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
I was excited to get my hands on this issue of BLACK LIGHTNING after the cliffhanger of the previous one, where the new crime-fighter found himself confronted by an angry Superman. And the issue was pretty good! The one place it really fell down is in the incomplete inking of Vince Colletta. I know that … Continue reading BHOC: BLACK LIGHTNING #5
I bought this issue of ACTION COMICS at my usual 7-11. In fact, this was the summer where, now being allowed to travel to the 7-11 on my own, I buckled down and spent a week determining when the new comics would arrive each week. Rather than simply asking somebody, I instead made a pilgrimage … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #476
I’m not 100% certain where I got this issue of SUPERMAN, apart from the fact that wherever it was had marked it down to only a quarter, and that it wasn’t one of my typical haunts. Like the issue of DETECTIVE COMICS we talked about last time, this could have been picked up at some … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #298
