THE CLAWS OF THE CAT #5: The Lost Issue

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

BHOC: AVENGERS #177

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

FOCUS ON GEORGE PEREZ

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

BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #44

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

5BC: Five Times Super Heroes Met Real People

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

BHOC: AVENGERS #175

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

The First Hulk Parody

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

BHOC: AVENGERS ANNUAL #3

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