AMAZING SPIDER-MAN continued to be Marvel's most popular and consistently best-selling title throughout the 1970s, as the character began to have a larger footprint across popular culture. So it wasn't any surprise that my grade school buddy Donald Sims had a number of issues in his comic book collection. Like the couple of Fourth World … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #134
Tag: Ralph Macchio
BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
If I'm remembering things correctly after all these years, I bought this issue of DOCTOR STRANGE while on a shopping trip to a supermarket, which explains why I might have randomly chosen to purchase this issue of a series that i wasn't otherwise following. I have a dim recollection that the selection of comic books … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #53
And now we come to what is generally regarded as the strongest period in the 100-issue run of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE's history. With this newest issue, #53, the six-part Project: PEGASUS Saga kicked off, signaling the arrival of the writing team of Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Macchio had created the titular Project; PEGASUS for an … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #53
BHOC: THOR #282
This next issue of THOR was the second part of a two-part story designed to help get the book back on schedule as writer/editor Roy Thomas prepared to get into his long Celestials storyline. This was the fourth issue in a row that felt like a bit of a throwaway, so the series was going … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #282
BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
DOCTOR STRANGE was a series that had a hard time retaining me as a reader throughout the late 1970s. I really liked the very early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko stories once I got to read them, but the modern day adventures of the character held little appeal for me. They were a lot more phantasmagoric, a … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #34
BHOC: THOR #281
This particular issue of THOR was another comic book that my household wound up with two copies of. As he would do from time to time, by younger brother Ken purchased his own copy of this issue for whatever reason. The series was drifting a bit at this particular moment, with this being another in … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #281
BHOC: THOR #280
This was one of the strangest issues of THOR that I bought as a relatively new Marvel reader, and I didn't completely understand why for several years, until I had learned enough about the history of comics to be able to fully appreciate it. Ever since the end of his Ragnarok storyline, writer/editor Roy Thomas … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #280
FOOM #4, Part Two
Continuing on our survey of the fourth and final issue of FOOM, Marvel's fan club magazine, put together by Jim Steranko. As was pointed out in the comments, this cover image was done by Jack Kirby for a Marvelmania poster, not by Steranko at all. It's pretty impressive that, at a time when Kirby was … Continue reading FOOM #4, Part Two
BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #43
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE was a title in a serious deadline crunch at the time this issue was put together, which is why new editor Roger Stern asked staff member Ralph Macchio for ideas for stories to fill it. This two-parter was Macchio's first writing credit, though he'd work for Marvel for over 35 years as an … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #43
Comics Creators in the Wild 11
Another installment of our popular feature where we showcase vintage photographs of popular comic book creators from days gone by. This is sometimes known as "Stan Lee and friends" given how often Lee was photographed over the years. Mark Gruenwald and Nel Yomtov at a convention in the late 1980s Renee Witterstaetter at a party … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 11










