This issue of BLACK LIGHTNING was bought for me by my grandparents. It was a tough title to find in my area--during this time period, most of the new DC launches were difficult to locate in my area (I never, ever saw a copy of SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN, for example.) But as i related … Continue reading BHOC: BLACK LIGHTNING #6
It's perhaps difficult to see from the vantage point of so many years later, but this issue of X-MEN was a game-changer when it came out, and cemented the popularity of the series at the top of the Direct Market sales charts for a decade and a half. Powerful, unexpected, emotional, this comic generated both … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1980
Possibly the best issue of WHAT IF and certainly one of the best-looking as a young Klaus Janson inks Gil Kane to great effect. Writer and soon-to-be-Editor in Chief Jim Shooter delivers on all fronts with an emotional story that packs a real wallop to it. A tour de force by writer Paul Levitz and … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1977
SUPERMAN #276 gave the comic book reading world something it had been lusting for since around 1940, a battle between the Man of Steel and his publishing arch-rival Captain Marvel. Except that this issue cheated--despite having recently licensed the Big Red Cheese from Fawcett for the new SHAZAM series, here an equivalent stand-in, Captain Thunder, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1974
I’m not 100% certain where I got this issue of SUPERMAN, apart from the fact that wherever it was had marked it down to only a quarter, and that it wasn’t one of my typical haunts. Like the issue of DETECTIVE COMICS we talked about last time, this could have been picked up at some … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #298
This was the one and only comic book to be found in a department store toy section that we visited. I have no idea whether it was a remnant of a broken-open 3-bag (there were no other 3-bags in evidence) or if it had come into the store somehow by accident. But beggars aren’t choosers … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #458
The next issue of DETECTIVE COMICS wrapped up the saga of the Calculator, which had been winding through the assorted back-up stories for several months. And it looked more like a Justice League adventure than a strictly Batman one, so I bought a copy. The story goes that editor Julie Schwartz took a lot of … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #468
This was a fairly inconsequential issue of DETECTIVE COMICS that I bought in the little candy store next door to my barber’s office. It’s another one where I didn’t recall any of the details of the lead story until I cracked it open again today. The Rich Buckler cover is all right, decently dramatic, a … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #467
Quite possibly at the same time that my brother Ken got yesterday’s copy of G.I. COMBAT, I bought this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, thus beginning a short stint of regularly buying the title. Some of it, I’m sure, is that I knew the Signalman from a reprint in an issue of BATMAN FAMILY. Can you … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #466
There was a little smokes shop or candy store two or three doors down from the barber where I’d be sent to get my hair cut (”Tell him you want it styled”, my father would say to me, handing me a few bills to pay for everything.) that carried a tiny selection of comics. I’m … Continue reading BHOC: DETECTIVE COMICS #465
