I had sort of backed into buying SGT FURY regularly after my younger brother Ken had started doing it and then lost interest. I'd never really ben interested in war comics, but the fact that present day Nick Fury was such a presence throughout the Marvel line convinced me that it was "important" to read … Continue reading BHOC: SGT FURY #151
So at around this point, I finally got my hands on a copy of the first volume of the MARVEL POCKET BOOKS paperback collections of early AMAZING SPIDER-MAN stories. Some months earlier, I had bought a copy of Volume 2 and loved it, but the first volume was by that point simply no place to … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS Volume 1
Now I know that I picked this issue of MARVEL PREMIERE up in a candy store in a distant strip mall that my parents had gone to for some shopping reason. My regular 7-11 didn't seem to carry issues of MARVEL PREMIERE--they had quietly stopped getting all sorts of books, including double-sized issues such as … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL PREMIERE #47
IRON MAN was quietly becoming a really good comic book back in 1979, a change that at once seemed both gradual and instantaneous. The creative team of writer David Michelinie, co-plotter and inker Bob Layton and penciler John Romita Jr. transplanted the character to the modern era, dispensing with a lot of the Cold War … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #121
It's tough to find a Marvel comic from this period that didn't feature any cover copy whatsoever, but this latest issue of FANTASTIC FOUR fit the bill. It probably could have used some, honestly, if only to contextualize what the FF were fighting. But it's a nice action piece either way. And I didn't need … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #205
DEFENDERS from here on out was rough sledding for a very long time, and I'm surprised that my younger self stuck with it for as long as he did, especially since I had no problem dropping other books that I wasn't enjoying. (Well, in some cases. I bought GHOST RIDER for years too, for reasons … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #70
I turned twelve years old around this time, and while I don't especially remember anything about that event, there were two other things that happened in that same week that I'll never forget. I first saw an advertisement for the live action LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES specials in one of my family's regular newspapers--we got … Continue reading BHOC: LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES AND CAPTAIN AMERICA
It's pretty plain to see in retrospect that UNCANNY X-MEN was the best ongoing comic book series being produced during this time. It was in the middle of a run that's become legendary over time, the collaboration between Chris Claremont and John Byrne (with editor Roger Stern an important third leg of that triumvirate, and … Continue reading BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #120
This issue of MARVEL TALES reprinted the story where the series concluded its transition from the Silver Age into the Bronze Age. The book had been there for several months already at this point, with writer Gerry Conway taking over for Stan Lee. But this was the first issue in forever not illustrated by John … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #102
It was almost the end of the road for INVADERS, though I didn't know that at the time. But looking back, it seems almost inevitable. The artwork had been progressively getting less and less polished, and editor and series creator Roy Thomas had been letting other people write his baby. I can't imagine that the … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #39
The Tom Brevoort Experience 