Inferior 5(1972)

[Red Oak Kid]

While looking at LR's birthday comics for Oct of 72 over at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics, I was surprised to see Inferior 5 #12.

I don't remember ever being aware of this 70s version. Even if I didn't see a title on the stands, I'd usually see and ad for it in another title.

And if you look for it on the GCD, you have to use the number 5 in the title. If you search for Inferior Five you only get the first 10 issues from the 60s.

I just thought it was kind of odd that DC would change the title in that way.

Am I the only one who has never heard or seen these two issues from the 70s?:confused:

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=2027

[MWGallaher]

I got both issues back then and absolutely loved 'em. They were among my most frequently reread comics of the year. I knew they were reprints, and they seemed like fairly ancient ones, despite just being 4 or 5 years old. Funny how the scale of years magnifies when you're twelve!

[Scott Shaw!]

Speaking of THE INFERIOR FIVE, coming up next week is the least-seen issue of the IF's original run:

ODDBALL COMIC # 1,143: MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2006 – Which ODDBALL COMIC cover-features Superman, Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, Plastic Man, the Atom, the Flash, Aquaman, Hawkman, the Martian Manhunter, Superboy, the Blackhawks and the Metal Men? (>Whew!< So where’s the entire Legion Of Super-Heroes?) And features an interior story that takes a scathing look at the entire editorial staff of DC Comics, circa 1968, including Mort Weisinger, Jack Schiff, Julius Schwartz, Cover Editor Carmine Infantino and even Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld? Wouldja believe -- THE INFERIOR FIVE No. 6? Plus, an epic poem in honor of the IF by teenage Mark Evanier!

Aloha,

Scott!

P.S.: I purchased those final two reprint issues off of the newsstand, and still have 'em. But I could NEVER find myself a copy of IF No. 6...until only a month or so ago! -- SS!

[MichikoS]

While looking at LR's birthday comics for Oct of 72 over at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics, I was surprised to see Inferior 5 #12.

I don't remember ever being aware of this 70s version. Even if I didn't see a title on the stands, I'd usually see and ad for it in another title.

And if you look for it on the GCD, you have to use the number 5 in the title. If you search for Inferior Five you only get the first 10 issues from the 60s.

I just thought it was kind of odd that DC would change the title in that way.

Am I the only one who has never heard or seen these two issues from the 70s?:confused:

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=2027ROK, I've never laid eyes on these two issues until now. I see from looking at Overstreet that they are reprints of the IF's original Showcase appearances. Huh. Didn't even know they existed. I can't imagine that the print runs were very high on these two, but Overstreet is silent on that matter. I think I may keep an eye peeled for these two. Thanks for the tip!
Michi

[Red Oak Kid]

I don't know if it means anything, but at Milehigh, these issues are almost as expensive as the 60s run. And they don't have much of a selection which is somewhat odd for a 70s book. However this might be because they reprint the Showcase stories which I'm sure are expensive and hard to find also.

I'm just speculating on this, but something strikes me as odd about these two issues.

Most new titles, even reprints would get at least a 3 issue tryout. I think I read that it took at least three issues before the sales came in on the first issue. So it seems like it was ended abruptly. Maybe there was a paper shortage and it had to be cut to have enough paper for the main titles.

Or....

Perhaps it was DC meeting some kind of obigation to Joe Orlando. I'm assuming he was the editor(the GCD is down at the moment). Maybe he had been promised another book to edit or something. But if Orlando was not the editor, just forget what I just wrote.

I remember a ton of house ads for the Laurel and Hardy book,The Tarzan digest and Joe Simon's titles, but I don't recall ever hearing about these. There was probably a blurb in the Direct Currents page but I don't think it was heavily promoted.

[Cei-U!]

I remember a ton of house ads for the Laurel and Hardy book,The Tarzan digest and Joe Simon's titles, but I don't recall ever hearing about these. There was probably a blurb in the Direct Currents page but I don't think it was heavily promoted.

