It was clear early on that the most important and successful new super hero character introduced during the Silver Age of Comics was Spider-Man. The work that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita had put into the series had paid dividends, and the wall-crawler was soon a worldwide icon able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against … Continue reading 5BC: Five Attempts to Replicate Spider-Man
He'd been teased over the course of the previous month, but this issue of INCREDIBLE HULK firmly brought Jack Kirby's creation Machine Man into the Marvel Universe proper. The character had debuted in the last couple of issues of Kirby's 2001 and possessed ties to the mythos of that film. But after 2001 had run … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #235
So here's the sort of mental exercise that I undertake on days when I'm trying to ignore the larger world. I just recently celebrated my 35th Anniversary of being hired to work in Editorial at Marvel. Over the course of those 35 years, I've had the pleasure of working on a huge variety of projects. … Continue reading The Fifteen Best Projects That I Edited
The question came up again this week, prompting a bunch of discussion (often blaming one person in specific for perceived slights): why did the announced and eagerly-anticipated 1983 crossover book starring the Avengers and the Justice League of America never see print and remain uncompleted? There are a bunch of fan rumor and innuendo and … Continue reading Why Did The 1983 JLA/AVENGERS Crossover Not Happen?
I've been meaning to write a little bit about these French-produced Spider-Man stories for a while, but when Newsletter reader Mark Bowen posted a link to this one, which he'd translated over on his blog, I thought that it was worth cross-posting. Mark's original post can be found here: https://imgur.com/a/french-spider-man-16-t-v-crazy-telejunior-1978-AdKR5nP The French publication TELEJunior had … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: The French TV Terror and the French Spider-Man
It's pretty plain to see in retrospect that UNCANNY X-MEN was the best ongoing comic book series being produced during this time. It was in the middle of a run that's become legendary over time, the collaboration between Chris Claremont and John Byrne (with editor Roger Stern an important third leg of that triumvirate, and … Continue reading BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #120
Another issue featuring Marvel's TV sensation THE INCREDIBLE HULK dropped on my local 7-11's spinner rack, and I bought it dutifully, even though my interest in the title was only middling. But I had signed on aboard the series at some point previously, and through this era, that tended to keep me steadily buying the … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #234
That week, another issue of AVENGERS appeared at my local 7-11, and I picked it up without even much looking at it, as the book was on my regular buy list. Which is perhaps a good thing, because I don't know that this generic cover would have enticed me into completing the sale on its … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #182
By 1982 when I was forced to pare back my comic book buying due to a lack of income, there was no more popular series in the land than UNCANNY X-MEN. Following the enormous reaction to the "Dark Phoenix Saga" by Chris Claremont and John Byrne a year or two earlier, the title simply exploded, … Continue reading GH: UNCANNY X-MEN #171
Another issue of INCREDIBLE HULK that I bought by rote when it showed up on the spinner rack at my local 7-11 one Thursday. I was enjoying the title well enough, but it was never a huge favorite of mine. The concept felt so limited to me, and I had a hard time relating to … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #233
The Tom Brevoort Experience 