The most successful of all of Jack Kirby's assorted creations in the decade of the 1970s was undoubtedly KAMANDI, the story of the last human boy on Earth in a future time when animals have become intelligent and walk upright. It was a sort of quasi-spin on the popular Planet of the Apes franchise, but … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: KAMANDI #60
It had happened again. I had missed another issue of THE FLASH. Having never seen nor bought #269, now #271 proved elusive to me. And honestly, ever since my subscription had lapsed with issue #261, I was having the devil's own time following the book regularly. You might think this would have prompted me to … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #272
The change was almost imperceivable, so incremental had it been, at least to me. But starting at around this point, it was difficult to argue that IRON MAN had become a much better title than at any earlier point in recent memory. The new creative team of co-plotter and scripter David Michelinie, penciler John Romita … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #119
This new week also brought a new issue of IRON MAN, a series whose fortunes were improving by the issue. I've always really liked this cover, as it's a very simple concept with an almost visceral hook to it. And in a relatively rare move for the period, it's devoid of any cover copy explaining … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #118
It was immediately apparent once the trio of writer David Micheline, penciler John Romita Jr. and inker/co-plotter Bob Layton came on board the series over the course of two months that something good was beginning to happen in IRON MAN. The series had, for a long while, been a bit out of step with the … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #117
As the Direct Sales comic book market opened up as a viable alternative to mainstream distribution at the start of the 1980s, all sorts of different publishers leapt into the fray with their own offerings, hoping to strike it big. More than a few of these were initially offered as black and white magazines along … Continue reading Brand Echh: Galaxia #1
CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE was something of a legendary title, in that it wasn't really a published title at all. In 1978, as a publishing initiative designed to restore the health of the division, new DC Publisher Jenette Kahn and her editorial team had made the decision to raise the price of the line from 35 … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1: BLACK LIGHTNING #12
These days, the name John Byrne is synonymous with that of the Fantastic Four. His run both writing and penciling the series in the 1980s is held up as a high water mark for the title, and typically regarded as being second only to that of FF creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Byne had … Continue reading The Unused Fantastic Four Sample Story by John Byrne
As we've spoken about before in the past, the opening up of the Direct Sales marketplace in the 1980s inspired a whole lot of different companies to enter the field with their own wares, competing for a piece of this lucrative non-returnable sales market. One of these was Archie Comics, who were persuaded to take … Continue reading Brand Echh: Mighty Crusaders #1
Comic books attracted the attention of some pretty colorful people, especially when it came to the ranks of would-be publishers. One of the most colorful was David Singer, who for a short period of time in the mid-1980s presided over both Deluxe Comics and Lodestone Comics, and operated as a publisher looking to carve out … Continue reading Brand Echh: Codename: Danger #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 