Another month had gone by, and so another issue of ACTION COMICS had shown up at my local spinner rack in the 7-11 I frequented. ACTION was, by this point, a regular buy for me, despite the fact that most of the individual stories in this particular stretch were pretty forgettable--and indeed, I don't know … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #478
It's perhaps difficult to see from the vantage point of so many years later, but this issue of X-MEN was a game-changer when it came out, and cemented the popularity of the series at the top of the Direct Market sales charts for a decade and a half. Powerful, unexpected, emotional, this comic generated both … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1980
This issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE featured John Byrne's first outing with the team as both writer and artist, a time travel adventure that had Ben Grimm coming face-to-face with the earliest version of himself as seen and characterized in FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and #2. Byrne does a great job of capturing the period of the … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1979
Despite the school year beginning, my regular weekly Thursday trips to the 7-11 for new comic books continued. And in fact, I had begun to hold on to the dollar a day that I was given to buy lunch at school in order to be able to have more spending money for comics. (My Dad … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #318
Now that I was able to go to my local 7-11 whenever I wanted to, I did spend a week during this summer working out something very important: when did the new comic books show up every week? I went to that 7-11 day in and day out until I was certain that my analysis … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #477
It was like a little miracle, a book that couldn't and possibly shouldn't ever happen. But happen it did--and SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was an excellent mixing of the then-contemporary styles of Marvel and DC, very different flavors in that period. The creative team was spot on, anchored by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1976
SUPERMAN #276 gave the comic book reading world something it had been lusting for since around 1940, a battle between the Man of Steel and his publishing arch-rival Captain Marvel. Except that this issue cheated--despite having recently licensed the Big Red Cheese from Fawcett for the new SHAZAM series, here an equivalent stand-in, Captain Thunder, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1974
Picked up this issue of ALL=STAR COMICS at my local 7-11 as usual. ALL-STAR was a favorite series of mine, so I'd avoid missing an issue if I could. This cover blows the big end surprise of the issue by touting the first appearance of the Huntress within it--unfortunate, as her reveal is literally the … Continue reading BHOC: ALL-STAR COMICS #69
DC put a huge push behind the roll-out of their Dollar Comics line of titles, but for the most part they weren't very appealing to me. And the reason for that is that none of them were really very good. Oh, they were all adequate, competent comic books. But each one contained a ton of … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN FAMILY #186
As I understand things, the Neal Adams image that was used on the cover to this issue of SUPERMAN was sitting around in editor Julie Schwartz’s flat files, an inventory piece or just something that Neal had done to amuse himself. Writer Marty Pasko saw it and wanted to use it on one of his … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #317
The Tom Brevoort Experience 