Everything you ever needed to know about comics (limited to the stuff that I know and am willing to tell you)!
Having recently featured the first two novels based on Marvel comics -- The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal -- I decided it might be interesting to take a look at a few of the other noncomics in my collection. What is a "noncomic"? Well, that's the industry-standard term … Continue reading Noncomics: X-Men – Morlock Madness
Comic Cuts was, for a time, synonymous with comics in general. Indeed, no one is likely to be hanged for suggesting that it's the source of the word "comic" when applied to the medium that today we call comic-books and comic-strips: Comic Cuts was originally a compilation of amusing cartoons taken from other publications... that … Continue reading Comic Cuts, 29 November 1919
A follow-up to The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker, which was the first novel based on a Marvel comic, Captain America: The Great Gold Steal was published by Bantam Books in July 1968. Clunky title aside, it's actually a rather good adventure. It's better written than the Avengers novel, but the plot's a little more … Continue reading Captain America: The Great Gold Steal
If you were a Star Wars fan back in the 1970s there was no end of tie-in merchandise available. Toys, t-shirts, lampshades, pyjamas, comics, books, rhino saddles, all sorts of branded stuff was yours for the buying as long as you had the money, but that certainly wasn't true for all big movies. I was … Continue reading Superman: The Movie promo card
Stan Lee was the first comic-book creator whose name I knew. I was about six and a half years old when I was given my very first superhero comic... this one: That's The Mighty World of Marvel issue #5, dated November 4, 1972. So a little over forty-six years ago. By some miracle, my copy … Continue reading Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
The British Science Fiction anthology comic 2000AD has, as of this week, reached issue 2104, which means it has overtaken War Picture Library (Amalgamated Press / Fleetway / IPC, from 1 Sep 1958 to 3 Dec 1984) in the number-of-issues stakes and thus moved into tenth place in the longevity charts. (I've decided to keep … Continue reading The British Comics Top-10 Longevity Chart!
Countdown Publisher: Polystyle Publications First issue: 20 February 1971 Last issue: 25 August 1973 Issues: 132 Absorbed into: TV Comic In the beginning Countdown was, arguably, a science fiction comic, and as such it predated the seminal 2000AD by six whole years (and six days), but it's not often recognised as such because almost all … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Countdown
