What is it like for old comic book fans?

[Jim Kelly]

Without looking it up, Julie Madison was the fiancee of Bruce Wayne. Her psychiatrist sent her to Transylvania for her health, where she became the thrall of two vampires, the Monk and Dala--DETECTIVE COMICS 31, 32 (September, October 1939). This two part story was written by Gardner Fox--who was an old pal of editor Vin Sullivan, and Vin gave him the job of writing Batman because the editor didn't know that Bob Kane had a ghost writer, Bill Finger. Batman shoots the undead vampires with silver bullets in the end--and I guess that releases Julie from their spell. That story also introduced the "Baterang" [sic] and the Bat-gyro. Bob Kane did the pencils, but he was inked by Sheldon Moldoff. 'TEC 31 had a memorable Batman cover, which many have paid tribute to.

A few issues after this, when Bill Finger has been restored as writer, because Bob confessed to Vin that he had a ghost writer, and after Bruce had taken in young Dick Grayson as his ward--Bruce and Dick visited Julie on the set of her new movie--because she had taken up acting and was using the screen name Portia Storm. However, Baslo Carlo, a veteran actor who was a master of disguise, began his killing spree on the set of that movie and he was dubbed Clayface. Bruce and Julie broke off their engagement. But shortly after that Bruce took up with Julie's friend Linda Page, who was a socialite from their circle that had turned to volunteering as a nurse and she disapproved of Bruce's lack of ambition.

Decades later, Julie showed up again, this time in the Dollar Comics WORLD'S FINEST COMICS (written by E. Nelson Bridwell with Kurt Schaffenberger doing the art), having since been married to a Prince and becoming herself Princess Portia--a la Grace Kelly. Without looking it up, I forget the detalils but Bruce was the exact double of her husband and had to pretend to be him (or something like that).

That's all I can remember. Also in the first run of BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, there was a special issue by Michael T. Gilbert that paid homage to the classic Batman and featured Julie Madison in the story. This might have been the hundredth issue, not sure--anyway I know it was supposed to be special.

I may have gotten a few details wrong--but I was forbidden from looking them up and had to depend on my memory. How'd I score?

[dimo1]

Being European offers a much wider variety of comics for me, thus periodicals like the general superhero titles put out by DC or Marvel are a nice extra, but I haver never been a huge supporter of a decade old canon. Why some 80 plus years Batman can‘t date person X because in issue 28 it was said he didn‘t makes no sense for me. These are fictional characters.
That said, for me Bendis was the final nail in the coffin, his decompressed style made me furious, pages upon pages of boring sit-com banter made comics unattractive.
On top of that event after event, restarts, climbing prices, tokenized characters and bringing in fresh creators with few to no experience at all don‘t make current year comics overly attractive.

Though in all fairness, in each period there were tons of stinkers and a few shining gems, we just tend to erase bad memories.

[caj]

I started reading DC comic books in the 70s. The late 70s, 80s, and early 90s are definitely my favorite periods.

I can count on one hand the number of comic books I have bought since Justice ended in 2007. I'm just not interested in re-creating the wheel every other year.

[Paul Newell]

Been reading since the early 70's and I don't feel much has changed. More hype about events but that's about it. The main difference is in the choice of genres you would read. Back then you wouldn't just read super-hero stuff but also funny animal stuff, Archie, war, sci-fi....Whatever you could get your hands on. Here, in Australia you used to read black & white local reprints of US comics....Australia started importing the real thing again in the early 60's, but depending on where you lived, it was not likely you could get your hands on them. Didn't see my first colour DC until about 1976/77....Marvel until early 80's. The biggest success story here was The Phantom, a title still being published today.

TBH I think fandom has changed more than the comics themselves, in some ways...

[DrNewGod]

Been reading since the early 70's and I don't feel much has changed. More hype about events but that's about it. The main difference is in the choice of genres you would read. Back then you wouldn't just read super-hero stuff but also funny animal stuff, Archie, war, sci-fi....Whatever you could get your hands on. Here, in Australia you used to read black & white local reprints of US comics....Australia started importing the real thing again in the early 60's, but depending on where you lived, it was not likely you could get your hands on them. Didn't see my first colour DC until about 1976/77....Marvel until early 80's. The biggest success story here was The Phantom, a title still being published today.

TBH I think fandom has changed more than the comics themselves, in some ways...

Paul makes some really great points!

I used to love DC's horror line. Weird Western Tales, Weird War Tales, etc. One of my faves was about a fighter pilot who went up without his good luck charm, his buddy gets killed, and he discovers the buddy put his own good luck charm in the protagonists plane. In some ways, we didn't need indie publishers back then, because Marvel and DC were covering all the bases.

I also think you're right about fans. Once upon a time, we bought stories, now it seems that we buy brands.

[Paul Newell]

Paul makes some really great points!

I used to love DC's horror line. Weird Western Tales, Weird War Tales, etc. One of my faves was about a fighter pilot who went up without his good luck charm, his buddy gets killed, and he discovers the buddy put his own good luck charm in the protagonists plane. In some ways, we didn't need indie publishers back then, because Marvel and DC were covering all the bases.

I also think you're right about fans. Once upon a time, we bought stories, now it seems that we buy brands.

Brands, that's it exactly. We bought stories.....And we also shared the stories.

Swapping comics with friends was a major way to follow several titles and catch up on what was happening with characters or finding back issues.

[Restingvoice]

Speaking of brand and variety, the better thing about New 52 is its variety. I really like that the initial lineup has horror genre, war, and espionage, then, later on, they introduce politic in Prez.

The problem is... if the New 52's goal is to attract a new reader, what new reader seek from DC is the superheroes. If they never got to chance to pick up Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman before, those are the ones they will pick up now that there's a number #1 and it's advertised as no continuity.

That doesn't mean new readers may not be interested in the other titles, I personally was very interested in Demon Knights and I Vampire, but that's not what DC's known for these days, and I too, sought the main heroes first before I pick up the other titles, especially knowing that the stories are connected. I want the main story, and that's the Justice League guys.

So the non-superheroes titles dropped out one by one.