Here's another quick look at some of the assorted products that were offered during the formative period of the Marvel Age depicting or representing the Marvel characters. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but if you were a Marvel fan in the 1960s or 1970s, this was all about as good as it got. … Continue reading Make Mine Marvel Memorabilia 2
Continuing on with comics I bought during my first trip to Bush's Hobbies in Ronkonkoma. I was a huge fan of the Golden Age of Comics and the histories of the assorted characters that I was following--I wanted to know everything, to read everything. In particular, it had been the original Human Torch who provided … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASY MASTERPIECES #7
There's a long-storied tradition among comics of having the writers and artists of those stories themselves be depicted within the very pages they are producing--creating an idealized heightened version of reality. While this was common across all companies, nobody did it as often or as brazenly as the creators working for Marvel. They truly went … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times Marvel Self-Mythologized
I'm not 100% certain what made me decide to pick up this issue of THOR, a series I hadn't previously followed. I had read one issue of THOR several years earlier and not found it to my liking. But in this period, I was beginning toe explore the assorted Marvel releases, and so it was … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #272
The response to last week's piece on the complicated and complex origins of Spider-Man and all of the behind-the-scenes activity that stretched back for almost a decade before the character would eventually reach comic book newsstands was incredibly well received. In the space of a week, it's become one of the most-viewed posts on this … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Simon & Ditko & Oleck: The Spider and the Fly Extra
I seem to recall that I got this issue of DOCTOR STRANGE at some non-regular comic buying location, a candy store or stationary store in the same mall as a far-off grocery store that my Mother went to in order to get something specific. I expect that the pickings must have been pretty slim for … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #29
It's one of the big, fundamental questions that lies at the heart of the origin-myth of perhaps Marvel Comics' most popular single character, and its one that has been discussed and debated at length by those with some degree of insider information: how much did Jack Kirby have to do with the development of Spider-Man, … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Simon & Ditko & Oleck: The Spider and the Fly
The regular INCREDIBLE HULK television series debuted on Friday, March 10, 1978, the week before I would have bought this issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN at my regular 7-11 haunt. This was another one of those issues where my younger brother Ken would eventually pick up his own copy as well. He was also a lot … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #181
As with the first three issues of the Marvel STAR WARS comic book, my younger brother Ken picked up the 3-Bag containing issues #4-6, the back half of the adaptation of the film, at the Kay-Bee Toy Store in the Smith Haven Mall. As I mentioned the last time I wrote about this series, these … Continue reading BHOC: STAR WARS #4-6
This is a topic that never quite gets exhausted for me. Over this past weekend I had a need to revisit the pieces I had originally devoted to analyzing FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the assorted art changes and adjustments that I detected therein. And in doing so, a number of new ideas struck me--including one … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: Even More on FANTASTIC FOUR #1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 