Comics I bought in May 1974. My purchases were decreasing by quite a bit. But my standards were improving, as were my social life, my work schedule and my responsibilities.

Astonishing Tales 25: Deathlok debuts. Gave it a chance, but gave up on it after an issue or two more.



Conan 41: Becoming a habit buy, and though I loved Conan, the series was becoming repetitive and predictable.

Doctor Strange 2: Another title I wanted to give a chance. Liked the Brunner art, but I think I left when he did.


Master of Kung Fu 19: Liking what I saw and stayed with this title off and on for a while and then steadily for through the Fu Manchu Blows Up the Moon arc from around #43 through #50.

Savage Tales 5: A must-have for me in those days.

War is Hell 8: One of the best Sgt. Fury stories ever, and I’d never had the original.


Brave and the Bold 114: Reprints galore from one of all-time favorite titles, plus Aparo art on the lead feature. As much as I loved DC’s reprint line, I wish they’d found a better design for the front covers of B and B during this period; this design gave the cover artist little freedom and did no justice at all to either artist or cover.



Detective Comics 442: Now this is the way you design a reprint cover! One of DC’s best titles at the time, thanks to editor Archie Goodwin, spotlighting excellent artists making rare appearances (Toth in this issue) with stories tailored to their strengths. Backed up by the unique and exciting Manhunter strip and a great batch of reprints. 



Rima 3: Different, as it was not part of DC’s “Weird” title group (Western, Adventure, War, et al.). The Kubert covers were, as always, feature, never a bug.



Shadow 6: Lightning continues to strike inside the bottle. Consistently fascinating and authentic. No need for crossing over, being tied to an event, a universe, or a crisis. (That wouldn’t last forever.)

Once again, all picked up later:



That Aparo Adventure Comics cover is a total bait-and-switch. The story focuses around a male journalist, who investigates all of the weird stuff happening to criminals and ends up riding along with police detective Jim Corrigan. He is the only one depicted tied to a chair, on the splash page, but even that scene doesn't appear in the story, itself. The woman on the cover appears in two panels and the bigger one barely indicates that she had been tied up by robbers, at a toy store.

You can't judge a comic book by its bondage cover!

ps  That OMAC cover was always all kinds of creepy!

My June 1974 purchases:



The top purchase for me this month was PLANET OF THE APES #1. I'd been almost drooling with anticipation to see Marvel turn my favorite SF film series into an ongoing comic, and I was ecstatic when I finally spotted a copy on the racks in a store I almost never went to. I loved almost everything about it: the logo, the Mike Ploog art, the new storyline, the articles...I was, however, a bit cool on the George Tuska-drawn adaptation. I certainly didn't dislike Tuska, but it wasn't something I got excited about.

My every-issue Marvel purchases included:

CREATURES ON THE LOOSE #31: Even though it wasn't all that good, I was enthusiastic about Man-Wolf getting his own series, so I bought 'em all.
DEFENDERS #15: My devotion to this title had continued since #4, and it would continue to the end.
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #17: I was also faithful to the Son of Satan series, but Jim Mooney was never able to match Herb Trimpe's kick-off issues of the feature.
MARVEL TEAM-UP #25 and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #5: I loved DC's BRAVE & BOLD, so I bought Marvel's versions, despite never really liking them. I was proud of having somehow acquired the debut of Guardians of the Galaxy in an old issue of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES, so I felt like I should be the audience for their return in MTIO (and DEFENDERS), but my heart really wasn't in it.
SUB-MARINER #71: this was a milestone: the final issue, the printing of Marvel Value Stamp #100, and, unbeknownst to me, a stealth crossover with the final issue of AQUAMAN, published years earlier!
TOMB OF DRACULA #24: This had become unmissable. Always one of the most satisfying reads of the month.

I was very big on Marvel's GIANT-SIZE line, and bought as many as I could, even when I didn't follow the associated monthlies, like CONAN and MASTER OF KUNG FU. Both those were better than this month's DRACULA; I wondered why the G-S DRAC was never as good as TOD...

I was a regular purchaser of CRAZY in those early days of its run, preferring it to MAD. I don't really remember anything in this specific issue, but I'm sure the Exorcist parody had me the most excited, since I couldn't see the real movie.

I almost never had any interest in DAREDEVIL, so I'm not sure why I bought this issue. Maybe I liked the look of the Gladiator...

FRANKENSTEIN #12 seemed important enough to buy, since it brought the monster into the present day. I was disappointed...and I hated this logo a lot.

HUMAN TORCH #1 was a pretty big deal, even if it was reprints. My first chance to regularly read solo stories about the modern and Golden Age versions--it had to be great, right? Well, no, but I kind of liked it, anyway.

MARVEL TREASURY #1: It was great to get a broad sampling of some key artists from Spider-Man's past and present: Ditko, Romita, Andru and Kane all represented with good material. 

VAMPIRE TALES #6: They were hyping Lilith ever since her debut a few months back. The story was a little too adult for my comfort.

From Warren's offerings, I was already hooked on THE SPIRIT. Every single story was terrific! 

From DC's June 1974 output, I got

ADVENTURE COMICS #435: Aparo Spectre. That was enough right there.

BATMAN #258: I'd buy the Super-Spec issues even when I wasn't interested in the standard-sized installments. I loved the reprints more, but I was happy to see my favorite Batman villain, Two-Face, in this issue's new content. 

FLASH #229: This was another Super-Spec, so an easy sale to someone who was very fond of the Flash. And I could never resist an Earth-2 crossover!

JLA #113: The above applies just the same to this one. And a JSA reprint was a huge bonus!

OMAC #1: Man, did I love this from the start! Best Kirby since MISTER MIRACLE!

PLOP #7: Couldn't pass up any issue of this one!

