BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #44

Marvel's reprint line was still going strong, providing a companion reprint title for most of the major series the company was putting out. This helped to reinforce the idea that the Marvel Universe was all one single continuous tapestry--these years-old stories were still important and might factor in to new adventures produced today. Or such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #44

BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #75

As usual, I also picked up this issue of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES, the regular reprint series that dusted off stories that had appeared in INCREDIBLE HULK a few years earlier and put them in front of a contemporary audience. Marvel kept up a full reprint line for most of the 1960s and 1970s, with these earlier … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #75

THE X-MEN COMPANION #1: Roy Thomas Interview

In 1982, there was simply no hotter book in the Direct Sales marketplace than UNCANNY X-MEN. Riding off of the tremendous success of the Dark Phoenix Saga, the series was rocketed to the absolute pinnacle of the sales charts, at least in comic book specialty shops. X-MEN was super hot, and so the publishers of … Continue reading THE X-MEN COMPANION #1: Roy Thomas Interview

Brand Echh: Thunderbolt #54

Charlton was pretty much the bottom rung of the comic book business. Yes, they published a lot of material, but it was always on the crappiest paper, and always had the worst distribution. What's more, it only rarely seemed as though anybody cared about what the content of these magazines was. One notable exception was … Continue reading Brand Echh: Thunderbolt #54

BHOC: THOR #275

This week brought out another issue of THOR, a title that I had only recently begun to get into and enjoy. New writer Roy Thomas had decided to lean into the genuine Norse legends for his first big epic, which saw the Gods of Ragnarok once again facing the approaching threat of Ragnarok, the end-of-the-world … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #275

BHOC: INVADERS #32

I picked up this issue of INVADERS on another regular sortie to the local 7-11 on Thursday as usual. It was a title that I quite liked, though looking back on it it isn't anywhere near as polished as I recall it being. This particular issue, the first of a two-parter, was an attempt to … Continue reading BHOC: INVADERS #32

BHOC: AVENGERS ANNUAL #2

As I've mentioned here before, having become aware of the fact that my father's place of employment was located right in the vicinity of the Levittown Heroes World location, the only real comic book shop I yet knew of, I would regularly plead for him to stop by the place and pick me up some … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS ANNUAL #2

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #225 and Stan Lee at Cartoonerville

I picked up this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA on my usual weekly Thursday sweep of the spinner rack at my regular 7-11. But before that, I'd gotten to have a noteworthy though frustrating experience. The weekend before, my father had learned that Stan Lee was going to be making a personal appearance at the Cartoonerville … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #225 and Stan Lee at Cartoonerville

BHOC: STAR WARS #9

STAR WARS #9 was the third issue contained in that specialty 3-Bag of plastic-wrapped comics that was bought for my brother, who had become a big fan of the film and its characters. We've spoken already about how voracious demand was for these early STAR WARS books in a time when there really wasn't any … Continue reading BHOC: STAR WARS #9

WC: HAWKMAN #2

When it came to the organized comic book fandom of the early Silver Age of Comics, there was no character that hardcore audience was more behind than Hawkman. The Winged Wonder had been a favorite of both Dr. Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas during their youth decades earlier as part of the Justice Society of … Continue reading WC: HAWKMAN #2