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
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
In the late 1970s, there likely wasn't a format for comic books that I loved more than the Pocket Books series of early Marvel reprints. Getting chronological collections of the earliest Marvel stories was a godsend to me, something that I never quite thought I'd get to experience, and so I pursued them avidly. But … Continue reading BC: SPIDER-WOMAN POCKET BOOKS
As I've related before, my buddy David Steckel had inherited a bunch of assorted comic books from older cousins who had outgrown them, and so his haphazard collection reached all the way back into the 1960s in a scattershot fashion. Among the books that he had, and which he let me borrow and read at … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #5
And so we come to the end of the run of SHAZAM that I borrowed from my grade school buddy Donald Sims so many years ago. Or maybe we do. I'm honestly not certain after all of these years whether he had this final issue in his complete stack. If nothing else, I don't recall … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #35
As I've mentioned before, my friend David Steckel had inherited a chunk of his comic book collection from older cousins who had outgrown comics, so he owned a handful of issues that dated back to the 1960s. He didn't have many of them, and they were a bit scattered, but they represented a bit of … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #67
Now this next issue of SHAZAM was something of a shock to the system, and one that was only slightly blunted by the fact that I'd seen this cover in contemporaneous house ads when it had come out. This was right towards the end of the complete run of SHAZAM that I had borrowed from … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #34
Just as he was an enormous fan of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, my friend David Steckel was also a hardcore acolyte of STAR WARS, and he purchased each monthly issue of the Marvel comic based upon that storied film with almost religious zeal. It's a bit alien to think of from the vantage point of today, but … Continue reading BC: STAR WARS #10
Ever since DC had acquired the rights to publish new adventures of the rival character they had once put out of business, they had been teasing readers with the prospect of a full-on mano-a-mano showdown between Superman and Captain Marvel to determine once and for all which one of them was the mightiest. There had … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #30
My grade school friend David Steckel was a huge fan of the science fiction media of the time, in particular STAR WARS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. In fact, that's a huge part of how we became friends in the first place. Having seen me making my own home-grown comic books, David wanted to enlist my help … Continue reading BC: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #1
