A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
Pre-CBR Reboot Join Date: 10-17-2010
Pre-CBR Reboot Posts: 4,362
THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
Like I said above, "House ad from MORE FUN 19 on sale February 1937."
Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who was a pulp writer, started National Allied, with the first comic coming out in January of 1935, called NEW FUN. The trick to Wheeler-Nicholson's comics was that they were all new material (or mostly), whereas other comics were collections of newspaper strips. National soon added a second comic called NEW COMICS. Actually the titles are nearly synonymous, since comic and fun mean the same thing--and newspaper strips were often referred to as funnies or comics interchangeably. NEW FUN was changed to MORE FUN to distinguish it from NEW COMICS.
National Allied wasn't the only corporation that Wheeler-Nicholson used for his publications. It was common in those days for comics publishers to use several different corporate identities--I'm not sure why, maybe to escape creditors. And the Major had many debts, such that he needed to be bailed out by his creditors, Harry Donenfeld (the printing plant owner) and Jack Liebowitz (the distributor), who put up the money needed to finance a third ongoing title called DETECTIVE COMICS. And that was published by Detective Comics, Inc. Donenfeld and Liebowitz forced out the Major and took over National Allied and were now the publishers of the retitled MORE FUN COMICS and NEW ADVENTURE COMICS.
The DC symbol was put on the covers of all the comics they published, even if the indicia inside the comic might have said National Allied or Detective Comics or All-American or something else.* Eventually the company was called National Comics and then National Periodical Publications before finally becoming the redundant DC Comics, Inc. in the late 1970s--redundant because you're saying "Detective Comics Comics." I always find it maddening when people say DC comics--it should just be DC, because the C is the Comics.
*Other corporate identities for DC/National include: More Fun Magazine, Inc., Nicholson Publishing Co., Superman, Inc., World's Best Company, Tilsam Publications, Jolaine Publications, J.R. Publishing, Gainlee Publishing, Wonder Woman Publishing.
I take it you don't like this trade dress then:
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A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
Pre-CBR Reboot Join Date: 10-17-2010
Pre-CBR Reboot Posts: 4,362
THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
I like the new/old DC bullet and the use of the bat symbol reminds me of the comics from circa 1971 (I didn't know INJUSTICE was a Batman title), but the "comics" seems redundant.
1970/1971:
Mind you, putting the title of the comic twice on the cover is also redundant--but I think they did this because of spinner racks and the like, where you could only see the top of the comic sticking out and you couldn't see the whole cover, so putting the title near the top made it easier to know what comic it was without pulling it out of the rack (and have the drugstore clerk breathing down your neck).
1982 ad for the he-man mini series. He-man crossed over with superman in dc comics presents #47 then showed up in back up stories in other dc titles before getting a mini series. (he was in tons of mini comics that came with the toys also) Even with all this push dc would drop he-man after this and marvel would pick it up for a 13 issue run. Marvel also did a live action movie comic and a he-man crossover with flash Gordon! (marvel had the defenders of the earth rights and had the two cross over!)
Of course dc has he-man back again so the circle is complete.
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Last edited by Gaastra; 12-03-2018 at 02:54 PM.
God, these subscription ads just kill me! $3.00 for 15 issues??!! Man, what a good time to be alive.
Here are a few more.
Wonder if that teen titan book will catch on? It's $1 for a year of comics!
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1972.
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1979. $4 for a year of batman!
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Another batman.
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You can get a free starman button? Sold!
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1992!
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Last edited by Gaastra; 12-03-2018 at 08:18 PM.
I used to look at the old subscription ads in the 1960s comics and think what a great deal that would have been if I had one of those subscriptions.
--from ADVENTURE COMICS 339 (December 1965).
But then in the 1970s I did subscribe to some of my favourite titles--which was convenient, given they came in the mail early, as I lived in Canada and was always getting my comics late when I bought them in the drugstore. However, the comic would be folded down the centre and put in a brown paper wrapper, with the top and bottom sticking out--so not only did you get a crease in your comic but sometimes the comic would be banged up. Later they switched to mailing them flat, but still with a brown wrapper--often the glue from the wrapper would stick to the comic, so I couldn't get it off without damaging the comic.
By contrast, I had to order the tabloid sized books by mail, because they were impossible to find at a store in my area, but these arrived in a crush-proof mailer--with the comics inside being in perfect condition. I still remember that sound in the morning when the mail arrived I could hear the distinctive PLOP! of a crush-proof mailer.
I also subscribed to E-MAN from Charlton, THE SPIRIT from Warren and THE AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS from DC--and these all arrived in 9x12 manilla envelopes which kept them in great condition. Also, I subscribed to the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE, which arrived in a brown paper bag, but still superior to the brown wrappers.
--in DC issues circa 1974.
Here's the 1980 ad that really changed DC Comics for good (yes, I often say "Comics"). It's for New Teen Titans, a comic that brought a lot of Marvel-only fans over to try DC.
What I've read is that Wheeler-Nicholson, who seems like a nice guy but a poor businessman, went bankrupt with his non-Detective Comics, Inc. companies, and Donenfeld and Liebowitz bought the publications More Fun Comics and Adventure Comics at the bankruptcy auction and folded them into Detective Comics, Inc.
Regarding your statement about using multiple companies, I posted this elsewhere on the boards in regard to Martin Goodman and Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics:
This is only speculation on my part, but I'd say that there was indeed a financial reason for it. I'm thinking that because comics publishing was often a risky proposition running on a hand-to-mouth existence in spite of the millions of 10-cent copies sold, it would make sense to form a different corporate entity for each title or perhaps for small groups of titles. This way, the successful titles don't have to finance the unsuccessful ones. If the title or titles from ACompany, Inc. were unsuccessful, that company could declare bankruptcy without having the funds from the successful titles published by BCompany, Inc., CCompany, Inc., etc. being attached to pay for the losses of ACompany, Inc.'s failures. In this way, it would be easier to "cut bait" on the losers and keep right on going with the winners without delays in publishing that would throw the whole company into chaos if everything were published by a single entity. This way, people's employment and the owner's finances would all be protected. I'd guess everyone was considered an employee of Magazine Management, which was the relatively financially stable corporate overlord.
I don't know how on the nose I am, but it does seem reasonable given that many comics companies were formed in the 1930s with America still in the Great Depression. You gotta protect your ass-ets.
Last edited by Comic-Reader Lad; 12-04-2018 at 04:04 AM.
Yup those brown bags were in the early 80s also. My marvel titles came in them then they replaced them with plastic bags with cheap boards. Dc did the same later. Still have a extra issue of the 90s jla in the mail bag somewhere!I also subscribed to E-MAN from Charlton, THE SPIRIT from Warren and THE AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS from DC--and these all arrived in 9x12 manilla envelopes which kept them in great condition. Also, I subscribed to the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE, which arrived in a brown paper bag, but still superior to the brown wrappers.
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"There's magic in the sound of analog audio." - CNET.
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"There's magic in the sound of analog audio." - CNET.