Over the years, both Marvel and DC have built up a steady stream of ancillary income by licensing out their characters for what are known as "custom comics"--comics dedicated to promoting a company, a perspective or an ideal (or sometimes a specific product or individual.) These books are produced to-order for the client, meaning that … Continue reading The Amazing Spider-Man vs The Prodigy
As I've spoken about in the past, it proved to be relatively easy to get me to start buying a given series every month. A book just needed to make me picking it up a habit for an issue or two, and away I would go. In the case of MARVEL TALES, the long-running reprint … Continue reading GH: MARVEL TALES #151
After a few shaky months following the successive departures of both writer Len Wein and artist Ross Andru, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN finally felt like it was back in the groove again. New writer Marv Wolfman had started up a number of running subplots in Peter Parker's life, making it feel nuanced and textured again, and the … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #190
The last regular issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that I bought new was this one, #241. And I know what some of you are thinking already: you dropped ASM in the middle of the Roger Stern and John Romita Jr. run (a run that's generally considered a high water mark, the best the series had been … Continue reading GH: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #241
Despite the fact that it was a reprint title, MARVEL TALES didn't miss the opportunity to go oversized for its 100th issue, a trend that had started with the centennial issues that Marvel and DC were putting out. It's kind of a mixed bag, in that one of the secondary features doesn't have any relation … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #100
The next week brought another issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, this one sporting a welcome fill-in art job from John Byrne. Byrne was already becoming a favorite based on his work on X-MEN and elsewhere, and he was fast enough that he could often be called upon Jack Kirby-style to layout a fill-in art job when … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #189
I'd been waiting for this one, the second half of the Death of Gwen Stacy storyline, a saga that was already legendary by 1978 when I first got to read it. With Stan Lee having retired from scripting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, incoming writer Gerry Conway and plotter and artist John Romita were looking to do something … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #99
David Steckel wasn't the only new person I met during those weeks in the Sachem Gifted Program that I went to every Friday. I also made the acquaintance of Frank Torres, who was similarly a comic book reader. While I was never quite exactly as tight with him as i was with Steck, he remained … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #188
Now this was a comic book that I had been eagerly anticipating for several months once I had realized that its reprinting was approaching in the sequence. By 1978, the demise of Gwen Stacy was established canon--even the original Clone storyline was finished by then--but the story of her death was still referenced and talked … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #98
At about this time, I entered Sixth Grade in Elementary School, which would prove to be a year of some significance in my overall journey. I wound up once again in the same class as my comics-reading pal Donald Sims, the last time we'd share classes together, so already I was on somewhat firm and … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #187
The Tom Brevoort Experience 