In 1972, Marvel Comics entered its second phase. Editor Stan Lee had been promoted to Publisher and, momentarily, President, and Roy Thomas had been made his successor. What's more, former owner Martin Goodman was gone, as was the limitation on how many releases the company could put out which had been imposed upon them by … Continue reading THE CLAWS OF THE CAT #5: The Lost Issue
With this latest issue of AVENGERS, the ten-month-long Korvac Saga came to an end. Unfortunately, artist George Perez, who had been instrumental in convincing writer Jim Shooter to pen a storyline featuring all of the Avengers past and present, fell off abut a third of the way into the storyline, and it was plagued by … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #177
Having had success with their FOCUS ON JOHN BYRNE volume dedicated to perhaps the most popular mainstream artist of the decade, Fantagraphics decided to follow up with a similar volume on one of the other hottest artists of the era, George Perez. At the time this volume saw print, George had garnered great acclaim for … Continue reading FOCUS ON GEORGE PEREZ
I'll mention it right up front, as a kid, I didn't like DAREDEVIL #155. Mostly I think this was down to the artwork of Frank Robbins, who filled in on this issue. I had enjoyed Robbins' idiosyncratic work on INVADERS, a title that had been his home for a few years. And he honestly wasn't … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #155
Back at my usual weekly trips to the local 7-11 on Thursday afternoons after school to pick up the new comics, I came across this latest issue of AVENGERS. The title was then in the midst of the well-remembered Korvac Saga, and while it had hit some speed bumps in terms of artist retention, this … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #176
Marvel's reprint line was still going strong, providing a companion reprint title for most of the major series the company was putting out. This helped to reinforce the idea that the Marvel Universe was all one single continuous tapestry--these years-old stories were still important and might factor in to new adventures produced today. Or such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #44
Crossovers among characters originating in different comic books have become by this point so commonplace as to not even be worthy of notice, and crossovers between characters from different publishing entities have similarly increased to the point where, while they've still got a bit of built-in excitement to them, they're still relatively commonplace. But the … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Super Heroes Met Real People
While we were at the Heroes World that evening after I'd spent the day doing menial tasks in my father's office, I didn't just pick up back issues but also a few new books that had arrived. Because Heroes World was being supplied by the then-nascent Direct Sales distribution network, they got their new books … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #175
By 1966, there was no way for industry leader DC/National Comics to be unaware of the growing appeal of upstart publisher Marvel--especially given that both companies' output was distributed by an outfit owned by National's owners. Marvel's growth was often scoffed at and decried as a passing fad, but as the firm started making inroads … Continue reading The First Hulk Parody
This was the second of two successive AVENGERS ANNUALS that my father brought home for me one night from the Heroes World outlet in the Nassau Mall in Levittown, where he worked. He was very proud of the fact that he'd gotten such early issues based on the numbers, and I never did explain to … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS ANNUAL #3
The Tom Brevoort Experience 