Back at Christmas 1978, I was working my way through the fourth and latest release in the ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS line of Trade Paperbacks from Simon & Schuster: THE SUPERHERO WOMEN. This book was a bit more of a mixed bag than the earlier ones and relied more on material that was more contemporary--the … Continue reading BHOC: THE SUPERHERO WOMEN
FANTASTIC FOUR was my favorite series for a long time, and the book that finally got me to take the plunge into the Marvel Universe. So you'd figure that, even in lean times, it would take a lot to dislodge me from following it. And you'd be right. Except that that's totally what happened. This … Continue reading GH: FANTASTIC FOUR #256
As I talked about yesterday, for Christmas 1978 I was given the four existing volumes in the Marvel Origins trade paperback collection that up to that point existed. I had read SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS at my local library, but I was happy to have my own copy to go back to and … Continue reading BHOC: BRING ON THE BAD GUYS
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
The advent of World War II and the patriotic fervor that hit the nation swiftly became a driving force behind comic books. It was clear almost immediately that young readers, with no other real way of engaging the enemy and helping with the battle effort, wanted to live those experiences vicariously through stories. Consequently, all … Continue reading The Other Captain America
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
As we've touched upon a couple of times in the past, while Jack Kirby's innovation of turning the mythological figure of Thor into a super hero in the early days of the Marvel Age was undoubtedly a bit of inspiration on his part, it wasn't a thing that happened in a vacuum. In fact, Thor … Continue reading When Batman Fought Thor
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
Another series that I had been buying for a long time simply out of rote was THOR, so it was a simple matter to put it on the chopping block during my necessary purge. If I'm honest about it, looking back, THOR was a series that suffered throughout the entirety of the 1970s. Jack Kirby … Continue reading GH: THOR #331
The last regular issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA that I bought was #281, almost a hundred issues on from when I'd first sampled the book. The series was on a bit of an upswing at this point, having just concluded a multi-part adventure that established the contemporary Baron Zemo (who had previously appeared as the one-off … Continue reading GH: CAPTAIN AMERICA #281
The Tom Brevoort Experience 