This week brought a new issue of INVADERS to the spinner rack in my local 7-11, a series that I was still quite a fan of, even though its quality had been dipping in recent months. Artist Frank Robbins had departed the title, and despite the fact that many fans of the era would cheer that fact, the bevy of artists who replaced him didn’t have his facility with storytelling or in capturing the…
Editor Mort Weisinger was certainly putting himself on the line with the cover copy on this next issue of ACTION COMICS, #325. “Best Superman Story of the Year!” he cries, in the manner that was being used by rival Stan Lee. This is maybe a strange thing to say on a cover that features not the Man of Steel in some critical situation or facing an insolvable dilemma, but rather his younger self…
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, INCREDIBLE HULK went through a consistent pattern with me: it would start with some storyline that I was interested in, then segue into a bunch of issues that left me cold, to the point where I’d be on the verge of dropping it, then a story would come along that I liked and that would renew my interest for a time. And so on and so on. This issue was one of…
As a series, DEFENDERS had never entirely hooked me. I didn’t really entirely click with any of its cast of characters, particularly in a team setting, and its supposed “non-team” format didn’t appeal to me. Frankly, I barely understood it, as the members of the Defenders seemed to spend an awful lot of time hanging out together and behaving like a typical Marvel super hero team. And the fortunes…
This was one of the better issues of STRANGE TALES that I got in my Windfall comics purchase of 1988. While typically the series felt like something of an afterthought, here editor Stan lee appears to be trying to bring a bit more attention to the Human Torch feature by having Johnny and the Thing go up against Quicksilver and teh Scarlet Witch from over in the pages of X-MEN. The pair were…
I bought this issue of AVENGERS on one of my regular weekly Thursday trips to my neighborhood’s local 7-11, whose spinner rack was my primary source of new comics at this time. Having wrapped up the Korvac Saga a few months earlier, AVENGERS was pretty clearly in a scheduling hole, and so editor Jim Shooter took steps to get the series back on schedule by dropping in a series of fill-in stories.…
This issue of SUPERMAN was another book that I got from my friend David Steckel, who had nothing but scorn for DC’s output. I, on the other hand, was a stalwart fan of the Man of Steel. Except that there was something a little bit weird about this issue of SUPERMAN as opposed to all of the others I had read. It looked the same on the outside and inside, with Curt Swan delivering the visuals. But…
There’s something that I don’t really like about this ACTION COMICS cover. I’m not sure what it is–it’s a nice piece done by the usually-winning combination of Curt Swan and George Klein. Possibly it’s the light green background that puts me off here, I don’t know. But the fact remains, I don’t find this cover especially appealing. This was another in the many issues of ACTION COMICS that I…
Now this comic book I know was given to me by my friend David Steckel. As I’ve mentioned before, David was a thorough Marvel Zombie (before that term came into widespread use) and he found all DC comics to be juvenile kiddy stuff–which, in al honesty, they largely were. So he had less than no interest in LOIS LANE, which contained reprints of Mort Weisinger-edited stories from early in the Silver…
I’m not 100% certain after all this time where I got this issue of DEVIL DINOSAUR #1 from. I think it was probably another cast-off of David Steckel’s that he didn’t want and so gave to me. But I also have a similar vibe concerning my other comic book reading friend of the period, Don Sims. Either way, I know for certain that I didn’t buy it myself, and I didn’t give up anything to acquire it. It…
As we’ve spoken about before, STRANGE TALES had become something of an afterthought in the Marvel line, a title where new prospective writers and artists could be tried out with limited risk. But after 22 issues of this, sales on the book seem to have slid enough for editor Stan Lee to look to make a change, as he often did when presented with such a situation. In this case, he decided to add the…
I mentioned meeting my buddy David Steckel in gifted class a couple weeks ago. David was, like myself, an avid comic book reader. But he only liked Marvel comic, and turned up his nose at anything from DC or other companies, which he felt were too childish and stupid. Accordingly, every once in a while he’d wind up with a DC book–he had a cousin who would give him books from the cousin’s…
I had skipped buying SUPERMAN FAMILY #192 the previous month, for reasons that I’m not quite certain of apart from just a general dissatisfaction with the title. That was the problem with DC’s Dollar Comics anthologies, they were wildly inconsistent. While any given issue probably had something in it that you thought was pretty great, it also tended to include something that you thought was…
It was at around this time that JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA had begun to feel tired to me. It had once been a favorite series, but in recent months, coupled with a growing interest in the Marvel style of storytelling, the venerable JLA had seemingly been slowing down, becoming a bit trite and simplistic and, well, dull. I had no way of knowing, of course, that we were in the final months of Julie…
The title that I got the most issues of in my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988 was definitely ACTION COMICS. There were close to twice as many issues of this book as anything else in that long box. Which is understandable–ACTION COMICS was selling in phenomenal numbers during the early Silver Age, and these books weren’t especially prized by collectors just yet. They were simply too common, and…
Boy, it’s hard to believe that the scantily-clad woman strung up on the center of this THOR cover will one day wield the hammer herself and become the title character. But such are the ways of time and comic books. And female imperilment was a leaned-upon trope in the 1970s when it came to selling comic books to young readers, so this image didn’t bat an eye. Today, we might think twice. Still,…
I had been waiting for this issue of MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS for a good long while. Having the Olshevsky OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR, I knew that this next book would be reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR #100. And that was of special interest to me for one reason: due to nothing more than it being the centennial issue, the back issue price of the original comic had experienced a mark-up.…
This was the final issue of SUPERBOY that I got as a part of my Windfall Comics purchase of 1988, in which I bought a box of almost 150 Silver Age comics for $50.00, a huge bargain even at that time. By this point, editor Mort Weisinger’s Superman titles were beginning to run out of steam, as they were very much out of step with the culture at large, comic or otherwise. One also gets a sense that…
Around this time, the television series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA debuted on ABC, their attempt to cash in on the enormous popularity of STAR WARS with a weekly TV show in the same science fantasy vein. This was a big deal to most any kid during this time. As I mentioned earlier, my new friend David Steckel became a tremendous fan of the show. Me, though–to no great surprise, I wasn’t really into it.…
The next week brought more new comics to my local 7-11 on Thursday, which was delivery day for them back in those days. Among the new offerings was this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA. The title had stabilized a little bit after a rocky couple of months and was now in the process of pulling the long-running subplot about the Corporation, the underworld syndicate that Jack Kirby had created towards the…
