Comico was another of the new entrants into the field of comic book publishing once it had been proven that the Direct Sales marketplace was capable of supporting such publishing activities. The company was started by a group of art students who all went to school together in the Philadelphia area, and it proved to … Continue reading FSC: COMICO PRIMER #2
Both my friend David Steckel and I were fans of THE INVADERS, the World War II-era comic book that writer/editor Roy Thomas had launched a short while earlier. Part of this was simply that the book included the original Human Torch--as we both loved FANTASTIC FOUR, this affection kind of transitioned over. Additionally, though, it … Continue reading BC: MARVEL PREMIERE #30
This issue of DOOM PATROL was another that I purchased at Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall on a Saturday when my grandparents had taken me there. Ed had a big chunk of DOOM PATROL back issues, a group that I was fascinated by, and so I had started by buying #100 and … Continue reading BHOC: DOOM PATROL #99
The second comic book release put out by Jim Shooter's last new comic book company Broadway Comics was SHADOW STATE #1. And to begin with, what a lousy cover--badly composed, poorly colored, overly designed. A real eyesore, for all that it definitely did the job of making a prospective buyer's eye linger on it on … Continue reading Brand Echh: SHADOW STATE #1
It was the summer, so it wasn't all that difficult to convince my grandparents to take me on another buying trip to the Sun-Vet Mall not far from our home wherein Ed's Coins and Stamps, a collectables shop, could be found. My grandparents lived about an hour away from our home, and they would come … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #198
It was only shortly after Pacific Comics launched writer/editor Bruce Jones' attempt to bring back the horror flavor of the classic EC Comics in the series TWISTED TALES that Jones' other tribute to that well-remembered long-ago line saw the light of day: ALIEN WORLDS. If TWISTED TALES was attempting to be a contemporary modernization of … Continue reading FSC: ALIEN WORLDS #1
Both my friend David Steckel and I were huge FANTASTIC FOUR fans--it was our favorite comic book series at the time we met, and one of the things that bonded us together. So in particular, it was issues of FANTASTIC FOUR and its reprint title MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS that we borrowed back and forth, broadening … Continue reading BC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #64
Now this was a comic book that I truly enjoyed. As always, I was very much excited to get the year's regular team-up between the Justice League and their antecedent counterparts, the Justice Society. It had become a regular yearly event. But the truth is, most of those stories had become disappointing. In particular, throughout … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #171
By the time that he launched BROADWAY COMICS in 1995, one gets the sense that EIC and Chief Creative Officer Jim Shooter was getting a little bit tired. After being ousted from Marvel Comics in 1987, he's launched an unsuccessful bid to buy Marvel, pivoted into founding VALIANT when that proved unsuccessful, then was forced … Continue reading Brand Echh: POWERS THAT BE #1
So after a bit of a bumpy road as a reader over the preceding year, where I wasn't able to consistently get copies of the issues, my new Stationery Store outlet made it possible for me to once more become a regular reader of THE FLASH. The character had been my absolute favorite as a … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #278
