MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE was a title in a serious deadline crunch at the time this issue was put together, which is why new editor Roger Stern asked staff member Ralph Macchio for ideas for stories to fill it. This two-parter was Macchio's first writing credit, though he'd work for Marvel for over 35 years as an … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #43
This was another comic book that I got rather than bought--another "extra" in one of those plastic-wrapped bundled of coverless comic books that my local drug store had begun to sell. I bought the bundle in question for other books, but this one came along with them, and thus it was mine. And to be … Continue reading BHOC: HOWARD THE DUCK #18
There's a long-storied tradition among comics of having the writers and artists of those stories themselves be depicted within the very pages they are producing--creating an idealized heightened version of reality. While this was common across all companies, nobody did it as often or as brazenly as the creators working for Marvel. They truly went … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Marvel Self-Mythologized
What goes around comes around, and when it comes to the often-fannishly-induced game of dropping in references benign or malicious to a competitor's characters, there isn't any company who is entirely blameless in this endeavor. Here then are five times Marvel referenced DC characters in interesting fashion. ADVENTURE INTO FEAR #17 - Steve Gerber was … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Marvel Referenced DC Characters In Interesting Ways
In a time before the British Author Invasion and the rise of Vertigo titles, this issue of GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING was quite possibly the most literate and literary comic book as-yet published. A heartfelt, emotion-driven Steve Gerber story concerning a dead, bullied schoolkid anchors the issue. Gerber experiments with using huge blocks of text on certain … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1975
The Tom Brevoort Experience 