Feels like it's been quite a while since I put together one of these surveys of absurdity. So what say we take a look at five more Marvel villains from the past who tried their hardest, but who somehow failed that ineffable test towards being legitimately dangerous--and who instead came across as ridiculous, absurd, and … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains
Here's another book that came out of my longbox haul of Windfall Comics, costing me, as i repeatedly keep saying, only 33 cents each in 1988. There was always something a bit fascinating and mysterious about these early issues of DAREDEVIL to me--they had a mystique, a sense of a thing not quite being fully … Continue reading WC: DAREDEVIL #6
This was another book that I bought out of my drugstore's Big Bin of Somewhat Older Comic Books, all issues that had been reported as destroyed but instead which had been sold on the secondary market for a cut-rate price. This was one of a pair of DOCTOR STRANGE issues that I picked up at … Continue reading BHOC: DOCTOR STRANGE #21
People certainly seemed to be interested in my earlier story about the assorted Spider-Man stories that were crafted for the voracious marketplace in Mexico in the early 1970s and which have not been translated or reprinted in English. So let's take a look at another one, since I happen to have a stack of these … Continue reading Forgotten Masterpiece: EL SORPRENDENTE HOMBRE ARANA #153 and DAREDEVIL #9
I first encountered the THUNDER Agents in the pages of Maurice Horn's WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMICS, a two-volume set of books chronicling all sorts of comic book series from around the world. My local library had them in stock, though for some reason they weren't kept with the other books on comics, but rather over … Continue reading BHOC: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1
In 1967, toy manufacturer Wham-O released a single issue of WHAM-O GIANT COMICS not to newsstands, but rather distributed to toy stores and department stores alongside its product line of frisbees and hula hoops .The gimmick here was that this was intended to be the largest comic book ever done in terms of its overall … Continue reading Brand Echh: Wham-O Giant Comics #1
In the early 1940s, as a myriad of would-be publishers heard about the overwhelming success of Superman nd rushed into the marketplace offering their own get-rich-quick versions of a comic book super hero, the reality is that nobody quite understood just what factors made Superman work. And so, everything was tried, and creativity--both good and … Continue reading 5BC: The Five Most Unique Super Heroes of the Silver Age
By 1969, with comic book sales beginning to fall as the 60s fad for super heroes ran its course, enterprising creators began to look for greener pastures, to get out from under the thumb of often-unscrupulous publishers and to be their own bosses and make their own way. One of these creators was Wally Wood, … Continue reading Brand Echh – Heroes, Inc. #1
I had seen ads for it in the pages of my DC Comics for weeks and lusted after it, but this issue of DC SPECIAL SERIES featuring the Flash in an all-new adventure that took up the whole of this Dollar Comic sized issue never made it to my local 7-11. By this point, distribution … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #11
Let's face it, lightning doesn't strike every month, and sometimes inspiration can be difficult to come by. But comic books still had to come out, ready or not. And so, occasionally, our favorite heroes of Marvel's silver age would find themselves contending with opponents who--well, let's just say they weren't quite up to the usual … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Dopey Marvel Silver Age Villains
