AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS #2 February, 1978 I bought this Pocket Book collection of early Spider-Man stories from a mall bookstore, despite the fact that I couldn’t find the first edition, and so would be starting in the middle of the run. I remember thumbing through it as my family stopped off at a Jack-In-The-Box … Continue reading BHOCOS: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS #2
FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOKS 1977 I was still looking for a copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS when this little paperback came out from Pocket Books, part of a new line which would reprint the earliest stories of the various Marvel properties that were now on television. It collected the first 6 issues of FF, … Continue reading BHOCOS: FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOKS
THE SPIRIT #17 Winter, 1977 The first Spirit story I read was the one reprinted in THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES, and frankly, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. But I’d heard more about the character and his mileau in THE COMIC- BOOK BOOK, and thought it sounded intriguing. So when the … Continue reading BHOCOS: THE SPIRIT #17
THOR #272 June, 1978 THOR looked like a barbarian comic book to my young eyes, and I had no interest in barbarian comic books, being purely a super hero man. So it took awhile before I tried an issue compared to the other Marvel titles of the day. This was a fine story by Roy … Continue reading BHOCOS: THOR #272
DEFENDERS #57 March, 1978 By the time of my first DEFENDERS purchase, the series was already well past its best days. Which tells you something, given that it ran almost another 100 issues. DEFENDERS is what Roger Stern refers to as a “fake book”–a book that exists due to editorial fiat, rather than being a … Continue reading BHOCOS: DEFENDERS #57
AVENGERS #168 February, 1978 It’s a perfect example of one of the problems apparent in many of the comics on sale today. AVENGERS #168 was the first issue of the series I read (after having encountered the group earlier in SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS) and I was lost. This was the second part … Continue reading BHOCOS: AVENGERS #168
HULK #219 January, 1978 I didn’t buy this issue of HULK–my brother Ken did, as he did the next couple. I inherited the books from him at some point thereafter, as he drifted away from the series. I wasn’t a big fan of the Hulk. I found the concept, frankly, too limiting. The same cycle … Continue reading BHOCOS: INCREDIBLE HULK #219
SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS 1975 Having become enamored of the Fantastic Four, I went in search of more information about the team. Specifically, I went to my local library, which had a pretty decent selection of books about comics in its adult section. I knew that ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS featured the first … Continue reading BHOCOS: SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS
THE MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES OF COMICS GOLDEN AGE 1977 The ad for MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES and its companion volume, THE GOLDEN AGE REVIEW, ran in Marvel books sometime in 1978. I ordered both of them from SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE not long afterward. These were comic book-sized black-and-white reprints of various golden age superhero stories obviously shot from the … Continue reading BHOCOS: THE MAGNIFICENT SUPERHEROES OF COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE
POWER RECORDS FANTASTIC FOUR 1974 Having become a fan of the Fantastic Four, I was hot to read the first FF story–FANTASTIC FOUR #1. My quest to do so had already met one dead end, in that I couldn’t locate a copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS anywhere. Instead, I turned to this item, the … Continue reading BHOCOS: POWER RECORDS FANTASTIC FOUR