The I5 reprint issues were featured in at least one house ad that also spotlighted three other all-reprint revivals: Doom Patrol, Metal Men and Legion of Super-Heroes. Without Overstreet in front of me, I can't say for sure but I believe none of them ran longer than two issues apiece.

Cei-U!
I summon the misty water-colored mem'ries!

[dan bailey]

When I bought an almost-complete Inferior Five lot (including the Showcase issues) off eBay a couple of years ago, I, too, was surprised to see ishes 11 & 12 existed ... but when I actually had #12 in hand, its cover rang one heckuva bell, so I can only assume that I'd at least seen it on the spinner racks back in the day.

Interesting to see Scott! identify ish 6 as "the least-seen issue of the IF's original run," as I'm pretty sure it was part of the aforementioned lot, which I believe lacked only #s 5 & 10. I had a hellacious time finding those two cheap.

After work I think I'll dig into one of my silver-age short boxes just to make sure I have #6, since every now & then I find myself missing comics I could've sworn I had (Ripley's Believe It or Not 32 & 41, I'm looking at -- or, more apropos, for -- you!).

[Red Oak Kid]

The I5 reprint issues were featured in at least one house ad that also spotlighted three other all-reprint revivals: Doom Patrol, Metal Men and Legion of Super-Heroes. Without Overstreet in front of me, I can't say for sure but I believe none of them ran longer than two issues apiece.

Cei-U!
I summon the misty water-colored mem'ries!

I remember the ads for those reprint books.

Except for the I5.

I Summon the Mental Block.

[dan bailey]

Speaking of the IF, I'm sure those of us who are reading DC's current 52 were somewhat intrigued to see one of the team show up as a pallbearer a couple of months ago ...

[T GUy]

Cei-U!


The I5 reprint issues were featured in at least one house ad that also spotlighted three other all-reprint revivals: Doom Patrol, Metal Men and Legion of Super-Heroes. Without Overstreet in front of me, I can't say for sure but I believe none of them ran longer than two issues apiece.

As the GCD is down, this from memory to aid you:

The DC all-reprint 32-page books consisted of:

Wanted! The World's Most Dangerous Villains (1-10?)
Secret Origins (1-10?)

Metal Men
Doom Patrol
Challengers of the Unknown
Inferior Five

Legion of Super-Heroes (1-4)

Trigger Twins (1)
Johnny Thunder (1-3?)

G. I. War Stories (1-4?)
Four-Star Battle Tales (1-5?)

I suspect the reasoning was:

1. Generate revenue due to the price drop from 25c to 20c
2. Combat Marvel's decision to flood newsstands with 'product,' including many reprint titles (Marvel began or re-started 25 titles in 1972, IIRR). Note DC also began several all-new books at the end of '72, at the same time as or just before this reprint rash (Weird Worlds, Weird Mystery Tales, The Shadow).

[Red Oak Kid]

Wasn't there a Boy Commandos reprint book?

[dan bailey]

Wasn't there a Boy Commandos reprint book?

Seems sort of familiar, & the following appears in Don Markstein's Toonopedia entry for the Boy Commandos -- "The next time they were seen was in the early 1970s, when DC reprinted a few of their stories, some in their own brief title and some in the back pages of Mister Miracle."

The early '70s were sort of a fallow time for me vis-a-vis comics (though not nearly as much so as, oh, '79-'04 or thereabouts), but I do remember the aforementioned ads for some of the reprint titles. Seems to me the covers in the ads appeared in black & white rather than color, for some reason.

[dan bailey]

For the moment, at least, the GCD is actually up & running. It shows 2 reprint Boy Commando ishes from mid-'73, as well as the 3 issues of Johnny Thunder, 4 of G.I. War Tales (not Stories) & 5 of Four-Star Battle Tales recalled above by T GUy.

