SHAZAM #3 was another issue in the complete run of the title that I had borrowed to read from my grade school friend Donald Sims. That's a nice cover in the spirit of a number of Fawcett pieces spotlighting the Marvel Family. It's only undone by how chunky all of the linework seems to be. Illustrator C.C. Beck had previously worked at twice-up size, as was then industry standard. The switch-over to 1 1/2 size coupled with his own aging meant that his work became a bit less crisp and sharp.

EC's science fiction titles were the weak link in the publishing line at least from a sales point of view. They never performed at much beyond a break-even level. But publisher Bill Gaines liked them, and so he kept them running regardless, using capital from his more profitable titles to underwrite them. Gaines was rightly proud of these books, as they were of a very high quality in a field that often devolved into junk at least as far as comic books were concerned. These books made a big impact on me when I was first reading through those eight EC Classic Reprints that I had ordered, and I'd have measured the science fiction books as among my favorites in the lot.

Quality Comics put out a wide variety of strong, solid material back during the Golden Age of Comics, much of which is largely forgotten today. But they maintained a strong house art style and a commitment to story that made their offerings among the most readable comics of the period. Today, we're going to look at one such story, from SMASH COMICS #36: the Death of Midnight Midnight had been started not due to any inspiration but for entirely mercenary reasons. Quality Comics owner "Busy" Arnold held an ownership stake in Will Eisner's weekly newspaper insert comic book, the Spirit Section.

By far the best-selling titles in the well-regarded EC Comics line of the early 1950s were the company's horror books. Horror was a big genre during this time, and nobody in the field did it better than EC. As with their other offerings, their horror comics were story-driven and literate, with high-quality artwork throughout. These were the money-makers that underwrote the costs of some of EC's less profitable ventures, notably the Science Fiction books. And honestly, in my reading of the initial batch of eight vintage reprints of EC Comics that I'd bought from the Superhero Merchandise catalog, it was the horror titles that appealed to me the least.

A post from my old Marvel blog about the growing acceptance of comics as a worthwhile medium. Acceptance April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General For years, one of the major goals of…

As with the first three issues of the Marvel STAR WARS comic book, my younger brother Ken picked up the 3-Bag containing issues #4-6, the back half of the adaptation of the film, at the Kay-Bee Toy…

As we’ve spoken about in the past, Charlton went through a tiny and short-lived creative renaissance in the mid-late 1960s under the editorial auspices of Dick Giordano. While the outfit that…

A post from my old Marvel blog concerning Fred Hembeck and Steve Ditko. The image below is not the piece I purchased. Fred and Steve April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General I bought…

Here was another regular issue of SUPERMAN that I bought during one of my weekly Thursday 7-11 new comics drop-ins. It’s not a wonderfully drawn cover, for all that the purple background does…

Packed with mutant mayhem, secret missions, and a shocking Venom twist.