BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #67

This issue of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES featuring the Incredible Hulk was another book that I got in a 3-Bag purchased at one of the department stores or toy stores that my family visited on one of our shopping expeditions. While the Hulk wasn't my favorite Marvel character, I enjoyed his escapades well enough--in particular when scripted … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #67

SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog, Part Three

Wrapping up our look at the first SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE catalog that was put together by Ivan Snyder for his mail order operation that eventually transformed into HEROES WORLD. This is the section that transitioned more into published work, books on comics and back issues and the like. And it's worth pointing out that, in 1976, … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog, Part Three

SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1, Part Two

Here's the second part of our look at the first SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE catalog, put together for entrepreneur Ivan Snyder by several moonlighting freelancers from Marvel and available through the mail. SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE eventually transformed into being HEROES WORLD, an outlet of which was the very first comic book store that I ever encountered, so I … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1, Part Two

SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1

SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE was a mail order business run by Ivan Snyder that featured, as the name implies, super hero merchandise of all kinds. Snyder operated out of a storefront in New Jersey, which eventually transformed into the first of a series of HEROES WORLD comic book and merchandise stores in the late 1970s. Snyder had … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1

5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths

As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths

BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #21

This was another book that I bought out of my drugstore's Big Bin of Somewhat Older Comic Books, all issues that had been reported as destroyed but instead which had been sold on the secondary market for a cut-rate price. This was one of a pair of DOCTOR STRANGE issues that I picked up at … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #21

BHOC: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1

I first encountered the THUNDER Agents in the pages of Maurice Horn's WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMICS, a two-volume set of books chronicling all sorts of comic book series from around the world. My local library had them in stock, though for some reason they weren't kept with the other books on comics, but rather over … Continue reading BHOC: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1

The Death of Menthor

Once we get to the 1960s, the deaths of super hero characters becomes a more frequent occurrence, though still relatively a rarity (and usually the characters who meet their end--Lightning Lad, Junior Juniper, Ferro Lad--either aren't the headliners of their series but rather one member of an ensemble. And some of them, like Lightning lad, … Continue reading The Death of Menthor