I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. One of the first comics I wrote about for the “My Misspent Youth” series was Marvel Fanfare, a periodical exclusive to the direct market, which was still a rarity in the early nineteen-eighties. At the time I bought my first issue of the series, from the dinky upstairs office that was the original home of Stoughton, Wisconsin’s Midwest Books, I was still primarily feeding my superhero story addiction by ruthlessly patrolling the comic book … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Marvel Fanfare #7 by Steven Grant and Joe Barney

I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. In my estimation, 2004 was a pretty lousy year for superhero comic books from the big two publishers, DC and Marvel. Sales were in their extended descent, leading writers, artists, and editors to consistently resort to the desperation of cheap sensationalism. DC was building their major event comic for the year around the rape and murder of a character who belonged to a more innocent time, and Marvel was operating with a similarly … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke

I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. When I started reading superhero comics, I was enamored with the history I did not witness. Immediately deciding to Make Mine Marvel, I had an endless excitement for studying that publisher’s previously traveled terrain. It helped that it was easy to digest, with fewer than twenty years of stories when I started pulling together the necessary change to purchase their monthly, ongoing adventures. They also had a pure mastery of genial grandstanding in their self-promotion, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Silver Surfer by Stan Lee and John Byrne

I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. When I committed to superhero comic books in the early nineteen-eighties, I was immediately enraptured by the connectivity of the Marvel universe. While the storytelling practice has reached levels of pure tedium these days, marked by supposed “event series” that pile as many costumed figures as possible into plots as hopelessly ensnarled as the wires behind a media obsessive’s entertainment center, there was still a frisson of excitement to be had back then when … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 by Frank Miller and Herb Trimpe