This issue of STRANGE TALES was another book that was in that long box of about 150 Silver Age comic books that I bought in 1988 for $50.00. As the Marvel super hero line began to expand, certain strips tended to stagnate. They also got used a lot of the time as a place to … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #112
One of the myths about the Marvel Age of Comics is that it pretty much happened all at once--that as soon as FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands coast-to-coast, the paradigm of comic books changed completely. And that's clearly not the case. In fact, it took a few years for the Marvel approach to storytelling to … Continue reading WC: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91
This was the second of the pair of issues of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS that I bought on my trip to Heroes World with my grandparents. It was the last issue of the magazine--the following issue, its title changed to the moch zippier MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS, though its contents remained the same: a Fantastic Four … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #22
In addition to buying a handful of new comics that hadn't yet reached my area during my trip to the Heroes World outlet in the Levittown Mall, I also stocked up on a few classic back issues. As I was working with a very limited budget, a real boon to me was reprint titles such … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #20
I came across another stash of these Mexican issues of LA SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA that were published in the early 1970s, many of which contained new never-translated stories created exclusively for the Spanish-speaking marketplace by local talent, so popular was Spider-Man in those regions at the time that it had exhausted the supply of American … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #165
This is a weirdly awkward cover, but one that works nonetheless. And I think it was new to me when I got this book, although I had read the story in this issue both in the third AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Pocket Books collection of classic issues, and MARVEL TALES (where a new cover had been commissioned.) … Continue reading WC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #17
Given that today is Stan Lee's birthday and that he is likely the most photographed comic book creator in the world, it seems like an ideal time to do another installment of this series. Once again, these are all vintage photographs of assorted comic book writers, artists and editors from years past. Jack Kirby in … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 9
As Dave Lister explains to Arnold Rimmer in an early episode of the British science fiction comedy series RED DWARF, "Death isn't the handicap it used to be." Today, it's a given that, in the world of super heroes, death is, at worst, a revolving door, and any character who breathes his or her last … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Silver Age Character Deaths
One of the things that I tell people when we're talking about the history of Marvel Comics is that one of the amazing things about what those earlier pioneers created is the fact that, if you wait long enough, even the failures become successes. It was true of the Hulk, it was true of the … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #37
This issue of MARVEL TALES was yet another book that came to me in a 3-Bag bought at either a Toy Store or a Department Store, and like the other books I've covered, it would have been about nine months old when I purchased it. It contained a reprint of an issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TALES #84
The Tom Brevoort Experience 