If there's ever a competition to determine the single most batshit crazy issue of a comic book released during the Bronze Age of Comics, this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has a real fighting chance to take the title. Just the cover alone gives you a tiny sample of the absurd and operatic events that are … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #131
I continued to make MARVEL TALES a regular purchase, it being one of the few remaining reprint titles at this point. My circle of comic book reading friends looked down our noses at reprint books, the understood belief was that they were "worthless" because they wouldn't accrue in value as back issues, something that we … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #105
The next issue of AMAZING SPIDER_MAN that came out introduced a character who would prove to possess remarkable staying power over the years, though it didn't really seem that way the first couple of years. This was the Black Cat, a sexy sneak thief who would go on to become a recurring love interest for … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #194
MARVEL TALES continued to carry on, reprinting stories from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that had originally been published only a relatively few years prior. But as I was still in the process of filling in the gaps in my Marvel knowledge, these reprints were invaluable to me, and I followed them as avidly as any new comic … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #104
This era of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is often overlooked but I remember enjoying it tremendously. Part of the reason for that is that once he got his sea legs under him, writer Marv Wolfman began to focus on running plotlines based more around the character's life as Peter Parker than his costumed alter ego. I also … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #193
As a kid, I didn't really have any way to get information about what new comic books and related publications would be coming out when. I was dimly aware of fanzines, but I never tried to purchase any on the regular--my meager funds were needed to buy actual comics, after all. So I had no … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS Volume 3
It must be said, this isn't a great cover. The cover copy is doing all of the work of making the image seem interesting. And seeing Spidey entirely from the back, while that might work in certain circumstances, isn't a great choice when our central figure is an old guy in a green lab outfit. … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #192
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
Another week brought another raft of new comic books at my regular 7-11's spinner rack, and I was right there on Thursday as I was every week to pick them up. First book this week was this month's issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, a title that I had been enjoying more and more thanks to the … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #191
Super heroes as a genre were on their way out as the 1960s turned into the 1970s and the super hero fad that had driven success throughout the silver age fell away. But this meant that publishers were more encouraged to experiment than they had been previously in an attempt to stave off cancellation--and every … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Best Comic Books of 1970
The Tom Brevoort Experience 