There was a bit of a stigma attached to Marvel's regular reprint titles among at least the comic book readers in my community in the 1970s--despite the fact that we all bought and read them. That's because we wanted to experience the stories. But the prevailing wisdom at the time was that these reprints were … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #73
STAR-STUDDED COMICS was a long-running fanzine of the Silver into the Bronze Age that specialized in fan-created comic book stories. It was originated and published by a threesome of fans who became known as the "Texas Trio": Buddy Saunders, Howard Keltner and Larry Herndon. It ran for 18 issues from September of 1963 to the … Continue reading STAR-STUDDED COMICS #4 and the Birth of the Liberty Legion
This issue of CONAN also came to me inside of a plastic 3-Bag purchased at a department store or toy store. As we've covered before, I wasn't at all interested in sword and sorcery comics--they felt too much like history class to me--and so I typically would have traded this book to somebody for something … Continue reading BHOC: CONAN #79
This was another book I got out of a 3-Bag purchased at either a department store or a toy store, most likely the former. And it was Jack Kirby's final issue both writing and illustrating the adventures of the character he'd helped to bring into the world three and a half decades earlier. If I'm … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #214
Here are a pair of additional vintage interviews, one from Stan Lee and one from Roy Thomas, which first saw print in the long running magazine CARTOONIST PROFILES in its November 1969 issue. This is right at the end point of the Silver Age, at a time when Jack Kirby had relocated his family to … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: CARTOONIST PROFILES #4
More photographs from years and decades past showcasing the writers, artists and editors of our favorite comic books. Mark Gruenwald in M.C. Hammer costume for Halloween, early 1990s John and Virginia Romita at a convention, circa 1986 Stan Lee plays the Atari Spider-Man video game, circa 1981 Steve Ditko, 1960s Stan Lee and costumed fans, … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 8
It has to be said that it was around this period that INVADERS began to lose its zip. I still faithfully read the title every month, all the way to its finish a year or so later, but it was clear that the gloss was off of it. Artist Frank Robbins' work on the series … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #30
Here's another classic old newspaper story related to comic books, this one from the Burlington Free Press edition released on November 2, 1965 and concerning the famous (in the world of comic books) Rutland, Vermont annual Halloween parade which was every year filled with marchers in super hero costumes. The parade (and subsequent Halloween party) … Continue reading Halloween Encounter With Dr. Strange and Plastic Man
This was another comic book that I got rather than bought--another "extra" in one of those plastic-wrapped bundled of coverless comic books that my local drug store had begun to sell. I bought the bundle in question for other books, but this one came along with them, and thus it was mine. And to be … Continue reading BHOC: HOWARD THE DUCK #18
It was a bit of collateral damage, really. One of the drawbacks with buying any random assortment of comics like the plastic-wrapped bundled of coverless older books that my local drugstore chain had begun to sell meant that when you bought a particular package, you were going to wind up with stuff that you simply … Continue reading BHOC: ADVENTURE INTO FEAR #30
