It’s been delayed for five long years, but I’m now working on the second volume of July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic Book Life of Tony Isabella. The first volume is available on Amazon. Here’s the sales pitch on that debut book:
Lo, There Shall Be a Beginning
For Tony Isabella, that beginning was July 1963, and a brand-new copy of Fantastic Four Annual #1. Over fifty years later, and after a decades-long career in comics during which he created such iconic characters as Black Lightning, he returns to where it all started.
Over 130 comic books were released in July 1963, including Marvel's Avengers and Fantastic Four, DC's Green Lantern and Justice League of America, and a slew of others, from those featuring well-known characters like Archie, Richie Rich, the Jetsons, and Donald Duck, to such obscure titles as Girls' Romances, Konga, Stoney Burke, and Space War.
Tony is reading (or in many cases, re-reading) them all. In this first volume, he's starting with Action Comics #304 and coming up for air with Batman #158. In between there's lots of Archie, Mighty Mouse, Spider-Man, Alley Oop, and even Jerry Lewis. Tony analyzes each issue in-depth: the stories, the ads, the creators, and the context, with plenty of anecdotes and production details to satisfy comics fans and historians alike.
Mark it on your calendar: July 1963! It's coming up next.
Here are the planned contents for the second volume. Following each chapter will be a sidebar featuring one or more of the creators of these comic books.
Battlefield Action #49
Blackhawk #188
Blondie and Dagwood Family #1
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #5
Bozo the Clown #4
Brain Boy #6
Car 54 Where Are You #7
Detective Comics #319
Dr. Kildare #7
Drag-Strip Hotrodders #1
Famous Monsters of Filmland 1964 Yearbook #1
Fantastic Four #19
Fantastic Four Annual #1
Fightin’ Air Force #40
Fightin’ Army #54
Flash #139
Flintstones #13
Forbidden Worlds #114
Friendly Ghost Casper #62
Gallant Men #1
The observant among you might have noticed that two of these comics are listed in bold. That’s because I don’t have either of them at this time. In a hopefully short time, I will be launching the first of a series of Kickstarter campaigns to fund my purchase of those two comics and the comics needed for me to write the third volume of July 1963. The sooner I get the comic books I need, the sooner I can write and publish these volumes.
As many of you know, I almost always charge an appearance fee when I’m a guest of a convention or a comics shop signing, or when asked to speak at a college or other venue. That fee (not including the usual hotel, meal and travel expenses) is $500 per day.
However, I’m more than happy to indulge in the barter system if a convention or comics shop can get me decent condition copies of the comics I will need for future volumes. Just putting that out there for any interested parties.
I’ll be providing updates on the second volume from time to time.There might be some cases where I have the stories from some of the comics I’m writing about, but not the advertising and other stuff from the issues. Don’t be surprised if I call on my bloggy readers for scans of that material.
I’m going to try to post more bloggy things going forward, though some of them will be pitches like this one. I’ll also be offering some choice items from my Vast Accumulation of Stuff. Basically, I will be doing everything legal I can come up with of to raise money to finance my future projects. Keep watching the bloggy.
That’s all for now, but I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
© 2022 Tony Isabella
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