It’s Tales From My Spinner Rack’s Third Anniversary! Our September 6, 2026 Live Stream on YouTube was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who joined in and asked questions. I really enjoyed talking to you all. Tales From My Spinner Rack! is celebrating its third anniversary and its biggest episode ever, “Kirby’s Last Stand at... 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 →
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 →
On June 23, 1960, a new and different comic book appeared on newsstands. And while giant-sized comics costing 25 cents were nothing new—Dell, Archie, and Harvey had been doing them for years—Giant Superman Annual 1 was something very different for DC Comics, it’s first-ever, 80-page, all-reprint issue, and the first giant-sized issue to star comics'... Continue Reading →
PSST! … Tales From My Spinner Rack fans, I’ve been keeping a secret from you. Before I got my comic book spinner rack, I had another, “secret” spinner rack, this one dedicated to paperback books. Episode 28 reveals the story behind that other rack, the one devoted to my James Bond vintage paperback collection! Welcome... 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 →
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 →
There were plenty of things to be obsessed with for kids growing up in the 1960s: the dawn of the Marvel Age of Comics, James Bond, the Batman TV show, The Beatles, World War II TV shows and movies, and oh yeah, monsters … lots and lots of monsters! So many, in fact, it spawned... 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 →
It’s hard to believe, but 60 years ago, three of Marvel Comics most famous issues debuted on the very same day, July 2, 1963: Avengers 1, X-Men 1, and Fantastic Four Annual 1. Buying all three issues would set you back 49 whole cents at the time, but you could probably put a child through... Continue Reading →
With the new Superman movie written and directed by James Gunn about to take off, Tales From My Spinner Rack! Episode 19 takes a loving look back at ten of my favorite Superman artists, influential creators who defined the look of the Man of Steel in his comic book adventures from 1938 through 2000, in... Continue Reading →
