DEFENDERS #57 March, 1978 By the time of my first DEFENDERS purchase, the series was already well past its best days. Which tells you something, given that it ran almost another 100 issues. DEFENDERS is what Roger Stern refers to as a “fake book”–a book that exists due to editorial fiat, rather than being a … Continue reading BHOCOS: DEFENDERS #57
AVENGERS #168 February, 1978 It’s a perfect example of one of the problems apparent in many of the comics on sale today. AVENGERS #168 was the first issue of the series I read (after having encountered the group earlier in SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS) and I was lost. This was the second part … Continue reading BHOCOS: AVENGERS #168
HULK #219 January, 1978 I didn’t buy this issue of HULK–my brother Ken did, as he did the next couple. I inherited the books from him at some point thereafter, as he drifted away from the series. I wasn’t a big fan of the Hulk. I found the concept, frankly, too limiting. The same cycle … Continue reading BHOCOS: INCREDIBLE HULK #219
SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS 1975 Having become enamored of the Fantastic Four, I went in search of more information about the team. Specifically, I went to my local library, which had a pretty decent selection of books about comics in its adult section. I knew that ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS featured the first … Continue reading BHOCOS: SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS
THE MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES OF COMICS GOLDEN AGE 1977 The ad for MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES and its companion volume, THE GOLDEN AGE REVIEW, ran in Marvel books sometime in 1978. I ordered both of them from SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE not long afterward. These were comic book-sized black-and-white reprints of various golden age superhero stories obviously shot from the … Continue reading BHOCOS: THE MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES OF COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE
POWER RECORDS FANTASTIC FOUR 1974 Having become a fan of the Fantastic Four, I was hot to read the first FF story–FANTASTIC FOUR #1. My quest to do so had already met one dead end, in that I couldn’t locate a copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS anywhere. Instead, I turned to this item, the … Continue reading BHOCOS: POWER RECORDS FANTASTIC FOUR
CAPTAIN ATOM #841977 When I was young, it seemed like you could find comic books everywhere–in convenience stores, in card stores, in drug stores, in department stores and in supermarkets. Sadly, that’s no longer the case, and the industry is much the worse for it. CAPTAIN ATOM #84 by Modern Comics was available in a … Continue reading BHOCOS: CAPTAIN ATOM #84
Discovering Marvel When I was young, I didn’t like Marvel comics. There are a couple of reasons for this. In my early comic book reading days, I’d sampled a number of Marvel titles on occasion. And none of them did anything for me—in fact, I often found them ugly and awful, a far cry from … Continue reading Life In A Four Color World column on FANTASTIC FOUR, 2003
MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #58September, 1975 After becoming enamored of the Fantastic Four (see FANTASTIC FOUR #177), I went looking for more of the same. And, inevitably, my search led first to that same big bin of off-the-truck comics at the Genovese Drug Store. This time, I pulled forth three issues of MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS featuring … Continue reading BHOCOS: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #58
FANTASTIC FOUR #177December, 1976 FF #177 was the first Marvel comic I truly went out and bought. I’d had bad experiences with the Marvel books that had made their way to my hands earlier. (see CAPTAIN AMERICA #183) But by 1977, I was becoming more and more interested in the history of comics. And in … Continue reading BHOCOS: FANTASTIC FOUR #177
The Tom Brevoort Experience 