SHAZAM! #14: This was way better as a reprint series than it was with new material.

SUPERBOY & THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #204: Superboy had been one of my gateway comics, and I'd returned to it once the Legion took the spotlight. 

SWAMP THING #12: Swampy was still a good read after the loss of Wrightson, but it was soon about to start falling apart. 

In my case, back issues were a rare purchase throughout my collecting days, so that helps me to spot what I bought back then, and yes, I kept almost everything until beginning to purge a few years ago.

If I bought a series regularly, I can be completely confident if a run was within that window and alternatively, if I bought a series only on rare occasions (like Daredevil), the few I bought stand out. Some I don't remember until I see the cover (like Vampire Tales), some I remember being very excited about (Planet of the Apes, Human Torch). Very occasionally, I'll have to wrack my brain to be sure (Giant-Size Dracula) and even more rarely, I am too unsure to list it. For my first year of collecting, everything was so new and wonderful that it all stands out, and I did a whole thread starting in August 2021 detailing my first year's worth of purchases.

Sometimes, and this is highly inconsistent, I can remember exactly where I got an issue. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to those distinct memories: sometimes it's a very special, long sought purchase, like Planet of the Apes #1, other times, it's a random book like Western Team-Up #1 (7-11 at Millington and Frayser Blvd), Giant-Size Creatures #1 (Super 7 at Overton Crossing and James Rd), Marvel Feature #4 (at Northgate Shopping Center Walgreens).

I do have a very good memory, though, and comics were a huge part of my life, and I reread them often enough to cement what I got in my brain.

Doctor Strange #4

I was still in the middle of my hiatus from buying comics so I didn't get anything at this time, but nearly a year later, in the spring of 1975, I came across a coverless copy of this comic in our neighbour's front yard across the street. Doctor Strange was one of my favourite characters from when I had still been reading comics so I took it home and was so blown away by both the story and the artwork that very soon afterwards I started buying comics again and was soon back into them even more than I had been a few years previously.

This particular comic is still one of my personal favourites and I think holds up even today as one of the greatest single issues Marvel ever published.

Then:


Action Comics was a crossover with the Flash...and the Weather Wizard...from prison! Also, Mike Grell on the Green Arrow back up (one of his earliest jobs), which also features Krypto, with amnesia. The Flash was the first issue I ever read, with Dr Alchemy, who was previously Mr Element. It was a pretty good story, with Irv Novick art; but, it was the Green Lantern back-up I recall most, as he met Aaron Burr, on a spaceship!

The Giant Size Fantastic Four featured a new story, where they (and this was when Medusa was subbing for Sue) encounter the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with Rich Buckler in full Kirby mode. The second tale was a reprint of FF#21, as the FF and Nick Fury, Agent of the CIA, take on The Hate Monger (or as we knew him, Uncle Adolf!)

The coolest was the Batman 100-pg Giant, with various Batmen as the theme. The opening story features a crossover with The Shadow, which I misread, originally, and thought the Shadow was Bruce Wayne's literal father, not literary father. There were also reprints of a story with giant and miniature Batmen, a whole Council of Batmen, who recruit a new member, a fill-in for Batman, and a double page spread of new costume ideas for Robin, one of which looked rather like the one that was used in the revivedAll-Star Comics, for the original Earth-2 Robin, that was credited to Neal Adams, if memory serves.

Later:


My cousin Steve had the Amazing Adventures and Jungle Action comics and he had most of those two storylines (the Russell Killraven run and Panther's Rage), which cemented Don McGregor as a favorite writer (despite the criticisms), and I later collected the Adventure run of both Black Orchid and The Spectre. Captain America is the lead in to Steve Rogers' debut, as Nomad, and I colelcted those, in college. Justice League, Shazam and World's Finest I saw in a house ad (with the Batman 100-pg book) and bought them when I came across them, in a shop. OMAC I found in college (again from a house ad memory) and the Spirit was while I was in the military and found a few of the Warren magazine issues.

The Thor comic is an interesting story. For the second summer in a row, I spent a week in the hospital. The previous summer, I was hit across the bridge of the nose, with a golf club and ended up with a broken nose (and an open wound, pouring out blood, for the whole gruesome detail) and spent a week, as it was repaired and they checked for any other issues. The following summer, I was in hospital for hernia repair surgery. It was discovered, during a check-up, that I had a hernia and the doctor scheduled a surgery, for when I was out of school (after consulting with my mother, since it wasn't causing immediate problems). I went in and had the surgery and one of my relatives or neighbors brought me the comic, which was the first or second Thor issue I ever saw (there was an Ulik story, but I can't recall which one to pinpoint it). Within that comic is a house ad, for a new chaacter, being introduced in The Incredible Hulk: Wolverine. So, it was my first glimpse of the ol' Canucklehead, too. Meanwhile, I had my surgery on August 8, 1974. Why can I recall the date so clearly? It was the day that Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency of the United States and Gerald R Ford was sworn in (the following day, as Nixon's resignation was effective from Noon EST, on August 9, 1974) as the only President of the United States never elected to either that office or the Vice Presidency. I had woken up, in my room, after surgery and my parents were watching tv, as Nixon made the announcement. I was groggy and asked what was going on and she told me, then I fell back to sleep.

Over in another thread someone remarked about being tired of living in "interesting times." It feels like I have always lived in them, though I suppose it is all a matter of perspective and how much you pay attention to the news of the world. The first Olympics I remember watching was in 1972, though I was young enough that I wasn't aware of the massacre until a few years later. I do remember watching Olga Korbut perform and Mark Spitz winning at least one or two of his 7 Gold Medals.

I remember being interested in those Warren Spirit magazines but never took the plunge to buy one. The colour segments really jumped out at me when I leafed through one from the stands