Sometimes the comic books you saw in ads but didn’t read could be as fascinating as the comics that you'd paid your dime or 12 cents to buy. They might even be more compelling, because not knowing the story behind the covers forced you into the delightful practice of using your imagination and speculating — of writing, in effect, just the way Stan Lee, Gardner Fox and John Broome did. So welcome to Just Imagine: The Colorful World of Comic Book House Ads.
June 1938: A Superman for the Underdog
On the newsstands in May 1938, browsers had their choice of Tarzan in Comics on Parade, Popeye in King Comics, daredevil aviator Captai...
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Gold Key offered kids helpful types on spying and sabotage. In 1964, television audiences watched the stylish adventures of an Ian Fleming s... -
In 1961, the Superman title had an average monthly circulation of 820,000 — second only to Disney’s Uncle Scrooge, with its 853,928 head co... -
Ah, the mysterious, looming Bat-Signal. What a fascination it held for readers. Batman’s flashy-cool accoutrements — Batmobile, Batplane, Wh...
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Paul Zuckerman wrote, "Never got a subscription to comics back then--only did much later for E-Man. It was a good bargain, though! Now, here is a way to spend an afternoon--can you identify the ISSUE that each of those panels came from? Several quickly spring to mind but a few of them would be difficult-especially the close-up of Batman and Robin in the Batmobile!"
ReplyDeleteJoseph Lenius wrote, "Ah, Dan, that very ad brings back memories! Although poor, I would try to cobble money together to get the DC subscriptions. Even young (pre-BS in Finance) me knew that saving 16.67% was a good thing! I believe the mail sub copies usually arrived about 2 weeks before the newsstand on sale dates, which was another good thing. The bad was, of course, the folded copies -- but at that point in my life that condition problem didn't bother me that much. Contra, I believe Marvel subs were like $1.75 for 12 issues, so you actually paid over 21.5% more for a Marvel sub!"
ReplyDeleteMark Emery wrote:
ReplyDeleteYep, I subscribed to The Flash and JLA in the mid 60s (the "go-go checks" era) and let them run out after a year simply because of that folding...
Harold Parker wrote:
ReplyDeleteWhomever chose the pictures for each title did a pretty good job. Captures the basic feel for each one!
Mark Raymond wrote:
ReplyDeleteFew will remember that! Afler laying flat for years - the fold did become less obvious.
Andrew Jackson Gibbons wrote:
ReplyDeleteI saw an auction a while back of a whole collection still folded in the little brown wrappers. It was kind of cool to see that
Rod Mollise wrote:
ReplyDeleteThey all did. Imagine my despair when I received my first issue (#48) of my FF subscription. FOLDED. Well, it introduced young me to the concept of "reader copies." 😹
Michael Philip Kratze wrote:
ReplyDeleteI wish they’d do something like brave and bold now. It was fun getting different pairings with each issue.
Ed Francis wrote:
ReplyDeleteWhat a line-up!
Philip Rushton wrote:
ReplyDeleteThat House of Secrets image always sent shivers down my spine!
Randy Porter wrote:
ReplyDeleteComics were viewed as disposable then, and there was no collector's market to speak of. If you want to be impressed, look at a FN or better copy of a 60-year-old comic and wonder how it even made it to this century at all. The odds were way against that happening.
Harold Parker wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love that era of DC, almost every title (or title family) had a specific weirdness theme that was followed pretty closely, but they somehow managed to get fun stories for them all!
Vincent Sartain wrote:
ReplyDeleteToday, subscriptions are no price bargain at all -- you still pay cover price per issue. But I remember the 70s when they not only did give discounts for subscriptions, but they even started mailing the stuff FLAT.
Joseph Lenius wrote:
ReplyDeleteVincent Sartain, and Charlton (at least for its Action Heroes line subs) was mailing them flat in the 1960s. King Comics would mail flat if you paid extra. In the 1960s, Marvel comics strangely cost MORE per issue for subs! I think like $1.75 for 12 issues. 😡 Meanwhile, as Dapper Dan noted, DC was doing them for a dime apiece. That was a savings of 16.667% per issue!!! 😃
Kevin McConnell wrote:
ReplyDeleteThat fold made me not renew subs that was when everything I collected had to be mint condition except the dust which was collected in my bedroom.
Raymond Lane Cross wrote:
ReplyDeleteI never considered subscriptions when I was young. Part of my love for comics included swinging the rack around and choosing some issues based on the covers. You subscriber guys can thank guys like me for making the publishers work at having great covers. 🙂
John N Swegan wrote:
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to subscribe to most of those comics back then, but you were looking at $1.20 - $2.40 per title. I sure didn't have that kind of money back when. I was lucky to have enough to buy 2 or 3 comics at a time. And there's 27 titles listed there!
Harry Hertel wrote:
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I thought we’d save money and subscribed to GL, Flash, Mystery in Space, and one other but I don’t remember which. When the first issues arrived folded, we knew it was somehow “wrong”, as we took good care of our comics. Didn’t renew them either.