled around with super hero comics from time to time, which is where this issue of BATMAN came from--it's another that was purchased for him but which I eventually wound up with.I liked Batman well enough, but in this period I found his adventures a bit too colorless for my tastes, … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #295
The first entry in Marvel's line of European-style albums, released under the sobriquet "Marvel Graphic Novels", THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL remains as effective and affecting today as it was when it was first published. A good deal of that is down to the subject matter, which sees the titular Mar-Vell dying not in battle … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1982
1981 was a year of many anniversaries, and many anniversary issues as a result. This 25th anniversary issue of FLASH was built around a premise that was even then a bit old: Barry Allen wakes up in a hospital room, his body paralyzed and horribly scarred from the accident when lightning struck his police laboratory. … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1981
It was like a little miracle, a book that couldn't and possibly shouldn't ever happen. But happen it did--and SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was an excellent mixing of the then-contemporary styles of Marvel and DC, very different flavors in that period. The creative team was spot on, anchored by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1976
As I understand things, the Neal Adams image that was used on the cover to this issue of SUPERMAN was sitting around in editor Julie Schwartz’s flat files, an inventory piece or just something that Neal had done to amuse himself. Writer Marty Pasko saw it and wanted to use it on one of his … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #317
This was the one and only comic book to be found in a department store toy section that we visited. I have no idea whether it was a remnant of a broken-open 3-bag (there were no other 3-bags in evidence) or if it had come into the store somehow by accident. But beggars aren’t choosers … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #458
The Tom Brevoort Experience 