This was the second of the pair of issues of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS that I bought on my trip to Heroes World with my grandparents. It was the last issue of the magazine--the following issue, its title changed to the moch zippier MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS, though its contents remained the same: a Fantastic Four … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #22
In addition to buying a handful of new comics that hadn't yet reached my area during my trip to the Heroes World outlet in the Levittown Mall, I also stocked up on a few classic back issues. As I was working with a very limited budget, a real boon to me was reprint titles such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #20
I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but as things turned out, I wound up getting both the beginning and the end of the initial Masters of Evil cycle in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. For, like AVENGERS #6, this issue also features Zemo and the Masters, and begins to bring their … Continue reading WC: AVENGERS #15
One of the things that I tell people when we're talking about the history of Marvel Comics is that one of the amazing things about what those earlier pioneers created is the fact that, if you wait long enough, even the failures become successes. It was true of the Hulk, it was true of the … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #37
Now here was a beauty! This issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE features only the 4th appearance of Iron Man, the super hero who took over the title, ushering it into the Marvel Age of Comics. Like every book covered in this feature, I acquired this issue as part of my Windfall Comics purchase, where through … Continue reading WC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #42
Here's another book that I took ownership of as a part of my Windfall Comics purchase in 1988. I had seen the cover to this issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY before in the pages of George Olshevsky's Marvel Comics Indexes, but I hadn't had the opportunity to read the story before this point. It's an … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #85
The early days of the Marvel Age of Comics, it must be said, were a pretty ramshackle and fly-by-night period. For all that these comics in general have come to be regarded as timeless masterpieces in certain circles today, at the time they were being produced, they were still largely no more than a way … Continue reading Lee & Heck & Hartley: The Misguided Mix-Up of TALES OF SUSPENSE #67 & #68
I picked up this issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE during that selfsame first visit to The Batcave, the comic book specialty shop located just off of the South Shore Mall, the first ever genuine comic book shop that I had been to. And I bought it for a singular reason: its age. I could tell … Continue reading BHOC: TALES OF SUSPENSE #30
This was another comic book that I came into possession of through swapping with my buddy Donald Sims, and it was an acquisition of some great interest. In general, for me during this period, any comic book with a 20 cent price tag seemed old somehow, vintage--even though I had started reading during the last … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #87
Here is yet another comic that I got in trade with my boyhood pal Donald Sims, a reprint of one of the best issues of the period. And the thing that made it one of the best issues was the inking of John Romita. This was John's first assignment back at Marvel--he had told editor … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #17
The Tom Brevoort Experience 