When I think abut the Christmas season, I'm often put in mind of this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, the seminal issue #500. I bought it on Christmas eve, 1980, and I don't know that any of the gifts I received the following morning were a match for that reading experience. It's all tangled up in … Continue reading Perfect Game – DETECTIVE COMICS #500
This particular issue would be my candidate for most underwhelming oversized anniversary issue of the era. It was heavily promoted throughout the DC titles of the era--and who could resist that story hook? It's the day the Batman retires! But honestly, it's a pretty bleh read, tedious, and with the central thesis really being fitted … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #300
This is the single greatest issue of SUPERMAN ever put together in the character's 80 year history. Closer to home, it's the special Anniversary issue that I'm always jockeying against in my own mind when it comes to put together a book of this sort for the Marvel characters. Of course, I fail to clear … Continue reading Perfect Game – SUPERMAN #400
The entirety of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's BATMAN: YEAR ONE story was must reading, and this final installment wrapped the story up beautifully--a story more of hard-boiled cop Jim Gordon than really of Batman (who doesn't appear in costume all that much throughout it. ) Mazzucchelli channels the best attributes of Alex Toth in … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1987
After a few false starts and doglegs, Dave Sim found his footing as his long-running Church and State storyline began to build up steam. Now paired with Gerhard, whose elaborate and expressive environments made the Earth-Pig's world more fully realized than ever, Sim was more free to focus on plot, character, world-building and even the … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1985
A genuine sucker punch of an ending topped off this issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, as we learn the outcome of Sue Richards' latest pregnancy. Writer/artist John Byrne is in strong form here, at about the middle of his long run on the title. Good use of the rest of the Marvel Universe and a sympathetic … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1984
It's been bettered but never equaled, the granddaddy of all inter-company crossovers. At a time when a comic book featuring Superman and rival Spider-Man sharing the same pages was a positively shocking idea, this enormous tabloid spent its 100 pages synthesizing the narrative styles of both the DC and Marvel house approaches into a single … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Marvel/DC Crossovers
Another instant masterwork from the typewriter of Alan Brennert, this issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD brings the story of the original Batman of the 1930s and 40s (i.e. the Earth-2 model) to a satisfying and emotional conclusion, as he finds his soulmate in Selina Kyle as the two battle the Scarecrow. As usual, Brennert … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1983
The first entry in Marvel's line of European-style albums, released under the sobriquet "Marvel Graphic Novels", THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL remains as effective and affecting today as it was when it was first published. A good deal of that is down to the subject matter, which sees the titular Mar-Vell dying not in battle … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1982
It's perhaps difficult to see from the vantage point of so many years later, but this issue of X-MEN was a game-changer when it came out, and cemented the popularity of the series at the top of the Direct Market sales charts for a decade and a half. Powerful, unexpected, emotional, this comic generated both … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1980
The Tom Brevoort Experience 