A long time has passed since I first bought the comics that I talk about here, so sometimes the details of their acquisition become vague. I do remember that I got this issue, THOR #259, the same day that I got the previous one, discussed yesterday. But I don't think they were in the same … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #259
The MONSTER TIMES was a biweekly newspaper devoted to horror, science fiction and fantasy that began publication in 1972 and ran until 1976. In those days before the Internet, publications such as this one were the only way that fans nationwide could get inside information about the things they loved. The thirteenth issue featured an … Continue reading The Monster Times #13
This issue of THOR was another book that I got coverless in one of those plastic-wrapped bundles of supposedly-destroyed comics that my drugstore was selling. That's a Jack Kirby cover on this issue, but one that's a little bit difficult to recognize as the King's work given all of the changes and corrections that were … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #258
This is another unfamiliar cover for me. Unfamiliar because the copy of this book that I got had been stripped of its cover, which was sent back to the distributor for credit. However, rather than destroying the remainder of the book as he was required to do, the wholesaler instead sold it and a mountain … Continue reading BHOC: DAREDEVIL #144
The original artwork for classic stories is always of interest to me. There's a bunch of information that we can discover from it. And even apart from that, it's often fun just to see how these stories were originally drawn, without the added intermediary step of them having to be reproduced and printed in a … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The First New Captain America Story – From The Original Art
Here's another interesting find that I came across and for which I've been able to locate very little reliable information. As with the issues of EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA that we've been looking at from time to time, this issue of LOS 4 FANTASTICOS contains an original never-printed-in-the-United-States story featuring the Fantastic Four created by … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: LOS 4 FANTASTICOS #11
The All-New, All-Different X-Men hit like a lightning bolt out of the blue when the new iteration of the team debuted in GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. The title had been a reprint book for several years, and so the quantities of the early new issues that made it to the stands were much smaller than most … Continue reading BHOC: X-MEN #103
With the fact that Maus was banned from circulation in some school districts making national news this past week, the time seemed to be good to discuss COMIX BOOK, the short-lived Marvel magazine that published work by underground cartoonists--including the prototype short story for Art Spiegelman's Maus. COMIX BOOK was an outgrowth of Marvel's concerns … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: COMIX BOOK #2 and the first Maus
I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but as things turned out, I wound up getting both the beginning and the end of the initial Masters of Evil cycle in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988. For, like AVENGERS #6, this issue also features Zemo and the Masters, and begins to bring their … Continue reading WC: AVENGERS #15
Marvel's decision to launch a licensed comic dedicated to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in 1976 is a bit of a mysterious choice. Clearly, the outfit was trying to move into licensed properties--in addition to 2001, they did STAR WARS and LOGAN'S RUN at about this time, and had great success with expanding on the mythology … Continue reading BHOC: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY #5
