As we recounted in passing last time, the arrival of creator Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to the Sandman strip that had been running in the back pages of ADVENTURE COMICS swiftly turned it into a popular feature once again. The stories were much improved, with a thematic thread of dreams running through them all, … Continue reading The Last Sandman Story
The Sandman was introduced in NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR COMICS #1 and immediately became the featured player in ADVENTURE COMICS staring with #40. He was a character steeped in an old formula and clearly influenced by the radio hero the Green Hornet. Like the Hornet, his main weapon was a gas gun, and he battled … Continue reading The First Sandy Story and the Super-Heroification of the Sandman
Continuing on with our look at CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, a xeroxed collection of material that had been spiked due to the DC Implosion and intended to secure copyright to these stories for the company. Only 35 copies of this hand-bound edition were initially made, though over the years others have generated their own copies … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: KAMANDI #61
While Grant Morrison and Richard Case's reinvention of the DOOM PATROL had begun in the manner of a more traditional super hero title, it swiftly morphed into something a lot more strange and wonderful, while never entirely throwing off its super hero roots. This issue is another step in that direction, as Robotman's new more … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Best Comic Books of 1990
This issue of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES featuring the Incredible Hulk was another book that I got in a 3-Bag purchased at one of the department stores or toy stores that my family visited on one of our shopping expeditions. While the Hulk wasn't my favorite Marvel character, I enjoyed his escapades well enough--in particular when scripted … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #67
There was a hot moment in the mid-1990s when this issue of COMICO PRIMER was momentarily a highly sought-after back issue. That time coincided with when MTV turned Sam Kieth's Image series THE MAXX into a short-lived but well-remembered animated series. This issue of PRIMER featured Kieth's first published work, and there was a lot … Continue reading Brand Echh: Comico Primer #5
FIGHTING AMERICAN is a well-remembered series produced by the Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Studio in the 1950s. It started out as a reaction to the revival of Simon & Kirby's best-selling patriotic super hero at Atlas Comics, Captain America--they figured that if the public wanted that kind of a character, they were better suited … Continue reading Simon & Kirby: When Fighting American Stole From Starman
During this time, I was continuing to regularly pull comics from the Big Bin of Slightly-Older Books that was maintained by my local drugstore chain, which is where I got this issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP. I still wasn't much on Spider-Man, but the Human Torch was my guy, and so it was a no-brainer that … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TEAM-UP #39
I'm pretty sure that this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA came out of the same 3-Bag as yesterday's issue of INVADERS. It represents, among other things, my first real exposure to the writing of Jack Kirby. I had read a few Kirby stories before--an issue of KAMANDI several years earlier, a reprint of a Golden Age … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #206
My Uncle Jerry Blazer was a house-painted by trade. He and his wife, my Aunt Clementine, lived with my grandparents in a big house that they’d all moved into simultaneously around 1955. So he was a constant fixture in my life, though not seen quite so often as my Grandparents were. He was also the … Continue reading BHOC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #226
The Tom Brevoort Experience 