BHOC: IRON MAN #113

This issue of IRON MAN was a bit more like it. After a pair of issues that were concerned with a war in deep space that I found it difficult to care about (the influence of STAR WARS was all over those issues, at least broadly) with #113 we were back in Earth, with grounded … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #113

BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #197

It seems like forever since we spoke about the issue of FANTASTIC FOUR that came out before this one. A side effect of me starting to find comic shops and regularly buy back issues as well as new books. But FANTASTIC FOUR was still my favorite series at this point, and I was very much … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #197

WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6

It turns out that I made an error a while ago when I covered JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #15, indicating that it was the oldest of the JLA issues that I wound up with in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. Because in actuality, that was this book, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6. So we'll … Continue reading WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6

BHOC: X-MEN #112

Dealer and comics historian Bob Beerbohm was recently talking about how the sales of X-MEN skyrocketed in his shop when artist John Byrne came on board the title with issue #108. He indicates that his guess is that the series might have been cancelled otherwise, though I find this difficult to believe. Based on what … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #112

BHOC: MARVEL TALES #94

I bought this issue of MARVEL TALES from my usual spinner rack at the local 7-11. It reprinted, as usual, a story from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN published about six years before. At that time, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was in the midst of one of its more seismic changes: Stan Lee, having been promoted to publisher of the … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #94

WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91

One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91

BHOC: INVADERS #31

Again, as with yesterday's book, I believe I picked up this issue of INVADERS on that same excursion to the Heroes World in Levittown with my grandparents. I wasn't really aware of it at the time, but the series had definitely reached its peak earlier, and now with the departure of artist Frank Robbins, it … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #31

BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #226

I think I bought this issue of INCREDIBLE HULK during that same trip to Heroes World with my grandparents. As I've related previously, I wasn't really all that interested in the character to start with, but my brother had begun picking up the book, spurred on by the live action television series that was then … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #226

WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #36

Here is another issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN that I got in my Windfall purchase of 1988, when I bought a long box of around 150 silver age comics for $50.00, the best lucky stroke I've ever encountered in terms of collecting vintage comic books. It seems strange to modern sensibilities that a character … Continue reading WC: SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #36

BHOC: DEFENDERS #62

Now this issue was the beginning of a three-part epic that is probably my favorite DEFENDERS story of all time. That said, it's a story that, by necessity, turns something like a dozen and a half Marvel characters into little more than action figures that do what the plot requires without any concern about the … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #62