There's a whole bunch of convoluted history wound up in today's Brand Echh entrant, the first and only issue of Solson's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. #1. SO let's get started. To begin with (and as we've covered here https://tombrevoort.com/2021/03/27/bhoc-t-h-u-n-d-e-r-agents-1/ The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were created primarily by Wally Wood for the short-lived Tower line of comics in 1965. A … Continue reading Brand Echh: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. #1
Comic books attracted the attention of some pretty colorful people, especially when it came to the ranks of would-be publishers. One of the most colorful was David Singer, who for a short period of time in the mid-1980s presided over both Deluxe Comics and Lodestone Comics, and operated as a publisher looking to carve out … Continue reading Brand Echh: Codename: Danger #1
As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths
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
I first encountered the THUNDER Agents in the pages of Maurice Horn's WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMICS, a two-volume set of books chronicling all sorts of comic book series from around the world. My local library had them in stock, though for some reason they weren't kept with the other books on comics, but rather over … Continue reading BHOC: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1
In the early 1940s, as a myriad of would-be publishers heard about the overwhelming success of Superman nd rushed into the marketplace offering their own get-rich-quick versions of a comic book super hero, the reality is that nobody quite understood just what factors made Superman work. And so, everything was tried, and creativity--both good and … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Most Unique Super Heroes of the Silver Age
We've spoken before about how Wally Wood, the master illustrator and cartoonist, was wooed by new start-up company Tower to create a series for them. What Wood and his collaborators came up with was THUNDER Agents, a fun hybrid of spies and super heroes that is fondly remembered by those who read them, even though … Continue reading Brand Echh – T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #9
By 1969, with comic book sales beginning to fall as the 60s fad for super heroes ran its course, enterprising creators began to look for greener pastures, to get out from under the thumb of often-unscrupulous publishers and to be their own bosses and make their own way. One of these creators was Wally Wood, … Continue reading Brand Echh – Heroes, Inc. #1
Once we get to the 1960s, the deaths of super hero characters becomes a more frequent occurrence, though still relatively a rarity (and usually the characters who meet their end--Lightning Lad, Junior Juniper, Ferro Lad--either aren't the headliners of their series but rather one member of an ensemble. And some of them, like Lightning lad, … Continue reading The Death of Menthor
Having left Marvel in 1965 because he was unhappy with the way the books were created--where the artist was having to do the lion's share of the plotting as well as illustrating, thanks to the "Marvel method"--veteran artist Wally Wood was recruited by the start-up Tower Comics to help create and launch their new line. … Continue reading Brand Echh – Dynamo #4
The Tom Brevoort Experience 