Lee & Kirby: The Desecration of CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #4

There were a bunch of different moments during Jack Kirby's final year at Marvel any one of which might have been the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of his continuing employment with the firm. By this point, Kirby had already failed to come to an agreement with Marvel's new owners concerning what … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Desecration of CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #4

BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #20

In addition to buying a handful of new comics that hadn't yet reached my area during my trip to the Heroes World outlet in the Levittown Mall, I also stocked up on a few classic back issues. As I was working with a very limited budget, a real boon to me was reprint titles such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #20

The Last Sgt. Fury Story

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS was a foundational title launched during the heyday of the dawning Marvel Age of Comics in 1963. Rather than being a super hero series like most of the other Marvel books then garnering attention, it was instead a war series--war comics continued to be strong performers for DC and … Continue reading The Last Sgt. Fury Story

BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #165

In addition to picking up a flight of new comics off of the racks at Heroes World in Levittown, New York, I also did a little bit of diving into the back issue bins. I didn't have a heck of a lot of money to work with--my grandparents were only going to indulge me so … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #165

WC: DAREDEVIL #14

DAREDEVIL was something of a lesser title for Marvel during the 1960s and particularly the 1970s. It had started out as a book nobody wanted to do: Marvel owner Martin Goodman had discovered that the name was available for trademarking, having previously been the name of one of the longest-running series of the Golden Age, … Continue reading WC: DAREDEVIL #14

The Monster Times #13

The MONSTER TIMES was a biweekly newspaper devoted to horror, science fiction and fantasy that began publication in 1972 and ran until 1976. In those days before the Internet, publications such as this one were the only way that fans nationwide could get inside information about the things they loved. The thirteenth issue featured an … Continue reading The Monster Times #13

Comics Creators in the Wild 10

It's more of the same, additional vintage photographs of the people who worked on the comic books of yesteryear during those earlier halcyon days! As usual, there's an awful lot of Stan Lee. Stan Lee promotional photo, circa 1980 Assorted Marvel and DC creators, including Joe Orlando, Paul Levitz, Don McGregor, , Jenette Kahn, Stan … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 10

Lee & Kirby: The First New Captain America Story – From The Original Art

The original artwork for classic stories is always of interest to me. There's a bunch of information that we can discover from it. And even apart from that, it's often fun just to see how these stories were originally drawn, without the added intermediary step of them having to be reproduced and printed in a … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The First New Captain America Story – From The Original Art

Forgotten Masterpiece: COMIX BOOK #2 and the first Maus

With the fact that Maus was banned from circulation in some school districts making national news this past week, the time seemed to be good to discuss COMIX BOOK, the short-lived Marvel magazine that published work by underground cartoonists--including the prototype short story for Art Spiegelman's Maus. COMIX BOOK was an outgrowth of Marvel's concerns … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: COMIX BOOK #2 and the first Maus

WC: AVENGERS #15

I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but as things turned out, I wound up getting both the beginning and the end of the initial Masters of Evil cycle in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. For, like AVENGERS #6, this issue also features Zemo and the Masters, and begins to bring their … Continue reading WC: AVENGERS #15