The week this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN came to my spinner rack in the neighborhood 7-11 was a big one for comic book happenings. In addition to the release of a regular slate of comic books, two other things were going on that grabbed my attention. The first was the launch of DC's new Newspaper … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #182 & THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES
As I mentioned yesterday, I bought two consecutive issues of DOCTOR STRANGE from my drugstore's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics, and this was the second one. It had one thing in common with the previous issue: like it, the cover illustrated not the contents of this story, but the one in the following issue. … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #22
Time has moved on and the wheel has turned for the character a little bit, but it can't be overstated just how popular the Thing was during the 1970s. He was just behind Spider-Man in terms of his draw power, the Wolverine of his era. And unlike Wolverine over the past few decades, if you … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #30
Once again, here are a batch of vintage photographs of comic book creators taken in years gone by. We might also call this feature "Stan and friends" since there are proportionately so many more Stan Lee photos from the past than anything else. Stan Lee in the Marvel offices, publicity photo circa 1980 Stan Lee … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 4
The distribution of new comic books in the late 1970s wasn't so wonderful. Only a couple of years earlier, it was possible to find comics in several local locations, and the number of titles available were plentiful. But somewhere along the way, comics began to lose their status, and disappeared from a lot of storefronts. … Continue reading BHOC: MACHINE MAN #3
A month had gone by, and there was no more welcome sight than a new issue of FANTASTIC FOUR arriving on the Spinner Rack at my local 7-11. This issue was one of those odd books where my younger brother Ken subsequently bought his own copy a week or two later, so there were two … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #195
This issue of SUB-MARINER was yet another comic that I got in trade with my friend Don Sims in grade school. It was right at the end of the run, at the point where Namor was about to go from a mainstay of the line to a frequent guest-star and antagonist, no longer quite able … Continue reading BHOC: SUB-MARINER #71
As assorted readers pointed out, there were a lot more instances of creators at both Marvel and DC including themselves as characters in the stories that they produced than I covered in the prior two pieces about Self-Mythologizing. And so, since this is a concept that seems to have attracted some audience interest, here then … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Times Marvel Self-Mythologized
I'm pretty sure that I got this issue of LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN from my school buddy Donald Sims, who also collected comics, a fact that bound us together as friends until the switch to Junior High. It's probably worth giving a little bit of context as to my own experiences with African-American culture. As … Continue reading BHOC: LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN #38
During this time, in loose conjunction with its efforts to get its properties onto television in Live Action and Animation, Marvel was making a concerted effort in the bookstore market as well. The success of the ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS series had proven that there was sufficient interest among book-buyers to make such activities potentially … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL NOVEL SERIES #1
