Of all of the early Marvel super hero titles, it must be said that STRANGE TALES was the one that seemed to be running on fumes the earliest. The title would get a little bit of a pick-me-up once Doctor Strange became a regular feature in its back pages, but before that, one gets the … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #113
You never know what's going to turn up in the world of comic books, even after decades have gone by. So I was astonished to see the page I'm about to share with you turn up at one of the comic book auction sites recently. It's an amazing thing unto itself, but it also provokes … Continue reading Lee & Ditko & Orlando & Rockwell: A New Discovery in the Multiple Car Crash of TALES TO ASTONISH #61
As I've mentioned in the past, not only did the Modern Comics 3-Bagged reprints of past Charlton titles include a wide swath of their super hero and adventure material, but they also contained a number of titles in other genres; war, martial arts and mystery/suspense being chief among them. Most of those books were of … Continue reading BHOC: THE MANY GHOSTS OF DOCTOR GRAVES #12
E-MAN #4 was another issue of the series that came into my possession sealed within one of the plastic 3-Bags of reissued classic Charlton releases put out by Modern Comics in the late 1970s and sold in discount department stores, supermarkets and the like. There was a feeling of these books being a bit "off-brand" … Continue reading BHOC: E-MAN #4
Steve Ditko was one of the most popular and distinctive artists of the Silver Age of Comics, one who is well-regarded for his many contributions to the field. He was also, at least past a certain point, a devotee of and believer in the tenets of Objectivism, the belief systems pioneered by author Ayn Rand … Continue reading Brand Echh: Mr. A
It was a big surprise and a huge deal to me the next time my family went to the Two Guys discount department store chain, as I discovered a new flight of Modern Comics 3-Bags had arrived. Modern Comics was an attempt to sell bagged product directly to department stores and other such chains on … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN ATOM #85
It's been said over the years that Marvel's publisher Martin Goodman had an unwavering faith in the sales appeal of Ant-Man. How much of that was due to him hearing about the sell-through numbers on the earliest appearances of the Atom over at rival DC I do not know--but it does account for the reason … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #38
Another installment of our popular feature where we showcase vintage photographs of popular comic book creators from days gone by. This is sometimes known as "Stan Lee and friends" given how often Lee was photographed over the years. Mark Gruenwald and Nel Yomtov at a convention in the late 1980s Renee Witterstaetter at a party … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 11
This cover to TALES OF SUSPENSE #46 has always struck me as odd. For one things, we don't actually see the title character in costume--that inset image of Tony STark donning his armor feels like an afterthought to me, an add-on. Additionally, the crimson Dynamo who is so touted here bears only a marginal resemblance … Continue reading WC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #46
This issue of STRANGE TALES was another book that was in that long box of about 150 Silver Age comic books that I bought in 1988 for $50.00. As the Marvel super hero line began to expand, certain strips tended to stagnate. They also got used a lot of the time as a place to … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #112
The Tom Brevoort Experience 