In contrast to most of the other publishers in the field, Fawcett Comics wasn't hesitant to have their various super hero characters interact with one another. Recognizing the promotional strength of their most popular hero Captain Marvel, Fawcett would regularly feature him on the cover of any new title launch, welcoming the new star to … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: MARY MARVEL #8
Another title for which I received an inordinate amount of issues in my Windfall Comics haul was SUPERBOY. Like with SGT FURY and a few other books, SUPERBOY wasn't a series whose value to collectors had become apparent yet, so copies were plentiful and relatively cheap even as late as 1988. As much as anything, … Continue reading WC: SUPERBOY #115
Spy Smasher was introduced in the first issue of Fawcett's WHIZ COMICS (numbered as #2 so as to account for an ashcan edition created solely to secure copyright to the title.) The brainchild of Bill Parker and C.C. Beck, he became one of the most popular characters in the Fawcett publishing line, appearing in his … Continue reading Spy Smasher in Peacetime: The Last Spy Smasher story
Here is another issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN that I got in my Windfall purchase of 1988, when I bought a long box of around 150 silver age comics for $50.00, the best lucky stroke I've ever encountered in terms of collecting vintage comic books. It seems strange to modern sensibilities that a character … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #36
This 1959 issue of SUPERMAN represented a rare departure from the format of the series, one that would be used more and more often in the coming years as the tastes of the audience changed over time. Rather than featuring three shorter Superman stories, as all of the books in the line were doing, here … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN #132
As we've covered in a number of different earlier posts, the chain of causality which led to the creation of the Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Comics' signature creation, is long and tangled. Every once in a while I see people make reference to this story in relation to it. And in fact, there isn't any direct … Continue reading The First Spider Man Story
Another title that I got a few issues of in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988 was MYSTERY IN SPACE. It was one of a pair of titles edited by Julie Schwartz (the other was STRANGE ADVENTURES) devoted to science fiction adventures, a big genre in the late 1950s. This was the earliest one in … Continue reading WC: MYSTERY IN SPACE #54
This issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN was I believe the oldest book that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of about 150 prime Silver Age comic books for $50.00 in 1988. It's really a pre-Silver Age 1950s issue in tone and spirit, and a good example of the kinds of stories the Superman … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #23
The backstory here is something that we've covered in the past, but just to summarize events again: in the mid-1960s, the comic book field was seeing a bit of a resurgence. A fad for costumed super heroes had sprung up, exploding to massive life in the wake of the premiere of the live action BATMAN … Continue reading Brand Echh: Double-Dare Adventures #1
A post from my long-ago Marvel blog in which I react to the first Avengers novel and plus some issues that are about to see print. A Hot Pick and a Review April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General On a lighter note, after revisiting the 1968 novel CAPTAIN AMERICA: … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – A Hot Pick and a Review
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