This was a cool surprise to greet me at the 7-11's spinner rack that Thursday afternoon. I had taken to following MARVEL SUPER-HEROES regularly by this point, but a story that guest-starred the Fantastic Four was incredibly welcome. Even though I'd never experienced one firsthand, the concept of a Thing vs Hulk fight being something … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #74
You never know what's going to turn up in the world of comic books, even after decades have gone by. So I was astonished to see the page I'm about to share with you turn up at one of the comic book auction sites recently. It's an amazing thing unto itself, but it also provokes … Continue reading Lee & Ditko & Orlando & Rockwell: A New Discovery in the Multiple Car Crash of TALES TO ASTONISH #61
I've spoken before about how the very first comic shop I ever encountered, the Heroes World outlet in Levittown, New York, was situated in the same shopping complex where my father worked for Chase Manhattan Bank. What this meant practically is that I could occasionally prevail upon him to stop by the store on his … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #102
This issue of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY represents the beginning of the fully-formed period of Thor's adventures. While launched over a year before in issue #83, the strip was swiftly handed over by editor Stan Lee to other creators to write and draw--Jack Kirby's talents were needed elsewhere, it seemed--and consequently, the series wasn't working as … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #101
Back at my local 7-11, new comics continued to come in regularly every Thursday, and I was there every week without fill (except in extenuating circumstances such as sickness or family vacations and the like) to pick up the new books. It's a pattern that continues to this day. This issue of DAREDEVIL greeted me … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #154
A post from my old Marvel blog detailing the end of my Take My Trade experiment where I started with five random junk comics and traded with fans to the point where I acquired a copy of FANTASTIC FOUR #1, all to benefit the Hero Initiative. I don't still have a copy of the video … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Trading Update #18 – For The Win!
This issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, #31, was another book that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, in which I wound up buying a long box of about 150 Silver Age comics for the dirt-cheap price of $50.00. I had read this story previously in its later MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS reprinting, but it … Continue reading WC: FANTASTIC FOUR #31
It became one of the hallmarks of the new Marvel line of super heroes to have characters from different series casually crossing over and encountering one another. But that wasn't a new thing for editor Stan Lee, who had been using such stories to cross-promote other titles in the proto-Marvel line. This story from PATSY … Continue reading Lost Crossovers: Patsy Walker Meets Kid Colt
Well, not really. But that hasn't stopped some dealers from selling this issue as a "prototype" to Marvel's more famous web-slinger. And because of that, there's a bit more interest in this one throw-away one-off fantasy story than pretty much anything else that was put out by Marvel (known as Atlas) that month. So all … Continue reading The First Marvel Spider Man Story
One more comic book that came to me in a plastic 3-Bag bought at either a toy store or a department store. It has a very typical cover for the era, one in which all of the characters have word or thought balloons explaining everything that is going on, and on which the hero is … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #175
