WC: ACTION COMICS #343

Well, from the looks of this cover image, we're about to get a bit more action in this issue of ACTION COMICS. I'm not 100% certain who would have been responsible for it. The actual cover art was done by Curt Swan and George Klein, but they likely would have been working from a sketch … Continue reading WC: ACTION COMICS #343

BHOC: AVENGERS #179

I bought this issue of AVENGERS on one of my regular weekly Thursday trips to my neighborhood's local 7-11, whose spinner rack was my primary source of new comics at this time. Having wrapped up the Korvac Saga a few months earlier, AVENGERS was pretty clearly in a scheduling hole, and so editor Jim Shooter … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #179

THE COMIC TIMES #4: Jim Shooter Interview

Here is another lost and forgotten interview from the pages of an obscure 1980s fanzine, this one with Marvel's Editor in chief Jim Shooter. I seem to recall that Jim was giving an awful lot of interviews at around this time, possibly in connection with Marvel's 20th Anniversary. Regardless, it's interesting from a modern day … Continue reading THE COMIC TIMES #4: Jim Shooter Interview

THE X-MEN CHRONICLES: Jim Shooter Interview

Among the features in THE X-MEN CHRONICLES, the fanzine published by FantaCo, who were the publishing arm of a comic shop of the same name situated in Albany, New York, there was a relatively candid interview with Marvel's Editor in Chief, Jim Shooter. At the time, the Death of Phoenix was still a relatively new … Continue reading THE X-MEN CHRONICLES: Jim Shooter Interview

The X-MEN CHRONICLES: Smilin’ Ed and X-MEN #94

THE X-MEN CHRONICLES #1 was a fanzine published in 1981 by FantaCo, a small publisher situated in Albany, New York that was an adjunct to a notable comic shop. It was produced with the approval of Marvel, who went on to do a short-lived licensing agreement with the company, allowing them to do a number … Continue reading The X-MEN CHRONICLES: Smilin’ Ed and X-MEN #94

BHOC: DAREDEVIL #156

This next issue of DAREDEVIL featured the return of a hallmark of the series. Not DD's original yellow costume--something that I was excited to see, having read the first DAREDEVIL issue in SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS--but rather artist Gene Colan returning to the book that he'd labored on for many years throughout the … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #156

BHOC: IRON MAN #117

It was immediately apparent once the trio of writer David Micheline, penciler John Romita Jr. and inker/co-plotter Bob Layton came on board the series over the course of two months that something good was beginning to happen in IRON MAN. The series had, for a long while, been a bit out of step with the … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #117

BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #116

The release of this issue of X-MEN represented something of an existential crisis for me. You see, I had somehow missed the previous issue, #115, which was unthinkable to me. What's more, I had dutifully gone to the 7-11 every single week on Thursday in-between when #114 came out and when #116 dropped. I wasn't … Continue reading BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #116

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #228

There was a slow but steady transformation of the Marvel titles under editor Jim Shooter. When he was given the job, Shooter realized that no single editor could shepherd the huge number of releases that Marvel was then putting out. So he went about slowly building up a staff of editors, each one of whom … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #228

BHOC: AVENGERS #177

With this latest issue of AVENGERS, the ten-month-long Korvac Saga came to an end. Unfortunately, artist George Perez, who had been instrumental in convincing writer Jim Shooter to pen a storyline featuring all of the Avengers past and present, fell off abut a third of the way into the storyline, and it was plagued by … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #177