This issue of INCREDIBLE HULK was also included in the SUPERHERO GIFT PACK that I received for Christmas in 1978. The timing on that PACK was very precise, as the issues contained within were mostly all ones that I hadn't seen in the 3-Bags that were used to sell nine month old comics through department … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #214
PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN had, for most of its run, been a weak sister second title to the main Spidey series, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. While there had been some good stories along the way, PPSSM operated in the shadow of ASM, never entirely carrying its own weight, and inevitably staffed by talent that wasn't yet … Continue reading GH: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #79
This was the second of two issues of THOR that were contained in the SUPERHERO GIFT PACK that I received for Christmas in 1978, and its story picked up where the preceding issue had left off, fortunately. So I rolled right in, interested to see what would become of Thor and his posse as they … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #263
This issue of THOR was one of two that I got in my Christmas gift of the SUPERHERO GIFT PACK. While I was reading the series at this point, it wasn't truly one of my favorite. Mostly that was due to the extended periods the book would spend in Asgard, where it often felt more … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #262
Another gift that I received on that Christmas of 1978 was this SUPERHERO GIFT PACK. Ordered from I believe the Sears Catalogue, this Gift Pack was essentially a box containing ten recent-but-not-new Marvel Comics. There may have been a poster as well--I had a Sal Buscema-illustrated Marvel poster that hung in my bedroom at around … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERHERO GIFT PACK
MARVEL TEAM-UP had been practically from its inception a meat-and-potatoes sort of a comic book. Which is to say that it's aspirations were rarely higher than just entertaining an audience for twenty minutes with a solid story. It wasn't trying to stretch the medium or produce works for the ages. MARVEL TEAM-UP was a product, … Continue reading GH: MARVEL TEAM-UP #130
As I talked about yesterday, this was the second of two magazine-sized issues of THE SPIRIT that I got for Christmas 1978, ordered out of the Superhero Merchandise catalog. And like yesterday's issue, this one offered a batch of classic Will Eisner Spirit stories from the long-running Newspaper circular that had run in the Golden … Continue reading BHOC: THE SPIRIT #18
My Christmas gifts for the Christmas of 1978 weren't exclusively Marvel based, though they were pretty much all comic book based. I had also asked for and received two issues of Kitchen Sink Press's magazine devoted to Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT, #17 and #18, their two first. Prior to this, I had read one Spirit … Continue reading BHOC: THE SPIRIT #17
There was a relatively brief period of time during which IRON MAN was a crackerjack reading experience. After more than a decade of mostly just floating along not being especially inspired, David Michelinie, John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton made the Armored Avenger into a real player. They put him up against more major threats, … Continue reading GH: IRON MAN #171
The ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS line wasn't the only thing Marvel-related that Simon & Schuster published back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, there was a whole line of other volumes: a bunch of puzzle books and the like. And there was also this, an exercise book featuring the Marvel characters, presumably in … Continue reading BHOC: THE MIGHTY MARVEL COMICS STRENGTH AND FITNESS BOOK
The Tom Brevoort Experience 