[InfoBroker]

I do remember flipping the pages on issue 11 of this comic when it was first on the racks. They caught my eye because I did have a fondness for the I5. Saw it was reprint and put it back since I had the Showcase issues.


... it seems like it was ended abruptly. Maybe there was a paper shortage and it had to be cut to have enough paper for the main titles

I would be going the other way with this. These comics came out just as DC dropped from 52 pages to 36. They probably had a bunch of paper contracts and press time to fill.

I did do a double take when I looked at these covers for the first time in who knows how long. It looked odd (to me) to only see the banner "First In Comics" standing solo without the accompanying "Best In Comics" directly below it.

So I took a peek at Mike's Amazing (and wonderful) DC Covers website for that month. There were several that only had one banner line, looks like the ones with mastheads that needed the space. I have several of the other single banner examples (Batman, JLA, World's Finest, and Weird Worlds), so I can't quite figure why this one seems out of place to me.

go figure...

-jb the (eyes-need-examing) ib-

[InfoBroker]

Wasn't there a Boy Commandos reprint book?


Yeppers, two issues. They also did 2 or 3 issues of Johnny Thunder that I immediately plucked from the racks. But I think both of these were from 1973.

-jb the ib-

[T GUy]

ROK:

... it seems like it was ended abruptly. Maybe there was a paper shortage and it had to be cut to have enough paper for the main titles
Infobroker:

I would be going the other way with this. These comics came out just as DC dropped from 52 pages to 36. They probably had a bunch of paper contracts and press time to fill.

I suspect you're both correct: Infobroker about the genesis of these titles, and ROK on their demise.

Remember Weird Worlds, Lois Lane and Secret Origins all had a final issue about six months after their penultimate one? That was blamed on the paper shortage in the final ish of Weird Worlds.

[prince hal]

I remember a ton of house ads for the Laurel and Hardy book,The Tarzan digest and Joe Simon's titles, but I don't recall ever hearing about these. There was probably a blurb in the Direct Currents page but I don't think it was heavily promoted.

I know the Tarzan Digest came out, because I have a copy. (Maybe two, now that I think of it.)

[InfoBroker]

I really gotta read the whole thread before I go appending, I seem to be covering ground T GUy already explained.


Marvel began or re-started 25 titles in 1972, IIRR

Well just to add some fun to this, here from memory are the ones I remember.

Marvel Premiere (started with Warlock and then Dr. Strange returned here)
Warlock - new
Supernatural Tales - new
Jungle Tales - new and reprint
Combat Kelly - new and reprint
Marvel Team-up (Mainly Spidey and a guest, but there were a couple of issues that were sans the wallcrawler)
Journey Into Mystery - started out new or mainly new but reprints eventually consumed it.
Kull - resumed numbering with issue #3
Defenders (graduated to their own title after 3 appearances in Marvel Feature - Ant-man took over the space in Marvel Feature)
Luke Cage Hero For Hire
Spoof - I think this was a restart with number 2 or 3.

I think Fear was off the schedule briefly in late 1971, but came back (still a reprint) and began running new material with issue 10 featuring the Man-Thing.

Werewolf By night was given his own book opening up Marvel Spotlight for...
(Ghost Rider who was also given his own book, opening up Marvel Spotlight for, ummm, for... oh yea, Son of Satan. But I think we snuck into 1973 now)

Still no all-new X-men yet, but they did resume the reprinting.

Other reprints that resumed after a handful of months off the scedule (although some of them, while toting 1972 cover dates, were on the rack in late 1971) include Marvel Tales, Marvel's Greatest Comics, Marvel Double Feature, Marvel Super-Heroes.

Not sure about Marvel Triple Action... did it come back in 1972?

Then we come to the Westerns and for me this gets mushy real fast. I think Rawhide Kid made it back on the schedule, (but I'm not sure he was ever fully off). They also had a new western comic that came out in the summer of 1972. It was a duo that was meant to play off the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, along with Alias Smith and Jones, but I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. Kimosabe is gonna kill me, 'cause I know he really liked comic and has featured it few times on his very classy Guess the Classic Comics thread. I think Mighty Marvel Western came back in this time frame as well.

