It’s Tales From My Spinner Rack’s Third Anniversary! Join me as we celebrate Tales From My Spinner Rack’s third birthday this coming Sunday, September 6 at 4:00 PM Pacific time/7:00 PM Eastern with a special live stream, featuring no prizes, no special guests, no giveaways, just me rattling on about whatever YOU want to talk... Continue Reading →
In 1975, Jack Kirby found himself at a crossroads. His five-year contract with DC Comics was coming to an end. It had been an intensely creative and frustrating period for the artist and Kirby made the difficult decision to return to Marvel, the company he helped make famous in the 1960s. Kirby signed a three-year... Continue Reading →
San Diego Comic-Con is looming large in some of our lives, and I will once again be presenting a Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE! panel. This year’s topic is “1975: Kirby Returns to Marvel,” and I’ll be teaming up with Kirby experts Mark Evanier (author, Kirby King of Comics) and John Morrow, editor-publisher of... Continue Reading →
Yep, Comic-Con is right around the corner (July 23-26, with Preview Night on July 22, at the San Diego Convention Center) and both Tales From My Spinner Rack! and I will be front-and-center (sorta) once again! "The Stories Behind Cover Story: Six Decades of Comic-Con" • Comic-Con Museum • Wednesday, July 22, 10:30 AM First... Continue Reading →
Way back in 1979, I received my first—and only!—art assignment from Marvel Comics. It was to draw the inside front cover of Marvel Super Special 15, featuring an adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the big-screen recreation of the famous TV series. It was a dream come true, even if it didn’t—SPOILER ALERT!—have a... Continue Reading →
64 years ago, the creation of the Marvel Universe took a giant leap forward when three of the company’s most famous heroes debuted in their first comic book appearances ALL ON THE SAME DAY! Yep, hard as it is to believe, the Amazing Spider-Man, the Mighty Thor, and the Astonishing Ant-Man all hit newsstands on... Continue Reading →
It’s Comicon season once again, with at least three major cons in the past month or so, I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at some of my earliest convention—and comic fandom—memories! Tales From My Spinner Rack Episode 30: "Comicon Memories Part 1: The New York Years," chronicles that long-ago time!... Continue Reading →
Tales From My Spinner Rack! rockets into the new year with Episode 27, “Steranko & Adams: Comic Book Revolutionaries!" which takes a look back at the tumultuous 1960s and the two artists who revolutionized superhero comics in the latter half of that decade, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams! Steranko started first at Marvel on Nick... Continue Reading →
Well, it’s that time of year once again, so here I am with my annual Christmas card, which sadly is digital only, because I’m cheap and hate the Post Office. I want to wish each and everyone of you who is reading this a very Merry Christmas and the hope of a Happy New Year... Continue Reading →
MERRY CHRISTMAS! My latest video, “Deck the Halls with Christmas Comics!,” takes a look back at some of my favorite holiday-themed comic books at this most festive time of the year, some of which I own and some of which I WISH I owned. Starring Superman, Batman, the Marvel Superheroes, Archie, Dennis the Menace, Donald... Continue Reading →
It’s time for our yearly exploration of some of the wonderful covers currently residing on my spinner rack. This time, in “My Favorite Spinner Rack Covers, Volume 2,” we look at a whole mess (that’s a technical term, to be sure) of books, both well-known, and obscure, including DC, Marvel, Archie, Dennis the Menace, Tarzan,... Continue Reading →
In celebration of our second anniversary and our 3500th subscriber, please join me for the very first Tales From My Spinner Rack Livestream on YouTube, Sunday, Nov. 16 at 2:00 PM (Pacific time), 5:00 PM (Eastern)! That’s right … I’m going to ATTEMPT a live broadcast. Please join me for this special Q&A session …... Continue Reading →
On July 24, 2025, Tales From My Spinner Rack! debuted a brand-new, graphics-filled presentation at Comic-Con International: San Diego in celebration of the premiere weekend of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps. “Our Favorite Fantastic Four Covers by Jack Kirby” took panel attendees back in time to view all 101 Fantastic... Continue Reading →
For one brief, shining moment in August 1971, Marvel changed their comics to 48 pages and raised their price to 25-cents. And the books, for the most part, featured NEW, double-sized stories of around 34 pages. DC Comics had raised their price and page-count a couple of months earlier, but used reprints from their extensive... Continue Reading →
Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE! returns to Comic-Con International with a special panel presentation looking back at “Our Favorite Fantastic Four Covers by Jack Kirby” from the artist’s run on the title from 1961 through 1970! The panel will be on Thursday, July 24 at 12:00 PM in Room 9. Moderator Gary Sassaman will... Continue Reading →
