Best Marvel Comics Books Of The Decades

Featuring over 500 pictures, TALES FROM THE DMV: THE ORIGINS OF COMIC FANDOM IN WASHINGTON D.C, MARYLAND, AND VIRGINIA showcases firsthand stories from comic book fans of the 1930s through the 1970s, who tell what it was like being a comic collector in the hobby’s earliest days: the first comic book stores, the first conventions, and, best of all, the other fans. Be amazed as you read about the Muller brothers and Carl Bridgers and Ted White and Fred von Bernewitz buying comics off the stands in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Read about the first comic stores in the DMV: Central Books, which opened in D.C. in the 1940s and burned to the ground in the 1968 riots; Carl and Janice Bridgers’ Barbarian Book Shop - which opened in 1969 and still operates today as the longest-surviving comic book store in the world; Geppi’s Comic World, a chain of eight stores that began in 1974; and Joel Pollack’s Big Planet Comics, which has been open for over thirty years. Coverage and pictures of all the early conventions in the DMV are provided as well: Gary Groth and Michael Catron’s Metro Cons, Mark Feldman and John Taylor’s Maryland Funnybook Festivals, and the University of Maryland’s Minicons. Presented also is Bernie Wrightson’s early life in Baltimore before he became a world-famous artist, with pictures of him from the early days along with an unedited interview from 1969 and over twenty pieces of his earliest art -- and this includes his very first published art ever, in addition to art he drew for THE BALTIMORE SUN in the 1960s, and the very first story he ever illustrated (the 12-page “Michael Clayton of Galvan” from NOZDROVIA #1), and that story is reprinted in its entirety for the first time. Just as amazing are the publications produced by DMV fans. While in junior high in Virginia, Gary Groth began his 15-issue run of FANTASTIC FANZINE (all issues pictured), and in its pages he gained the skills needed to eventually create THE COMICS JOURNAL, the world... [Read More]