On sale October 1973

[Jim Kelly]

Look at the variety of titles we used to get:

ACTION COMICS 431--featuring Superman and Green Arrow
ADVENTURE COMICS 431--starring the Spectre
BATMAN 254--a 100 Page Super-Spectacular, with a new Batman/Man-Bat clash, the latest Robin adventure--and reprints from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s
THE DEMON 16--by Jack Kirby
THE FLASH 225--guest-starring Green Lantern and guest rogue the Reverse Flash
G.I. COMBAT 168--featuring the Haunted Tank
GHOSTS 22
THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY 221--hosted by Cain
THE HOUSE OF SECRETS 115--hosted by Abel
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 109
KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 13--by Jack Kirby
OUR ARMY AT WAR 264--starring Sgt. Rock and Easy Company
PLOP! 3--the new magazine of weird humour hosted by Cain, Abel and Eve
RUDOLPH, THE RED-NOSED REINDEER C-24--tabloid sized edition
SECRET ORIGINS 6--reprinting the Legion of Super-Heroes and Blackhawk
SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE 16
SHAZAM! 9--Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr.
STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES 177--starring the Unknown Soldier
STRANGE SPORTS STORIES 3
SUPERBOY 200--starring the Legion of Super-Heroes at the Wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel
SUPERMAN 271
SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 136--guest starring Wonder Woman
SWAMP THING 8--by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson
Edgar Rice Burroughs' TARZAN 227--by Joe Kubert
THE UNEXPECTED 154
WEIRD WAR TALES 21
WEIRD WESTERN TALES 21--starring Jonah Hex by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga
WEIRD WORLDS 9--presents Iron Wolf by Howard Chaykin
THE WITCHING HOUR 38--a 100 Page Super-Spectacular, hosted by the Three Witches
WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 221--featuring a Super-Sons team-up
YOUNG ROMANCE 197--a 100 Page Super-Spectacular

[NeathBlue]

About 3 years before I started buying, though I managed to get quite a few of them soon after.
A great time for DC Comics, a great variety of comics and at a time when continuity wasn’t being moaned about whenever something occurred.

[caj]

I also had not started reading super hero comics yet. But I now own JLofA 109 and Superboy 200.

What an amazing time that was in comics.

[j9ac9k]

Wha --?? Only one Batman title??

[Jim Kelly]

Wha --?? Only one Batman title??

Three if you count WORLD'S FINEST COMICS and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (and I do). At this moment in time BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS became bi-monthly, so they alternated each month. And this was the very beginning of the experiment with the 100-Page Super Spectacular format for ongoing titles. Beginning with this month--issue 254--BATMAN would be in that format from then onward (until the experiment ended). DETECTIVE COMICS, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and WORLD'S FINEST COMICS would join it in that format. So one month there would be three Super-Specs with Batman in them and the other month two Super-Specs.

Batman wasn't as popular as he had been in 1967--or as he would become later. The high quality writing and artwork didn't pay off in sales. However, with all those Batman reprints, one was still getting a fair amount of Darknight Detective content.

The Reindeer's book was the second tabloid for Rudy. There had also been tabloids for House of Mystery, Tarzan and Shazam! before this. Batman would get two tabloids in 1974--a collection of spine-tingling stories and the facsimile reprint of DETECTIVE COMICS 27.

[Thor-Ul]

Wha --?? Only one Batman title??

Outrageous!!!

[Noodle]

Wasn't this only a few years before the DC Implosion that cancelled a bunch of books?

[Jim Kelly]

Wasn't this only a few years before the DC Implosion that cancelled a bunch of books?

During those few years a lot had happened in the comics industry.

In 1972, the Kinney National Company (which had acquired National Periodical Publications and Warner Bros. Studios) changed its name to Warner Communications, for legal reasons.

National Periodicals continued to fall in sales against the Cadence Industries' Marvel Comics. Their publisher Martin Goodman had left on bad terms and would go on to create his new comic book company--Atlas Seaboard.

