So at around this point, I finally got my hands on a copy of the first volume of the MARVEL POCKET BOOKS paperback collections of early AMAZING SPIDER-MAN stories. Some months earlier, I had bought a copy of Volume 2 and loved it, but the first volume was by that point simply no place to … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOKS Volume 1
As I talked about yesterday, this was the second of two magazine-sized issues of THE SPIRIT that I got for Christmas 1978, ordered out of the Superhero Merchandise catalog. And like yesterday's issue, this one offered a batch of classic Will Eisner Spirit stories from the long-running Newspaper circular that had run in the Golden … Continue reading BHOC: THE SPIRIT #18
My Christmas gifts for the Christmas of 1978 weren't exclusively Marvel based, though they were pretty much all comic book based. I had also asked for and received two issues of Kitchen Sink Press's magazine devoted to Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT, #17 and #18, their two first. Prior to this, I had read one Spirit … Continue reading BHOC: THE SPIRIT #17
Wrapping up our look at the first SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE catalog that was put together by Ivan Snyder for his mail order operation that eventually transformed into HEROES WORLD. This is the section that transitioned more into published work, books on comics and back issues and the like. And it's worth pointing out that, in 1976, … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog, Part Three
Here's the second part of our look at the first SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE catalog, put together for entrepreneur Ivan Snyder by several moonlighting freelancers from Marvel and available through the mail. SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE eventually transformed into being HEROES WORLD, an outlet of which was the very first comic book store that I ever encountered, so I … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1, Part Two
SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE was a mail order business run by Ivan Snyder that featured, as the name implies, super hero merchandise of all kinds. Snyder operated out of a storefront in New Jersey, which eventually transformed into the first of a series of HEROES WORLD comic book and merchandise stores in the late 1970s. Snyder had … Continue reading SUPERHERO MERCHANDISE Catalog #1
I ordered a copy of this MARVEL TREASURY EDITION featuring the Fantastic Four from the Superhero Merchandise catalog--or as the firm would later be known, Heroes World. They had bought out Marvel and DC's back-stock of their various Treasury Editions and would sell them for years thereafter, often advertising in the comics themselves. I eventually … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #2
We have reached a seminal moment in my development as a comic book reader. That Friday, my father told me about a new store that he'd head about--he pointedly didn't tell me that it was opening in the same mall where the branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank he was stationed at was located, which … Continue reading BHOC: OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX #4
A new issue of what was rapidly becoming my favorite comic book turned up at my local 7-11, and at this point I was clearly an avowed FANTASTIC FOUR reader, if not truly a full-on Marvel convert quite yet. (That event would take place in a few weeks.) A lot of that had to do … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #188
Before the wide spread availability of comic book retail stores, access to comic book merchandise was very hit-or-miss. While most big stores stocked some things, not every single thing that you might want was readily accessible. Beyond that, you might not even be aware that certain things existed. One operation that closed that gap was … Continue reading Superhero Merchandise
The Tom Brevoort Experience 