5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways

We've been talking a lot about the unofficial crossovers between characters and the homages that were done. But beyond that, there's a whole other category of instances in which one company either appropriated or parodied or referenced the characters of another. These instances tended to take many different forms--there was one memorable instance, for example, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways →

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #221

I bought this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA on my regular weekly trip to the 7-11 on New Comics Thursday, as I had the previous two issues. As we'll see, this was a bit of a patchwork issue, the result of pages not being completed in time for the prior one. Marvel was having shipping difficulties … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #221 →

BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #25

Back at the drugstore, I pulled this book out of my usual haunt: their large bin of comics that had been reported destroyed, but which instead had been sold off the back of the truck. As I've talked about many times here, that bin was a welcome source of comics that I had missed for … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #25 →

5BC: Five Best Forgotten Marvel Heroes

Just as with DC, Marvel also had a history of introducing new super heroic characters in the pages of their stories. Some of these went on to long and storied careers. Others faded after only a few, or even one, appearances. Here are the five best forgotten Marvel heroes. RAZORBACK: The creation of writer Bill … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Forgotten Marvel Heroes →

BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #41

Despite the fact that I was still not buying AVENGERS at this time, I did continue to pick up MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION, the AVENGERS reprint title, whenever it would show up at my 7-11 comic book headquarters. This reflects the fact that, even from an early age, I had a preference for the comics of … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #41 →

Lee & Kirby & Ditko & Everett: More on the linked stories of X-MEN #1, AVENGERS #1 and DAREDEVIL #1

A bit of evidence has surfaced which casts some doubt on the story I related previously concerning how the difficulties in getting DAREDEVIL #1 to print on time led to the emergency creation of AVENGERS #1. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on this belief completely just yet, but I do feel the … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Ditko & Everett: More on the linked stories of X-MEN #1, AVENGERS #1 and DAREDEVIL #1 →

BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #40

I still wasn't buying the main AVENGERS title at this point, but strangely enough, I did continue to follow MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION. It's probably a reflection of the fact that, even in the 1970s, the comic book stories of the 60s held the greatest appeal for me. I bought this issue on my regular weekly … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #40 →

Lee & Kirby & Ditko & Everett: The linked stories of X-MEN #1, AVENGERS #1 and DAREDEVIL #1

I've seen different bits and pieces of this story told in assorted places, but I cannot recall anyplace where the entire sequence of events was laid out in a single recounting, so I thought that was worth doing. In the spring of 1963, with the super hero titles that his firm had been producing doing … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Ditko & Everett: The linked stories of X-MEN #1, AVENGERS #1 and DAREDEVIL #1 →

More On Color Separations – AVENGERS #10 and FANTASTIC FOUR #110

As a brief follow-up to the earlier post concerning the 3M cover proof, I've got a pair of examples to show here that may make understanding how the three primary colors were mixed to make the 64 available colors for printing back in the 1960s and 1970s. Here, I've got two examples where, for a … Continue reading More On Color Separations – AVENGERS #10 and FANTASTIC FOUR #110 →

BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #35

This issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP also came out of a 3-Bag at around this same time. I suspect it may have been bagged with FANTASTIC FOUR #182 and ETERNALS #11, but I have no way of proving that for certain. In any case, I got this issue not so much because I wanted it as … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #35 →