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
Another new series that I was given access to for the first time was DC COMICS PRESENTS, the Superman-led team-up title that had been launched during the hoopla of the SUPERMAN THE MOVIE film. I was aware of the book, having seen the many ads for its launch issue, which co-stared my favorite hero, the … Continue reading BHOC: DC COMICS PRESENTS #14
A combination of switching my shopping to the new Stationery Store and having a bit more coin in my pocket (it was during this time that I'd decided to forego school lunches, instead channeling the dollar-a-day I was given by my parents for sustenance into funds for buying more comic books) got me to finally … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #316
And so we come to the end of the run of SHAZAM that I borrowed from my grade school buddy Donald Sims so many years ago. Or maybe we do. I'm honestly not certain after all of these years whether he had this final issue in his complete stack. If nothing else, I don't recall … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #35
Now this next issue of SHAZAM was something of a shock to the system, and one that was only slightly blunted by the fact that I'd seen this cover in contemporaneous house ads when it had come out. This was right towards the end of the complete run of SHAZAM that I had borrowed from … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #34
Ever since DC had acquired the rights to publish new adventures of the rival character they had once put out of business, they had been teasing readers with the prospect of a full-on mano-a-mano showdown between Superman and Captain Marvel to determine once and for all which one of them was the mightiest. There had … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #30
And on and on it went! I continued to steadily eat my way through the complete run of DC's SHAZAM, which had been lent to me by my grade school friend Donald Sims. I have to say, it's fun looking back at these issues and seeing how deftly (or not) the editors were in avoiding … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #29
This was another comic book that my household had two copies of. For whatever reason, my younger brother Ken was apparently on a buying spree, picking up his own copies of books that I'd already purchased. And again here, there isn't anything so noteworthy about this random issue of SUPERMAN to justify that choice apart … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #339
BRAVE AND THE BOLD had almost run its course at the point when this issue first came out. It was something of a holdover of a rapidly-diminishing era, one in which comic books were largely an impulse purchase by entertainment-hungry buyers. In those days, team-up titles typically did well, giving a reader two characters for … Continue reading FSC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #197
