Marvel’s First 500th Issue!

Comic series resetting to #1 about once every six months year eighteen months or so has become a normal part of the industry in the years since I gave up comic collecting.  When I left, the issues of most major titles were still numbering in the hundreds from their original run.  Now it seems surprising if we get two consecutive years of consistent numbering on any give title.  But today is a magical day!  It’s a Throwback Thursday!  And that means we’re going to travel back to the mystical time of 1996.  Oprah’s Book Club was born.  Everyone was quoting Jerry Maguire.  The Macarena was a thing.  And, in July, Marvel had their first 500th issue with Thor #500!  Continue reading

The First Wedding I Ever Attended

It’s Throwback Thursday time again and this week I’m feeling extra nostalgic.  You see, tomorrow is my birthday (which I LOVE; I’m not a hate-your-birthday kind of guy).  I’ve actually been thinking a lot about my return to this love of comic collecting and how, as an adult, I can now experience new layers to stories I first read as a kid.  My nostalgia led me to pull some old favorites out of the closet and revisit the first wedding I ever attended – the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson! Continue reading

The Amazing Spider-Man #300 and the Rise of Venom

Since starting this blog I’ve written a lot about my return to the world of comic collecting and all the amazing experiences I’ve found on the racks of Books Galore, my local comic shop, each week.  But I’ve also (naturally) been thinking more and more about allllllll the comics I read back when I was a kid.  I’d been contemplating revisiting some of those storylines and writing about them in some context for this blog.  The other night it hit me.  The answer was right in front of me!  Our culture has given birth to the wonderfully nostalgic idea of a Throwback Thursday.  So, with it being Thursday and all, I figured I’d look back at one of my most vivid comic book memories as a kid, 1988’s The Amazing Spider-Man #300 and the VERY FIRST APPEARANCE OF VENOM! Continue reading