WC: DAREDEVIL #6

Here's another book that came out of my longbox haul of Windfall Comics, costing me, as i repeatedly keep saying, only 33 cents each in 1988. There was always something a bit fascinating and mysterious about these early issues of DAREDEVIL to me--they had a mystique, a sense of a thing not quite being fully … Continue reading WC: DAREDEVIL #6

Brand Echh: E-Man #6

E-MAN was a short-lived but well-remembered (and often revived) Charlton title of the early 1970s, representing a last gasp on the part of that firm to establish a presence in the super hero marketplace. E-Man was a bit of a throwback character, crafted in the mold of Plastic Man or Captain Marvel. A super hero … Continue reading Brand Echh: E-Man #6

Blah Blah Blog – The Ones That Did It, Part 5

A post from my Marvel blog of years past, this one the final entry in a sequence on the Marvel books that made me into a regular Marvel reader. The Ones That Did It pt. 5 April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General Finishing up our series on the comics … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – The Ones That Did It, Part 5

WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #7

This was one of the more exciting acquisitions I made in my windfall acquisition of 1988--a super-early (single digits) issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN by the character's originators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. And not to boast per se, but because it's the point of this whole series of pieces, remember that I got this book … Continue reading WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #7

Brand Echh: Charlton Bullseye #1

Charlton had been a player in the comic book marketplace going back to the days of the Golden Age of Comics. They were widely regarded as the shlockiest of publishers, whose paper and printing was markedly inferior to that of the competition. There was some very good work buried among the many Charlton publications, but … Continue reading Brand Echh: Charlton Bullseye #1

BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #21

This was another book that I bought out of my drugstore's Big Bin of Somewhat Older Comic Books, all issues that had been reported as destroyed but instead which had been sold on the secondary market for a cut-rate price. This was one of a pair of DOCTOR STRANGE issues that I picked up at … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #21

The First New Captain Atom Story

We've spoken before about the launch of Captain Atom in the pages of Charlton's SPACE ADVENTURES series at the very beginning of the 1960s. The character failed to catch on at that point, and was eventually pulled from the series. That perhaps should have been the end of things. But the super hero fad just … Continue reading The First New Captain Atom Story

Lee & Kirby & Ditko: The Development of INCREDIBLE HULK

From the vantage point of hindsight, we view the Hulk as a super hero, the second in a string of new creations unleashed in the earliest years of the 1960s on an unsuspecting public, the building blocks for what would become known as the Marvel Universe. But that's really an impression that has been colored … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Ditko: The Development of INCREDIBLE HULK

Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #150 and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8

At this point, I expect that most of you know the drill here. But to hastily recap for those who do not: in the early 1970s, demand for Spider-Man stories was so strong in Mexico that the Mexican publisher of Spidey's translated adventures, La Prensa, got permission from Marvel to produce all-new adventures of the … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #150 and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8

The Imaginary Spider-Man Episodes of the Grantray-Lawrence Marvel Super Heroes 1966 Cartoon

As many know, and as we've talked about here in the past, the Marvel characters first came to television in 1966, in the form of a syndicated animated series produced by Grantray-Lawrence. The series ran five days a week and featured five Marvel characters: Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and the Sub-Mariner. But … Continue reading The Imaginary Spider-Man Episodes of the Grantray-Lawrence Marvel Super Heroes 1966 Cartoon