National's publisher, Carmine Infantino, was looking for ways to increase their market share. By putting out the 100-Page Super Spectaculars priced at 60 cents and the tabloid sized editions priced at a dollar, this made those publications more attractive to retailers, who would give them better display--because the mark-up on a 60 cent comic is greater than on a 20 cent comic.

As well, because these publications had so many reprints, they didn't need to pay any creators for that content (creator rights not being a thing yet).

Marvel followed suit with its own Giant-Size comics and tabloid sized editions.

Another thing that Infantino did was go the Philippines with Joe Orlando where they made a deal with Filipino artists to work for National. These artists were talented, prolific and worked for less money.

In 1975, Warner announced the production of a new Superman movie. This brought attention in the press to the plight of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. People like Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson campaigned for better creator rights. To make this go away, Warner gave Siegel and Shuster a modest stipend and the creators' names were returned to every Superman publication and product (something that had been held back for decades).

As 1975 drew to a close, Infantino was brought into the head office. We don't know what happened there--either he was fired or he quit--but when Carmine left the building, he refused to ever return again (and never did).

In his place, Warner hired Jenette Kahn, who had been the publisher of children's magazines. Neal Adams, a good friend of hers, convinced her to offer creators better deals for their work. Now called "DC Comics, Inc." (detective comics comics, incorporated), one of the things that Kahn did was to launch the Dollar Comics--for the same reason as Infantino had launched higher priced comics before--because the retailers would give them better display.

The comic book company was put under the control of the Warner Books division.

The new Superman movie was due to come out in the summer of 1978. In anticipation of that, the publisher announced the "DC Explosion" with more titles on the schedule. However, the movie was delayed in post-production and was now going to come out in December of 1978.

In the winter of 1977-1978, there was a snow storm in the east, which prevented trucks from delivering comics to the stores and prevented consumers from getting to the stores. This showed up as a huge drop on the sales records.

Looking at the accounts, Warner Books saw the drop in sales and ordered a stop to the "Explosion" and demanded that many titles should be cancelled immediately. One of those books they wanted to cancel was DETECTIVE COMICS, but the comic book staff were able to get around that by folding the better selling BATMAN FAMILY into DETECTIVE COMICS.

[Digifiend]

If the drop in sales was caused by bad weather, the accountants were idiots. They would've bounced back in a couple of months!

[Digifiend]

Three if you count WORLD'S FINEST COMICS and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (and I do). At this moment in time BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS became bi-monthly, so they alternated each month.

Same for Wonder Woman and Green Lantern? They're not in the list in the first post.

[Jim Kelly]

Same for Wonder Woman and Green Lantern? They're not in the list in the first post.

Yes, WONDER WOMAN was a bi-monthly and had been for a long time (1967 - 1976), so it was in the other month. But GREEN LANTERN was cancelled in 1972, which is why he's guest-starring in THE FLASH--sometimes he'd be in the back-up feature, sometimes he'd be in a co-starring position.

[Digifiend]

Wow, GL was cancelled? I knew that was why Aquaman was absent, but I thought the only period GL had no solo book was when it was a duo book instead with Green Arrow (who I see was in Action Comics in 1973).

[Jim Kelly]

Wow, GL was cancelled? I knew that was why Aquaman was absent, but I thought the only period GL had no solo book was when it was a duo book instead with Green Arrow (who I see was in Action Comics in 1973).

Yup, one by one all the super-heroes lost their solo books in the late 1960s/early 1970s, until only Superman/boy, the Flash, Batman and Wonder Woman were left--and Diana Prince by that time wasn't really a super-hero so much (no powers, no costume). Green Arrow being brought into GREEN LANTERN was an effort to save that title--but while it won awards that didn't mean anything to Marvel-crazy comic book fans, so Hal's book was cancelled and he found shelter with his old pal Barry Allen.

The titles that were doing much better in sales were in the category of "mystery" (in other words "horror"--but that word was forbidden under the Comics Code).