At the time of my family's move to Delaware in 1981, there was only one comic book shop in the area, and it was in far-off Wilmington. This was Xanadu Comics, best remembered as the store that AMERICAN SPLENDOR cartoonist Harvey Pekar's future wife Joyce Brabner once worked at. It was too far off to … Continue reading FSC: 2000 AD #122
I continued to make my way through the complete run of SHAZAM that i had borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims one week. While it's taking us months to go over these books, I read them all in two, maybe three days when I first borrowed them. This next issue was a return … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #12
SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANOS wasn't a war comic, not in the way that i understood that term. It wasn't at all attempting to get across the true horror and cost or warfare. Instead, it was a war movie, a big, grand, fun adventure where the enemy were clowns and caricatures and nobody really … Continue reading BHOC: SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #153
MARVEL PREMIERE was something of a mixed bag as a comic book purchase. While early on it had been dedicated to the adventures of Iron Fist, and before that Doctor Strange, it had turned over time into a SHOWCASE-style try-out series for new concepts (and occasionally a place to wrap up outstanding plotlines from a … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL PREMIERE #49
I've mentioned before just how gung-ho I was about the initial offerings from Pacific Comics, one of the fist of the new independent publishers who cropped up in the nascent Direct Sales marketplace of comic book specialty shops once it had been shown that it was possible to turn a profit there. While my enthusiasm … Continue reading FSC: ROG 2000
I'm not 100% certain who I borrowed this issue of BATMAN from. it might have been my grade school friend Donald Sims as with most of the books that we've been looking at recently. But I suspect that it was actually my next-door-neighbor Johnny Rantinella. Johnny was a year younger than I was and a … Continue reading BC: BATMAN #257
Even at the time, we all knew in my circle of friends that the New Fantastic Four cartoon that was then airing on NBC on Saturday mornings wasn't very good. This despite the involvement of the comic's co-creator Jack Kirby as a designer and storyboard artist and dialogue written by Marvel figures such as Stan … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #209
I wasn't ever really a fan of the line of black and white comic magazines published by Jim Warren. I sampled them from time to time, but I always came away feeling a bit unsatisfied. The stories were often lackluster, and the artwork wasn't of a consistent enough quality to pull my attention. So in … Continue reading FSC: EERIE #131
I'm pretty certain that I had owned a copy of SHAZAM #11 at some point. I believe I got it in one of those 3-Bags that could be found in supermarkets, toy stores and department stores, with three comics of recent vintage for a barely-discounted price. I'm also sure that I traded this comic away … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #11
Another issue of DEFENDERS came out, and this one was a bit more to my liking. It was Earthbound, for one, and it introduced me to Steve Gerber's creation the Foolkiller. I wasn't familiar with the character prior to this--I hadn't much read MAN-THING or similar monster/horror titles. But I immediately understood his shtick, and … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #74
The Tom Brevoort Experience 