As a series, DEFENDERS had never entirely hooked me. I didn't really entirely click with any of its cast of characters, particularly in a team setting, and its supposed "non-team" format didn't appeal to me. Frankly, I barely understood it, as the members of the Defenders seemed to spend an awful lot of time hanging … Continue reading BHOC: DEFENDERS #67
This was one of the better issues of STRANGE TALES that I got in my Windfall comics purchase of 1988. While typically the series felt like something of an afterthought, here editor Stan lee appears to be trying to bring a bit more attention to the Human Torch feature by having Johnny and the Thing … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #128
I bought this issue of AVENGERS on one of my regular weekly Thursday trips to my neighborhood's local 7-11, whose spinner rack was my primary source of new comics at this time. Having wrapped up the Korvac Saga a few months earlier, AVENGERS was pretty clearly in a scheduling hole, and so editor Jim Shooter … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #179
I'm not 100% certain after all this time where I got this issue of DEVIL DINOSAUR #1 from. I think it was probably another cast-off of David Steckel's that he didn't want and so gave to me. But I also have a similar vibe concerning my other comic book reading friend of the period, Don … Continue reading BHOC: DEVIL DINOSAUR #1
As we've spoken about before, STRANGE TALES had become something of an afterthought in the Marvel line, a title where new prospective writers and artists could be tried out with limited risk. But after 22 issues of this, sales on the book seem to have slid enough for editor Stan Lee to look to make … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #124
In the early 1980s, FantaCo published a number of issues of CHRONICLES, a magazine whose each issue was dedicated to a deep dive discussion about a prominent Marvel series. Some of these were authorized by Marvel, though not all of them, and this gave FantaCo access to a lot of material they might not otherwise … Continue reading FANTACO CHRONICLES #2: John Byrne Column
Here is another lost and forgotten interview from the pages of an obscure 1980s fanzine, this one with Marvel's Editor in chief Jim Shooter. I seem to recall that Jim was giving an awful lot of interviews at around this time, possibly in connection with Marvel's 20th Anniversary. Regardless, it's interesting from a modern day … Continue reading THE COMIC TIMES #4: Jim Shooter Interview
Boy, it's hard to believe that the scantily-clad woman strung up on the center of this THOR cover will one day wield the hammer herself and become the title character. But such are the ways of time and comic books. And female imperilment was a leaned-upon trope in the 1970s when it came to selling … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #279
I had been waiting for this issue of MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS for a good long while. Having the Olshevsky OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR, I knew that this next book would be reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR #100. And that was of special interest to me for one reason: due to nothing more than it … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #81
Among the features in THE X-MEN CHRONICLES, the fanzine published by FantaCo, who were the publishing arm of a comic shop of the same name situated in Albany, New York, there was a relatively candid interview with Marvel's Editor in Chief, Jim Shooter. At the time, the Death of Phoenix was still a relatively new … Continue reading THE X-MEN CHRONICLES: Jim Shooter Interview
The Tom Brevoort Experience 