Marvel's long-running line of reprint titles was slowly diminishing as the 1970s reached the end of the decade and the mainstream newsstand outlets that were the lifeblood of comic book sales began to steadily be replaced by a greater reliance on the nascent network of comic book specialty stores. The idea behind such reprint titles … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #106
For the next year or two, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA turned into a bit of a forgettable series. I still was buying it every month, but some of that was simply out of momentum. I had loved the series when I was younger, but whether it was that nostalgia made those earlier issues look better … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #169
This issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was another one that I read courtesy of my grade school friend Donald Sims, who lent me his copy for a day or two. Already by this time, the Green Goblin had become somewhat legendary as Spider-Man's greatest foe, his reputation somehow enhanced due to the fact that he wasn't … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN continued to be Marvel's most popular and consistently best-selling title throughout the 1970s, as the character began to have a larger footprint across popular culture. So it wasn't any surprise that my grade school buddy Donald Sims had a number of issues in his comic book collection. Like the couple of Fourth World … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #134
If there's ever a competition to determine the single most batshit crazy issue of a comic book released during the Bronze Age of Comics, this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has a real fighting chance to take the title. Just the cover alone gives you a tiny sample of the absurd and operatic events that are … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #131
I continued to make MARVEL TALES a regular purchase, it being one of the few remaining reprint titles at this point. My circle of comic book reading friends looked down our noses at reprint books, the understood belief was that they were "worthless" because they wouldn't accrue in value as back issues, something that we … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #105
SUPERMAN FAMILY was constantly a solid B-book, which is to say that the material contained therein never rose to the level of being a must-read. But it was a home to several well-crafted stories each issue, none of which was especially challenging. So it was a comfortable reading experience, assuming that you liked the world … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN FAMILY #196
This week brought another issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, the third and concluding chapter to the League's body-swapping adventure with the Secret Society of Super-Villains, a group whose short-lived series I was a big fan of. This story was also influential on novelist and future DC writer Brad Meltzer, who made it a key … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #168
And so finally we come to the end of our journey through the pages of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the second of two volumes of material that remained unpublished in the wake of the DC Implosion of 1978 that saw the company's output reduced by 40%. A total of 35 copies were made, one each … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: VIXEN #1
As before, here's another chunk of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the home-printed collection of material intended for print but spiked by the DC Implosion, created to secure copyright and trademark on the material. This time out, we're looking at material intended to comprise STEEL: THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #6, written and created by Gerry Conway and … Continue reading CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2: STEEL #6
The Tom Brevoort Experience 