PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN was in the middle of a very good run of stories mainly revolving around the true identity of a mysterious new foe for the wall-crawler, the creepy Carrion. It was clear based upon the assorted clues dropped into the narrative that Carrion was somebody who knew an awful lot about … Continue reading BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #29
Continuing our look at THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, a fan comic book produced by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Scott McCloud while they were in high school together. Sorry, for some reason Page 17 is missing in the copy I got this all from. Cameos from what I assume were Kurt and Scott's circle of … Continue reading The Battle of Lexington, Part Two
I had sort of backed into buying SGT FURY regularly after my younger brother Ken had started doing it and then lost interest. I'd never really ben interested in war comics, but the fact that present day Nick Fury was such a presence throughout the Marvel line convinced me that it was "important" to read … Continue reading BHOC: SGT FURY #151
So at around this point, I finally got my hands on a copy of the first volume of the MARVEL POCKET BOOKS paperback collections of early AMAZING SPIDER-MAN stories. Some months earlier, I had bought a copy of Volume 2 and loved it, but the first volume was by that point simply no place to … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS Volume 1
THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON was a fan comic book produced by Kurt Busiek and Scott McCloud while in High School. Never published anywhere, it featured an enormous battle between different Marvel super heroes that they liked set in and around the area of their hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts. As McCloud describes it on his website: … Continue reading The Battle of Lexington, Part One
Now I know that I picked this issue of MARVEL PREMIERE up in a candy store in a distant strip mall that my parents had gone to for some shopping reason. My regular 7-11 didn't seem to carry issues of MARVEL PREMIERE--they had quietly stopped getting all sorts of books, including double-sized issues such as … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL PREMIERE #47
The first run of Topps' Marvel-themed super hero stickers had been a solid success, which meant that they decided to do another run the following year. Like the first run, these stickers came five-to-a-pack with a piece of stiff chewing gum, and each one featured the image of a Marvel hero with a quasi-comical word … Continue reading The 1975/1976 Topps Marvel Super Hero Stickers
IRON MAN was quietly becoming a really good comic book back in 1979, a change that at once seemed both gradual and instantaneous. The creative team of writer David Michelinie, co-plotter and inker Bob Layton and penciler John Romita Jr. transplanted the character to the modern era, dispensing with a lot of the Cold War … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #121
It's tough to find a Marvel comic from this period that didn't feature any cover copy whatsoever, but this latest issue of FANTASTIC FOUR fit the bill. It probably could have used some, honestly, if only to contextualize what the FF were fighting. But it's a nice action piece either way. And I didn't need … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #205
DEFENDERS from here on out was rough sledding for a very long time, and I'm surprised that my younger self stuck with it for as long as he did, especially since I had no problem dropping other books that I wasn't enjoying. (Well, in some cases. I bought GHOST RIDER for years too, for reasons … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #70
The Tom Brevoort Experience 