The Playhour Timeline

Update 20210824: I recently discovered that, contrary to my long-held belief that there was no merger of the Playhour and Jack and Jill comics, there was a merger of the Playhour and Jack and Jill comics when the former absorbed the latter. I fumbled across this juicy info-nugget when I was looking for confirmation about …

Noncomics: Superman: The Man of Steel – A Which Way Book

This 1985 paperback book opens with a warning: "Do not read the pages in order. If you do, the story will make no sense at all." Ah, the noble "choose your own adventure" experience! Game-books like this were all the rage back before we had convenient interactive electronic entertainment. The book looks like a proper …

Noncomics: Spider-Man – “Bells of Doom!!”

Spider-Man: Bells of Doom!! is one of a series of audio adventures based around your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. When I was a very young kid I thought that phrase meant that he was only the Spider-Man for friendly neighbourhoods, and I always wanted to see the Spider-Man who swung around the hostile neighbourhoods. Over four …

Noncomics: X-Men – Morlock Madness

Having recently featured the first two novels based on Marvel comics -- The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal -- I decided it might be interesting to take a look at a few of the other noncomics in my collection. What is a "noncomic"? Well, that's the industry-standard term …