I came across this first issue of COMICS COLLECTOR magazine in a little stationery and newsstand in a mall near to my home in Delaware. The place stocked comic books as well as series paperbacks such as THE EXECUTIONER and THE DESTROYER and the imported DOCTOR WHO line. It became a regular place for me … Continue reading FSC: COMICS COLLECTOR #1
When I was growing up in the 1970s, SILVER SURFER had a reputation as being a very special comic book. Right off the bat, it was a series that wasn't being published any longer, yet it was held up as a high water mark for what the medium was capable of achieving. Even new appearances … Continue reading BC: SILVER SURFER #11
Following the conclusion of the six-part National Force epic, which was janky but which had held my interest well enough, CAPTAIN AMERICA entered another period of aimlessness. This was characterized primarily by the book having a rotating creative team, which prevented it from getting any momentum going in terms of ongoing plotlines and character-building. A … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #238
By the time a short while later that KNIGHTS ON BROADWAY #1 was launched, the bloom was already off the rose at Broadway Comics, Jim Shooter's latest and last attempt to start up another successful comic book publishing company. Jim had been ousted from first Marvel and then Valiant, and his attempt to build Defiant … Continue reading Brand Echh: KNIGHTS ON BROADWAY #1
I was very much interested in what was going on in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN at this point--primarily because I didn't even question the validity of the death of Aunt May two issues before. It seemed like a shocking turn of events to me, but one that was entirely plausible given her age and relatively infirm condition. … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #197
It's a well-known story at this point, but just to recap the basics: in 1938, after years of attempting to sell the strip that they'd come up with to any prospective buyer, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster agreed to sign away all of the rights to their four-color wunderkind Superman for the sum … Continue reading The Last Jerry Siegel-Written Golden Age Superman Story
This INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL (or KING-SIZED SPECIAL as it was blurbed this particular year) was yet another book that had been given to my friend David Steckel by an older cousin who had outgrown comic books some time earlier. The books David got from this relative were pretty haphazard--it's clear that his cousin wasn't really … Continue reading BC: INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL #3
I'd mentioned earlier that in my latest trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall, I had started going backwards in buying back issues of DOOM PATROL, a series that I really adored. The reason for this move is very simple: the next issue that I needed, #103, wasn't available. I don't know … Continue reading BHOC: DOOM PATROL #104
I got asked about this story this week by Marvel editor Wil Moss, who had learned about it for the first time. And while I told him that I hadn't covered it largely because the story in question had been translated into English and serialized in the pages of TwoMorrows' magazine ALTER EGO, edited by … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: When Captain Marvel Met the Human Torch–in 1963!
On that same trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall, I purchased this back issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN. I didn't buy it for Jimmy, nor for the big guy. Rather, I had discovered that this issue had reprinted a classic Plastic Man story from the Golden Age and I was … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #150
