It was always a welcome moment when a new issue of MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS turned up at my local 7-11. FANTASTIC FOUR was my favorite comic book at the time, and getting an issue of MGC, which reprinted older issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, was virtually as good as getting a new issue. The big change … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #79
I've spoken before about how the very first comic shop I ever encountered, the Heroes World outlet in Levittown, New York, was situated in the same shopping complex where my father worked for Chase Manhattan Bank. What this meant practically is that I could occasionally prevail upon him to stop by the store on his … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #102
It's more of the same story. This issue of THOR I got in another one of those 3-Bag bundles of recent comic books that were sold through toy stores and department stores during this period. I was still on the fence somewhat as a THOR reader--over the next couple of years, I would fall off … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #265
I was strangely super-excited when I got this issue of MARVEL SUPER ACTION in a 3-Bag at a department store or a toy store. I don't know what motivated Marvel after three issues featuring reprints of Captain America stories (which the title would return to the following issue) to devote this one to reprints of … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER ACTION #4
FOOM, a.k.a. Friends Of Ol' Marvel, was the successor operation to the haphazard Marvelmania International once teh latter had gone belly-up. Stan Lee, now Marvel's publisher, still saw value in having a fan publication that could further ingratiate the readership with Marvel, as well as a place where the assorted licensing efforts that they'd begun … Continue reading FOOM #1
So as I've related before, it came out at some point that the branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank that my father worked out of was situated in the Levittown Mall--the same Mall that contained the first comic book shop that I ever went to, Heroes' World. What this amounted to in practice is that, … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #107
It seems like forever since we spoke about the issue of FANTASTIC FOUR that came out before this one. A side effect of me starting to find comic shops and regularly buy back issues as well as new books. But FANTASTIC FOUR was still my favorite series at this point, and I was very much … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #197
One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91
I think I bought this issue of INCREDIBLE HULK during that same trip to Heroes World with my grandparents. As I've related previously, I wasn't really all that interested in the character to start with, but my brother had begun picking up the book, spurred on by the live action television series that was then … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #226
In addition to picking up a flight of new comics off of the racks at Heroes World in Levittown, New York, I also did a little bit of diving into the back issue bins. I didn't have a heck of a lot of money to work with--my grandparents were only going to indulge me so … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #165
The Tom Brevoort Experience 