This issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY was situated right at the transition point between the early Marvel style of storytelling and the more mature and measured approach the firm would take through its glory years. By this point, artist and largely plotter Jack Kirby had received a rate increase that permitted him to slow down … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #115
This week brought out another issue of THOR, a title that I had only recently begun to get into and enjoy. New writer Roy Thomas had decided to lean into the genuine Norse legends for his first big epic, which saw the Gods of Ragnarok once again facing the approaching threat of Ragnarok, the end-of-the-world … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #275
This issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY represents the beginning of the fully-formed period of Thor's adventures. While launched over a year before in issue #83, the strip was swiftly handed over by editor Stan Lee to other creators to write and draw--Jack Kirby's talents were needed elsewhere, it seemed--and consequently, the series wasn't working as … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #101
It's more of the same story. This issue of THOR I got in another one of those 3-Bag bundles of recent comic books that were sold through toy stores and department stores during this period. I was still on the fence somewhat as a THOR reader--over the next couple of years, I would fall off … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #265
A post from my old Marvel blog, this one another look back at what my office had put out a decade prior to the time at which I wrote it. Today, this was 23 years ago. Ten Years Ago This Month April 6, 2009 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General It’s been … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Ten Years Ago This Month (Then)
As we spoke about a week or two back, VENUS was a strangely schizophrenic title published by Marvel/Timely in the 1940s and early 1950s. It concerned the Roman goddess Venus coming to Earth and falling in love with the publisher of a women's magazine, BEAUTY, and becoming its editor. It was a bizarre mix of … Continue reading The First (Marvel) Thor Story
One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91
This issue of THOR was another new book that I picked up on my outing to Heroes World with my grandparents. I didn't do so because I was completely enthralled with the series so much as an overall "no comic left behind" attitude that I had towards books that I would typically have picked up … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #274
A long time has passed since I first bought the comics that I talk about here, so sometimes the details of their acquisition become vague. I do remember that I got this issue, THOR #259, the same day that I got the previous one, discussed yesterday. But I don't think they were in the same … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #259
This issue of THOR was another book that I got coverless in one of those plastic-wrapped bundles of supposedly-destroyed comics that my drugstore was selling. That's a Jack Kirby cover on this issue, but one that's a little bit difficult to recognize as the King's work given all of the changes and corrections that were … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #258
The Tom Brevoort Experience 