In the late 1970s, there likely wasn't a format for comic books that I loved more than the Pocket Books series of early Marvel reprints. Getting chronological collections of the earliest Marvel stories was a godsend to me, something that I never quite thought I'd get to experience, and so I pursued them avidly. But … Continue reading BC: SPIDER-WOMAN POCKET BOOKS
My new Stationery Store source for new comic books proved itself to be valuable even beyond the typical swath of new releases. It also wound up carrying the relatively few remaining Treasury Editions that came out after this point, as well as the new format that DC was expanding into and testing out: digests. The … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #19
One of the more overused concepts in comic books in the 1980s and 1990s was that of "Everything You Know Is Wrong"; which is to say, some new revelation is about to change some or all of the fundamental beliefs about a particular character's backstory or origin. This trope gained popularity after author Alan Moore … Continue reading The First Time Everything You Knew Was Wrong
The last book that I picked up on that bike visit to Ed's Coins & Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall was this issue of DC SPECIAL, a reprint title. And I would guess that the reason why I purchased this issue was that it was cheap. For all that i was flush with cash after … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL #14
Ed's Coins and Stamps, the collectibles dealer whose shop was in the Sun-Vet Mall where I had gone to spend a bunch of my sixth grade graduation money was more of the DC shop than a Marvel one in terms of the back issues they had in stock. They weren't entirely bereft of Marvel material--I … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #139
It has to be said that 1975 wasn't the best year for DC Comics. Editorial Director Carmine Infantino was in his last year running the firm, and the fortunes of the organization were on the wane. This despite having placed a couple of properties onto television and the Superman movie going ahead. A lot of … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #18
When I was growing up in the early 1970s, you didn't have a whole lot of choice about who your friends were. You were pretty much limited to any other kids who happened to live on your street. In my case, that included a kid my age who lived down the block named Charles Grella. … Continue reading BC: SUPERMAN #274
This next book isn't one that I ever actually borrowed from my next-door-neighbor Johnny Rantinella. But it was one that I saw over at his house and flipped through extensively--enough so that I can clearly recall several details about it. I had only begun reading JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA with the preceding issue, and would … Continue reading BC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110
On that same trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall courtesy of my accommodating grandparents, I also purchased a back issue of THE FLASH, one of my favorite series. Ed had a decent stock of back issues of the title at reasonable prices, so I flipped through them and landed on this … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #173
My grade school friend Donald Sims had inherited a bunch of comic books from some older relative who had tired of them and passed them along. He mostly had a smattering of stuff, but there was one complete run among his possessions. And that was SHAZAM, DC's 1970s revival of the original Captain Marvel, a … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #1
