This issue of ACTION COMICS was heavily advertised in DC house ads in the weeks leading up to its release, and so I was prepared for it to show up on the spinner rack at my local 7-11. And as you'd expect, it was being promoted as the for-real, no-fooling story of Superman marrying Lois … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #484
It was the end of an era, though I had no way to know that at the time. A trip to my local 7-11 to pick up the week's new comics landed me this, the final issue of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS, which had been a real favorite of mine for most of its run. … Continue reading BHOC: SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #15
Picked up the latest issue of GREEN LANTERN on my weekly excursion to my local 7-11 on Thursday, the day when new comic books came out. It would have been an automatic buy regardless, but that's really a pretty cool cover. The fragmenting of Green Lantern amidst Sonar's sonic waves is a visual effect I … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #105
Saw this cover the other day for the first time since it was originally published and was struck by how simple and how powerful the image here is. It's really a case where less is more, and the juxtaposition of the background American flag and the burning Superman cape forge an inescapable connection. Great use … Continue reading Great Covers: SUPERMAN #145
https://youtu.be/97chh-JJQ1w Tried a new experiment where I turned one of the features in this page's 5BC section into a down and dirty full-on video, expanded a bit for the occasion. I'm interested in seeing if I can expand the reach of this page in this manner, so my intention is to do more as I … Continue reading TBTV: The Five Best Marvel & DC Crossovers
Here's another masterful Neal Adams cover from an issue of HOUSE OF SECRETS, one of DC's mystery/supernatural anthology titles. It has to be said that, especially in the early part of the 1970s, these books carried uniformly great covers much of the time--it was a real showpiece for the artists involved. Here, Adams uses Crafttint … Continue reading Great Covers: HOUSE OF SECRETS #88
I've spoken in the past about how as a kid I was a bit disdainful towards DC's SUPER FRIENDS comic book series, an adaptation and outgrowth of the ongoing Saturday morning cartoon series. Now, mind you, I watched SUPER FRIENDS dutifully every weekend, but I was also aware even then that the story material was … Continue reading BHOC: SUPER FRIENDS #12
In the early 1940s, as a myriad of would-be publishers heard about the overwhelming success of Superman nd rushed into the marketplace offering their own get-rich-quick versions of a comic book super hero, the reality is that nobody quite understood just what factors made Superman work. And so, everything was tried, and creativity--both good and … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Most Unique Super Heroes of the Silver Age
First off, what a great name for a comic magazine. I can't help but thinking to myself, "As opposed to the SECRET HOUSE OF SINISTER LOVE", which may have been down the block. Anyway, in attempting to cash in on a corner of the growing marketplace for gothic romance stories in the early 1970s, DC … Continue reading Great Covers: SINISTER HOUSE OF SECRET LOVE #2
We've talked about Quicksilver in the past, and how this perennial back-page filler for Quality Comics' NATIONAL COMICS was brought back decades later by writer Mark Waid in the pages of FLASH and transformed into a virtually new character, Max Mercury. Quicksilver had never been a headliner, but he was a reliable supporting player, and … Continue reading The Last Quicksilver Story
