BHOC: ADVENTURE COMICS #465

The one real immediate benefit of finding my new Stationery Store source for new comic book purchases is that suddenly all of the thicker books that my 7-11 had quietly stopped carrying at some point in the past were now readily available to me. Case in point: ADVENTURE COMICS. I would have been interested in … Continue reading BHOC: ADVENTURE COMICS #465

Brand Echh: DARK DOMINION #1

The second release from Jim Shooter's new company DEFIANT was DARK DOMINION, which seemed like it might prove to be something interesting. The series was co-created by Shooter and legendary creator Steve Ditko, and it's clear that Jim was intending to build a title that would allow Ditko to flex the same kind of visual … Continue reading Brand Echh: DARK DOMINION #1

FSC: X-MEN MARVEL ILLUSTRATED Paperback

By 1982, Marvel had been making inroads into establishing itself as a children's book publisher as much as a periodical comic book publisher. This was apparently Marvel president Jim Galton's plan for where the future of the organization should lie. He had no idea how the emerging Direct Sales marketplace was going to explode, nor … Continue reading FSC: X-MEN MARVEL ILLUSTRATED Paperback

BC: GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #1

As I've spoken about numerous times on this page, I was relatively limited in what I was looking for in my comic books. I was a super hero guy, and so none of the other genres which were then still readily available when I started reading the books in the 1970s were of any real … Continue reading BC: GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #1

FSC: NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1

In 1982, there was no comic book that I thought more highly of than NEW TEEN TITANS. It was a perfect synthesis of all of the elements that I liked in both the Marvel and DC titles of the day, a time when the two had very different flavors. But NEW TEEN TITANS bridged that … Continue reading FSC: NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1

FSC: MARVEL AND DC PRESENT THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1

A year or two ago, I was on a convention panel where I was able to tell former X-MEN editor Louise Simonson just how much she'd screwed all of those X-MEN editors who came after her with her performance in that role in 1982. An incredible number of high-quality releases came out of the X-Men … Continue reading FSC: MARVEL AND DC PRESENT THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1

BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #17

One of the benefits that came with my new Stationery Store outlet that stocked a wider variety of comic books than the town 7-11 did was exposure to a broad range of material. The 7-11 had stopped carrying any oversized comics (which is how I had missed FANTASTIC FOUR #200 some months earlier) including all … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #17

BHOC: BATMAN #315

Only a block or two away from my home in Farmingville, a new strip mall was being constructed. A new road had been put in behind my house a year or so earlier, which turned into a major throughfare, so putting up a commerce area right where it crossed the main road through town up … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #315

BHOC: SUPERMAN #338

This next issue of SUPERMAN was a bit of a minor milestone and it was heavily promoted in house ads throughout the DC line at the time. It was also the 40th Anniversary Issue of the title, and while it wasn't upsized to mark the occasion, that did provide cover for this story was being … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #338

BC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110

This next book isn't one that I ever actually borrowed from my next-door-neighbor Johnny Rantinella. But it was one that I saw over at his house and flipped through extensively--enough so that I can clearly recall several details about it. I had only begun reading JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA with the preceding issue, and would … Continue reading BC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110