BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #118

It speaks to the essential appeal of Green Lantern as a character that I continued to follow his series for long stretches of tie even when I wasn't really enjoying it all that much. And this period that we're in right now is something of a nadir. Hal was still paired up with Green Arrow … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #118

BC: SHAZAM #4

I had continued to read through the accumulated run of SHAZAM that I had borrowed from my grade school pal Donald Sims across the course of a couple of days. The stories never quite captured the flavor of the character's original run, and there was an undercurrent that the creators involved simply didn't buy into … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #4

BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #211

This issue of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS was another book that I borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims to read. I'm almost certain that it wasn't the lead story that made we want to experience it but rather the back-up reprint story. But we'll get there. At this time, WORLD'S FINEST COMICS had transitioned … Continue reading BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #211

BC: SHAZAM #3

SHAZAM #3 was another issue in the complete run of the title that I had borrowed to read from my grade school friend Donald Sims. That's a nice cover in the spirit of a number of Fawcett pieces spotlighting the Marvel Family. It's only undone by how chunky all of the linework seems to be. … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #3

BC: SHAZAM #2

As I mentioned previously, my grade school friend Donald Sims possessed a complete 35 issue run of SHAZAM, the DC Comics revival of the original Captain Marvel of the Golden Age of Comics published in the 1970s. At one point, I convinced Don to let me borrow the run so that I could read it … Continue reading BC: SHAZAM #2

BHOC: GODZILLA #24

I wasn't used to Marvel titles wrapping up their runs cleanly. In my experience, when a Marvel book would come to an end--such as CHAMPIONS or NOVA--the series would be left in a cliffhanger state with outstanding business left to be wrapped up. That business would generally get tied off in some other Marvel book … Continue reading BHOC: GODZILLA #24

BC: SHAZAM #1

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

Forgotten Masterpiece: BIG APPLE COMIX #1

Flo Steinberg came to the notice of comic book fandom during the early 1960s, during the initial flowering of what became the Marvel Age of Comics. As Marvel's corresponding secretary, she was, among other things, charged with answering the volumes of fan mail that came in for editor Stan Lee, and so the various active … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: BIG APPLE COMIX #1

BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #117

We talked about this last time, I believe, but GREEN LANTERN (co-staring GREEN ARROW) was in something of a malaise at this time. It was still a book I bought faithfully, but I was finding myself less and less enamored of its content. Quite often, it felt like the logo was backwards, and that it … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #117

BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #116

My memory of things is that GREEN LANTERN entered into a bit of a doldrums as a series at about this time, one that held on at least until Green Arrow was given his eviction notice from the series and really up until Marv Wolfman began to write it a couple of years later. It … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #116