BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #173

The 3-Bag package was a godsend to me, at least during the year or so when the books so packaged were from a point before I had started reading Marvel titles. It gave me an easy (if somewhat inconsistent) way of catching up on recent books that I had missed. There was a period in … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #173

BHOC: MARVEL TALES #80

This issue of MARVEL TALES was another book that I got out of a 3-Bag from a department store or toy store. It reprinted AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #99, a story that I've seen an argument for being the Silver Age end of the story begun in AMAZING FANTASY #15. Scripter Stan Lee would write one more … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #80

The 1964 Alley Award Winners

Dr. Jerry Bails was truly the forefather of organized comic book fandom in the early 1960s. As a full-grown adult, his interest in comic books and comics history brought some respectability to the medium, and his status as a grown-up allowed him to interact with the creators and editors of the comics as a peer … Continue reading The 1964 Alley Award Winners

BHOC: MARVEL TALES #79

When we left things off last week, we were talking about a pair of issues that I got in those plastic-wrapped bundles of coverless comics my local drug store had begun to sell. When this story was originally printed in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, the Comics Code Authority of the time wouldn't approve it, … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #79

BHOC: MARVEL TALES #78

Now this is a comic that I did purchase deliberately, albeit without this cover and in one of those plastic wrapped bundles of assorted coverless comic books my local drug store had taken to selling. I bought both this issue of MARVEL TALES and the next at the same time, giving me two parts of … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #78

Rambling with Romita

This is another long-lost interview from the past, from the Spider-Man-themed fanzine THE WEB-SPINNER produced by Mike Appel. It was conducted in 1966, the year that its subject, John Romita, took over the artistic reins of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, replacing teh feature's departing co-creator, Steve Ditko. Once again, it's an interesting insight into just what the … Continue reading Rambling with Romita

5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains

Feels like it's been quite a while since I put together one of these surveys of absurdity. So what say we take a look at five more Marvel villains from the past who tried their hardest, but who somehow failed that ineffable test towards being legitimately dangerous--and who instead came across as ridiculous, absurd, and … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains

Blah Blah Blog – The Ones That Did It, Part 5

A post from my Marvel blog of years past, this one the final entry in a sequence on the Marvel books that made me into a regular Marvel reader. The Ones That Did It pt. 5 April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General Finishing up our series on the comics … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – The Ones That Did It, Part 5

WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #7

This was one of the more exciting acquisitions I made in my windfall acquisition of 1988--a super-early (single digits) issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN by the character's originators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. And not to boast per se, but because it's the point of this whole series of pieces, remember that I got this book … Continue reading WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #7

BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #182 & THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES

The week this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN came to my spinner rack in the neighborhood 7-11 was a big one for comic book happenings. In addition to the release of a regular slate of comic books, two other things were going on that grabbed my attention. The first was the launch of DC's new Newspaper … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #182 & THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES