A few years ago, I ran a piece on the first book-length comic book story ever produced. You can take a look at that page here: https://tombrevoort.com/2022/03/19/the-first-book-length-comic-book-story/ But as it turns out, I had overlooked something. Prior to ALL-FLASH COMICS #2, there had been at least one earlier book-length story produced. And it saw print … Continue reading The First Book Length Comic Book Story Redux
This wound up being the final issue of MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION, the title that reprinted vintage AVENGERS stories from a number of years earlier. not that I knew it when I bought this book during a weekly trip to my local 7-11. Marvel had been steadily cutting down on its number of reprint titles, and … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #47
The world of super heroes is never a stationary place, despite feelings among certain fans that nothing ever seems to change. And primary among the places where alteration can be seen is in the attire of classic characters. Giving a lagging hero a costume redesign can sometimes enhance their appeal and help carry them to … Continue reading 5BC: Five Terrible Marvel Super Hero Costume Redesigns
This was the first issue of GHOST RIDER that I ever bought. I seem to recall picking it up at a supermarket that carried a few comics--the same one where I'd earlier purchased SHOGUN WARRIORS #3. I was never a fan of Marvel's assorted monster titles--I was a super hero man through and through. But … Continue reading BHOC: GHOST RIDER #35
The end of the Golden Age of Comics wasn't especially kind to super heroes. Whereas once they'd been the primary drivers of sales of the colorful magazines, in the postwar period, their appeal among readers dwindled, and other genres such as teen humor, westers, romance, war, crime and horror began to be those that primarily … Continue reading When Captain America Wasn’t In Captain America
DOCTOR STRANGE was a series that had a hard time retaining me as a reader throughout the late 1970s. I really liked the very early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko stories once I got to read them, but the modern day adventures of the character held little appeal for me. They were a lot more phantasmagoric, a … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
Over the course of comic book history, the fortunes of super heroes as a genre waxed and waned as tastes changed and the marketplace shifted. This led to moments where a series that was once popular had fallen upon hard times or was seen as being out of step with the era, and needed to … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Two Heroes Were Better Than One
I didn't know it at the time, but CAPTAIN AMERICA was in the midst of what would turn out to be a six-issue epic story. These things weren't typically announced ahead of time. Rather, stories sometimes ended in a To Be Continued and eventually, they ended and you knew how long they would be. In … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #232
There is always one firm whose comic book output during the era we think of today as the Golden age of Comics stands head and shoulders above all others and which is held in teh utmost regard by those readers who encountered it in their formative years--not that there are many of those still around … Continue reading The First Crypt of Terror Story
Another week brought another raft of new comic books at my regular 7-11's spinner rack, and I was right there on Thursday as I was every week to pick them up. First book this week was this month's issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, a title that I had been enjoying more and more thanks to the … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #191
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