This obscure issue of Charlton's BLUE BEETLE series--not the version re-conceptualized by Steve Ditko but the earlier, super-powered version, seems like any other throw-away Charlton comic of the era--good for a few moments of entertainment, but not at all memorable for any particular reason. But this issue is noteworthy for being one of the earliest … Continue reading Brand Echh – Blue Beetle #54
This issue of INCREDIBLE HULK was another book that I got from my 5th and 6th grade friend Donald Sims. He was a sporadic source of issues that came out before I started reading, in particular Marvel titles, which was very valuable in these days before trips to back issue outlets became more common. This … Continue reading BHOC: INCREDIBLE HULK #176
Continuing on with more comics that I bought as back issues on my first trip to Bush's Hobbies in Ronkonkoma. I don't believe that I had any idea that INVADERS had debuted in a Giant-Size issue first, but when I came across this beauty in the bins, I had to have it. As I've said … Continue reading BHOC: GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #1
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
Bought this issue of MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION featuring the Avengers at my regular 7-11. This cover has always amused me--Hawkeye somehow swinging in with a rope wrapped loosely around his leg so that he can take an upside-down arrow-shot--it's truly a bizarre choice. In this instance, the choice wasn't directly Ernie Chan's, who drew this … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #42
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
Comic books are a petty business, it must be said. And the same freedom to imagine and play that allows for the creativity in conceptualizing new stories about characters who, let's face it, were designed to appeal to children also somehow invites the darker side of itself--the version where grown-ups behave like petulant children on … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Mean Caricatures of Comic Book Creators
I can remember debating with myself whether to purchase this book or not, standing in my local 7-11 on a weekly comic buying excursion. I wasn't yet reading DEFENDERS, though I had sampled an issue or two prior to this. But they hadn't hooked me especially. I think the thing that sealed the deal for … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #16
Now that I had begun to pick up AMAZING SPIDER-MAN as a new series, I also did the typical thing and began being open to buying somewhat older issues of the title out of my local drugstore's Big Bin of Slightly Older Comics made up of affidavit returns that were intended to have been destroyed. … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #160
The Tom Brevoort Experience 