I was very surprised to come across this second volume of Doctor Strange adventures in the Pocket Books line of paperback reprints in a local bookstore. These releases had seemed to have been tied to the appearances of the Marvel characters on television, and while the initial Doctor Strange volume had been released to capitalize … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE POCKET BOOKS Volume 2
I was never really much of a DOCTOR STRANGE fan, and so outside of a few key runs, it wasn't a title that I read avidly. Especially in the 1970s, when the tone and tenor of the series was being influenced by the wave of interest in the supernatural and metaphysical that was going on … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #36
Here's another book that I picked up on my post-grade school graduation trip to Bush's Hobbies in Ronkonkoma. I had been slowly filling in a complete run of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS, the title that eventually changed its name to MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS and in which the earliest FANTASTIC FOUR stories were reprinted. I wanted … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #19
I had started to pick up the quarterly MARVEL TREASURY EDITIONS as a part of my comic book buying pattern. By this time, they had shifted from something that felt pretty special at the outset to just another regular publication, but they gave me a way in which to catch up on stories that I'd … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #22
Having purchased DOCTOR STRANGE the previous issue, and being a relatively simple-minded kid, I went ahead and scooped up this issues well. This despite the fact that I'd only been lukewarm on that prior issue. But it was easy to get me into the habit of following titles, and even when I'd drop something--THOR on … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #35
If I'm remembering things correctly after all these years, I bought this issue of DOCTOR STRANGE while on a shopping trip to a supermarket, which explains why I might have randomly chosen to purchase this issue of a series that i wasn't otherwise following. I have a dim recollection that the selection of comic books … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
DOCTOR STRANGE was a series that had a hard time retaining me as a reader throughout the late 1970s. I really liked the very early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko stories once I got to read them, but the modern day adventures of the character held little appeal for me. They were a lot more phantasmagoric, a … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
Christmas 1978 was a huge comic book windfall for me. Whereas in years past I had filled my wish list with an assortment of toys, starting here, I would instead begin asking for books on comics. ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS had eluded me for months, so much so that I eventually got to read the … Continue reading BHOC: ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #49 was another junky, lifeless issue of what had become a largely junky, lifeless series. There was improvement just around the corner, though, and while I didn't know that at the time, my critical standards at the age of twelve were pretty meager. I liked the Thing and the Fantastic Four, and so … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #49
This was the last issue of STRANGE TALES that I had gotten in the box of Silver Age comics that made up my Windfall purchase in 1988. As we've spoken about before, the series felt more and more like an afterthought, one that simply wasn't as important to the line as books like FANTASTIC FOUR, … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #129
