BHOC: DAREDEVIL #154

Back at my local 7-11, new comics continued to come in regularly every Thursday, and I was there every week without fill (except in extenuating circumstances such as sickness or family vacations and the like) to pick up the new books. It's a pattern that continues to this day. This issue of DAREDEVIL greeted me … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #154

Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #165

I came across another stash of these Mexican issues of LA SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA that were published in the early 1970s, many of which contained new never-translated stories created exclusively for the Spanish-speaking marketplace by local talent, so popular was Spider-Man in those regions at the time that it had exhausted the supply of American … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #165

BHOC: MARVEL PRESENTS #9

I've spoken before about my snobbishness when it came to comic books that didn't feature super heroes. As a young reader, my tastes were extremely narrow. I was in the game for super hero stories--not for westerns, or war stories, or suspense tales, or science fiction, or barbarian adventures or romance comics or monsters of … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL PRESENTS #9

BHOC: HOWARD THE DUCK #18

This was another comic book that I got rather than bought--another "extra" in one of those plastic-wrapped bundled of coverless comic books that my local drug store had begun to sell. I bought the bundle in question for other books, but this one came along with them, and thus it was mine. And to be … Continue reading BHOC: HOWARD THE DUCK #18

BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #17

This was another issue of DOCTOR STRANGE that I bought out of my local drug store's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics, books which had been reported destroyed via the Affidavit Returns system but which had instead been sold by some unscrupulous operator to the drug store chain. Not great for the comic book publishers, … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #17

Lee & Kirby & Everett & Grandinetti & Friends – The Messy Story of Tales to Astonish #84

Even with the limited output allowed to them under the terms of their distribution deal with Independent News (which only permitted the Marvel of the 1960s to release a certain number of titles every month), Marvel often ran into situations where the talent they had on hand in order to complete everything wasn't enough. During … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Everett & Grandinetti & Friends – The Messy Story of Tales to Astonish #84