I didn't have access to the originals, but we had translated versions of some of those comics at the local news outlet. 

Conan #24 is the best issue of the entire series, and I agree with you, Prince Hal... the Tarim war is the crowning achievement of any Conan series. 

Frankenstein #2 was also pretty neat. Ploog was a fantastic artist; t's unfortunate that he never seemed to stay very long on any given title. They were all stellar.

Not quite there yet, but we are getting closer to when I start seeing comics beyond Super Goof, Uncle Scrooge and the Beagle Boys, thanks to a neighbor.

Here’s what I bought off the stands in January, 1973, as I was approaching my 13th birthday:

100-Page Super Spectacular DC-15 (DC) DC’s Super-Specs, at least the superhero ones, were irresistible to me. I’d moved past Superboy, but the opportunity to sample so many of DC’s youthful heroes over the decades had me eagerly giving up 2 quarters. Surprisingly, the Boy Commandos had proven to be favorites, even though they weren’t superheroes.

Astonishing Tales #17 (Marvel): For some strange reason, I had become a Ka-Zar fan, and I was also fascinated by Gemini, in his Golden Age Daredevil-esque costume. I would later find out that he had debuted as a solo feature in an earlier issue, under the name “the Brothers Link”, kind of a precursor to Kirby’s Kobra series.

Brave & the Bold #106 (DC): Haney and Aparo never let me down in this era of B&B, and Two-Face, who cropped up here, would become my favorite Batman villain. That was unusual for B&B, featuring established villains from older comics.

Challengers of the Unknown #79 (DC): I was excited by DC’s reprint series, so I bought this even though I didn’t especially like the Challs…

Doom Patrol #123 (DC) …but boy, did I love the DP! This was absolutely as good as anything on the stands…except maybe B&B!

Defenders #5 (Marvel): This was my first favorite Marvel series. I had just jumped on the bandwagon along with Valkyrie in the previous issue, and I was in it for the long haul.

Crazy #2 (Marvel): I had seen some old issues of Not Brand Ecch at a friend’s house, and I was desperate to read them, so I loved getting the chance via this reprint series.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (DC): Another DC reprint, featuring one of my new favorite features. The huge roster of the Legion was a big plus to me.

Marvel Team-Up #8 (Marvel): I kept hoping for MTU to be competitive with B&B, but it just never was. I hadn’t ready any issues of The Cat, so this was my intro to her.

Mister Miracle #13 (DC): I was finally buying this every time I saw it, but it was kind of a disappointing final era going on here. 

Phantom Stranger #24 (DC): The Stranger, Cassandra, and glorious Aparo art! One of the many things I loved about this Dark Circle arc was the globe-trotting, providing Aparo with the chance to draw interesting locales, this time Rio de Janeiro.

Wanted, the World's Most Dangerous Villains #7 (DC): This would have been the first Hourman solo story I would ever read. As of this year, I’ve read and reviewed them all, but I can’t remember what I thought of this encounter with Dr. Glisten when I was 12 years old. I’d have known it wasn’t up to modern standards, but I think I enjoyed it anyway, maybe because I liked the crude but fascinating art of Bernard Baily. Little did I know I would soon be seeing new Baily art in one of my two favorite comics series. The Johnny Quick story didn’t impress me; I’ve never warmed to Mort Meskin’s art, to be honest. I wasn’t a fan of Hawkman at this time, so I doubt the Golden Age version sat any better with me.

Wonder Woman #205 (DC): Why did I continue to buy this when it was obvious that the version that had drawn me in, the Diana Prince version, was gone forever, replaced by this juvenile tripe?

Cover of the Month: Browsing them all, Aparo’s Phantom Stranger #24 still stands out as the most appealing to me.

Comic I’d Most Like to Have but Don’t: There were a lot of genres I ignored in 1973, and I think I’d pick from one of them instead of adding another superhero book to my collection. I think I’d take Li’l Kids #11, featuring Calvin, one of Marvel’s most obscure characters.

Comics I Remember Browsing on the Racks: I remember being tempted by Supernatural Thrillers with that terrific logo for REH’s The Valley of the Worm and the nice Gil Kane art. I read some of it in the drug store at Memphis’s Crosstown Theater, after my best friend and I had gone to see some kid’s movie. Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #157 got a gander, because I’ve always been a sucker for blank-faced characters like the guy on the cover. I’m pretty sure I scoped out Detective Comics #433; I remember wondering why the editor thought a lame character (literally, but that’s not how I meant it) like Jason Bard was worth wasting pages on. And I remember seeing Trigger Twins #1, but my interest in DC’s new reprint line didn’t extend to Westerns.

Total Cost: $3.00

Amazing Spider-Man #119
Captain America #160
Daredevil #98
Defenders #5
Incredible Hulk #162
Iron Man #57
Marvel Spotlight #9
Pink Panther #11
Sub-Mariner #60
Supernatual Thrillers #3

January 1973 (I wasn't alive yet, but I've acquired all of these after the fact)


Avengers #110: When I first returned to comic collecting as an adult, my first deep dives into the back issue bins were an effort to assemble every X-Men story ever printed from their first appearance up through around 1994, and I clearly remember this being one of my first acquisitions.

Defenders #5: I assembled a run up to #60 about a decade ago and still haven't read it yet! Maybe this year.

Demon #7: Klarion the frickin' Witch Boy! DC has seldom correctly tapped the sheer awesomeness of this character.

Fear #13: There are few comics I adore more than Gerber's Man-Thing.

Kamandi #4: Well...Jack Kirby on Kamandi. Maybe I love that just as much; at least the first twenty or so issues.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2: I bought this out of a dollar bin in an early effort to try out The Legion, long before I knew about the good runs and the less good runs.

Warlock #5: I loved the start of the Counter-Earth saga, but after a ton of writer changes, the whole thing had gone off the rails a bit by this point. I like it anyway.

I (years) later bought these:

January 1973:

Fear #13 - my comics reading was tapering off and there would be a couple years during which I read almost nothing, but these Gerber comics stuck in my head and this was one of the first series I looked out for when I got back into comics


February 1973:

Dracula Lives #1 - I was kind of obsessed with Dracula as a kid, after reading a slightly abridged edition of Stoker's novel a couple years earlier, and this mag was like a dream come true for me at the time. I had been intrigued by the early issues of Tomb of Dracula but it was this black and white mag that really blew my mind.

Spoof #5 - I think I enjoyed the one or two issues of this short-lived humour series at least as much as I did MAD at the time

Swamp Thing #4 - my first issue of this classic series; the Wrightson art and the atmosphere were incredible; I remember being very impressed by Wrightson's visualisation of a werewolf, like nithing I had ever seen or imagined before.


I don't see anything for March and April that I bought at the time but I know there were a few things that came later so I don't think my comics reading had yet dwindled completely to zero.