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
It was right before this issue of FANTASTIC FOUR came out that SUPERMAN THE MOVIE finally opened on December 15, 1978. And strangely, for a film that sits so highly in my personal lexicon, I don't really have a strong recollection of going to see if for the first time. I don't think we got … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #204
As I've spoken about in the past, as a kid I didn't really have much interest in monster movies. They were more the fascination of my younger brother Ken, and so they would wind up on television whenever the 4:30 Movie would run their yearly week-long marathon, or they'd show up on some other channel. … Continue reading BHOC: GODZILLA #20
This next issue of MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS, #82, presented a bit of a problem for me. MGC reprinted earlier issues of FANTASTIC FOUR from the past, and consequently was very much a must buy title for me at the time. But by the point when this issue hit the stands, I already owned a copy … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #82
While the early days of Marvel Comics were explosive and ultimately game-changing for the field, on a conceptual level they were not always quite as revolutionary as they sometimes seemed. A lot of the appeal of the line came down to the manner in which familiar ideas were executed, rather than the ideas themselves being … Continue reading The First Watcher
This issue of FANTASTIC FOUR doesn't at first glance appear to be anything special, just another one-off story in this run. But it has an interesting story behind it. You see, writer/editor Marv Wolfman had been friends with FANTASTIC FOUR co-creator Jack Kirby since Marv was a child. He knew about Kirby's reluctance to draw … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #203
The next week, a new issue of FANTASTIC FOUR was released, thus reassuring me that my having missed the much-coveted issue #200 was a fluke. This was during the period when a new Fantastic Four cartoon series was running on NBC on Saturday Mornings--this was the version that replaced the Human Torch with HERBIE the … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #202
In the early 1980s, FantaCo published a number of issues of CHRONICLES, a magazine whose each issue was dedicated to a deep dive discussion about a prominent Marvel series. Some of these were authorized by Marvel, though not all of them, and this gave FantaCo access to a lot of material they might not otherwise … Continue reading FANTACO CHRONICLES #2: John Byrne Column
I had been waiting for this issue of MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS for a good long while. Having the Olshevsky OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR, I knew that this next book would be reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR #100. And that was of special interest to me for one reason: due to nothing more than it … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #81
This issue of INFERIOR FIVE doesn't contain a literal crossover at all. It was a parody comic in the same sort of vein as Marvel's NOT BRAND ECHH, albeit with a series of continuing characters. But the depictions of the Marvel characters being parodied in this one are so thin that I think an argument … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: INFERIOR FIVE #10
The Tom Brevoort Experience 