MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS was an Annual sized regular title that reprinted earlier stories in the Marvel canon for the benefit of readers who came to the line later. Like me. It eventually changed its name to MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS and ran for a good long time. And for somebody like me, who was interested … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASICS #13
This issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD was the first released under the auspices of the DC Explosion, which saw the line increating its cover price to 50 cents a copy from 35 while adding additional pages of material. Here, the Human Target, a feature that briefly ran in the back pages of ACTION COMICS … Continue reading BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #143
It was on a shopping trip to the Smith Haven Mall that I came across this Pocket Books paperback reprint of early Spider-Man stories in one of the three bookstores that were located within that mall. Despite the fact that it was the second volume in the series and I didn't know whether I would … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS Volume 2
Of all of the early Marvel super hero titles, it must be said that STRANGE TALES was the one that seemed to be running on fumes the earliest. The title would get a little bit of a pick-me-up once Doctor Strange became a regular feature in its back pages, but before that, one gets the … Continue reading WC: STRANGE TALES #113
You never know what's going to turn up in the world of comic books, even after decades have gone by. So I was astonished to see the page I'm about to share with you turn up at one of the comic book auction sites recently. It's an amazing thing unto itself, but it also provokes … Continue reading Lee & Ditko & Orlando & Rockwell: A New Discovery in the Multiple Car Crash of TALES TO ASTONISH #61
As I've mentioned in the past, not only did the Modern Comics 3-Bagged reprints of past Charlton titles include a wide swath of their super hero and adventure material, but they also contained a number of titles in other genres; war, martial arts and mystery/suspense being chief among them. Most of those books were of … Continue reading BHOC: THE MANY GHOSTS OF DOCTOR GRAVES #12
E-MAN #4 was another issue of the series that came into my possession sealed within one of the plastic 3-Bags of reissued classic Charlton releases put out by Modern Comics in the late 1970s and sold in discount department stores, supermarkets and the like. There was a feeling of these books being a bit "off-brand" … Continue reading BHOC: E-MAN #4
Steve Ditko was one of the most popular and distinctive artists of the Silver Age of Comics, one who is well-regarded for his many contributions to the field. He was also, at least past a certain point, a devotee of and believer in the tenets of Objectivism, the belief systems pioneered by author Ayn Rand … Continue reading Brand Echh: Mr. A
It was a big surprise and a huge deal to me the next time my family went to the Two Guys discount department store chain, as I discovered a new flight of Modern Comics 3-Bags had arrived. Modern Comics was an attempt to sell bagged product directly to department stores and other such chains on … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN ATOM #85
It's been said over the years that Marvel's publisher Martin Goodman had an unwavering faith in the sales appeal of Ant-Man. How much of that was due to him hearing about the sell-through numbers on the earliest appearances of the Atom over at rival DC I do not know--but it does account for the reason … Continue reading WC: TALES TO ASTONISH #38
The Tom Brevoort Experience 