BHOC: AVENGERS #162

Another month led me to another 3-Bag and another classic issue of AVENGERS. This period has to be considered one of the high points in the series' run, with writer Jim Shooter being backed up on artwork by George Perez (and John Byrne for a storyline.) Coming into the book at this point, it definitely … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #162

Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: Inside Marvel Comics

Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies was a documentary comic strip that ran in the pages of the Village Voice for just over twenty years starting in 1974. Its creator and author, Stan Mack, created the strip by overhearing and transcribing conversations between real people and then dramatizing them on the page. And in this particular … Continue reading Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: Inside Marvel Comics

TBTV: Five Mean Caricatures of Comic Book Creators

https://youtu.be/6uuJUHSsBOw A video version of one of the most popular pieces I ran on this page, a countdown of five instances where comic book creators depicted savage caricatures of one another in the pages of the stories they were creating.

BHOC: AVENGERS #161

Now this was a great issue, a classic entry in the history of AVENGERS. I picked it up in a 3-Bag, having only started to follow the title a number of months after this. But I was excited about it just from this cover--you see, I recognized Ant-Man from his appearance in the first AVENGERS … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #161

BHOC: SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #3

This was another issue that I pulled out of my drugstore's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics, which was filled with books that had been reported destroyed to the distributor but had instead been sold off to the drugstore chain at a cut-rate price. This manner of double-dipping, the "affidavit returns" system, is one of … Continue reading BHOC: SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #3

Comics Creators in the Wild 3

It's always good to roll with what works. So here are a bunch more vintage photographs of assorted comic book creators in years past. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, promotional photo, 1940. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (whose name is mispelled on that sign) at a promotional event for the premiere of the first Superman … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 3

Comics Creators in the Wild 2

Well it just goes to show: you never know what is going to resonate with an audience. Last week's kickoff installment of Comics Creators in the Wild received more notices and attention than I ever would have thought it would. So that being the case, I figured I ought to follow up on it sooner … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 2

Comics Creators in the Wild 1

Just like with our sequences on vintage comic books seen out and about in the world, so too do I have a relatively large collection of vintage photographs of writers, artists and editors either at work, in public or just generally goofing around. So why not show some of these vintage pictures off? Collected from … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 1

BHOC: AVENGERS #172

Here's another new comic that I picked up during that first trip to The Batcave, the first true comic book specialty shop that I ever patronized. As I mentioned last week, while I was more interested and attracted by the enormous number of back issues, also of note was the fact that the Batcave had … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #172

BHOC: MARVEL TEAM-UP #53

This was yet another issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP that I wound up getting from my buddy Donald Sims during the last two years of grad school at some point. I definitely wound up with the better end of the deal in this instance. Because in just a few months, the prices on any and all … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TEAM-UP #53