There were more... probably some that are in the "<smacks forehead> I coulda had a V8" category, but I need to take brownies out of the oven now...

-jb the (graduated from High School in 1972) ib -

[MichikoS]

Some very small corrections here. I'm surprised I caught these, actually.


Supernatural Tales - new Supernatural Thrillers; Strange Tales was restarted with Brother Voodoo the next year


It was a duo that was meant to play off the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, along with Alias Smith and Jones, but I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. The Gunhawks, Reno Jones and Kid Cassidy. Kid bites it in issue 6, so the final issue is singularly titled Gunhawk.


Michi

[InfoBroker]

Gunhawks! Yea! Thanks Mich for toggling my blank memory on that one.

And now I'm remembering Chamber of Chills and Worlds Unknown (or was it Unknown Worlds - I always get those two titles twisted) also got their start in the summer of '72.

-jb the (I'm blaming the brownies for the slurring of Thrillers to Tales) ib -

[dan bailey]

Worlds Unknown (or was it Unknown Worlds - I always get those two titles twisted) -

Worlds Unknown was the color comic, Unknown Worlds the b & w magazine.



(I'm blaming the brownies for the slurring of Thrillers to Tales) -

Ah -- those kind of brownies, eh?

[Red Oak Kid]

What about a Crazy color comic to go along with Crazy magazine? Or was that later?

And didn't they reprint Not Brand Echh! in the 70s?

[dan bailey]

What about a Crazy color comic to go along with Crazy magazine? Or was that later?

And didn't they reprint Not Brand Echh! in the 70s?

Seems like a few stories reprinted from NBE might've shown up in a like-minded, differently titled comic from the early '70s. Can't remember the name of the comic(s?) in question, though I think I've got a coverless copy somewhere that features a take-off on the movie Frogs.

[InfoBroker]

Crazy! the comic was out in 1973, and it did the reprinting of the Not Brand Echh! comics.

-jb the (confesses he checked on that one to make sure he wasn't transposing Spoof! with Crazy!) ib -

[dan bailey]

Can't remember the name of the comic(s?) in question, though I think I've got a coverless copy somewhere that features a take-off on the movie Frogs.

Ah -- I see by the GCD that Spoof #3 is the one I'm thinking of. Hadn't realized till I looked the listing up that #2 came out some 2 years after #1 ...

[InfoBroker]

And Crazy the magazine started in late 1973, and believe it or don't, the GDC doesn't seem to list that. At least not under the search "Crazy"

-jb the (Panic, Mad, Cracked, Sick, Nuts, Crazy) -ib

[Agentum]

We need some books like this again.
Something to balance the grim and grittiness:-)

I think the 60s Not Brand Echh is best yet even that it is so old.

[T GUy]

Here's the list I made the other year, which I think was done from memory and checking a price Guide (i. e. this is not definitive):

New

Tomb of Dracula
Combat Kelly
Journey Into Mystery
Luke Cage
Gunhawks
Red Wolf
Supernatural Thrillers
Worlds Unknown
Marvel Premiere
The Defenders
Werewolf by Night
Frankenstein
Doc Savage
The Cat
Night Nurse
Shanna, the She-Devil
Marvel Feature
Warlock
Marvel Team-Up



New reprint

War Is Hell
Jungle Action


SHIELD
Marvel Triple Action
Marvel Double Feature
Marvel Spectaculer
Uncanny Tales
Crazy
Chamber of Chills
Weird Wonder Tales

Revivals

Captain Marvel
Kull the Conqueror
Spoof


This list does need more work, I've just noticed - I've just had to remove Frankenstein and Western Team-Up from it:o .

I've now gone back and removed Marvel Spotlight, because I've just remembered that its first issue was Nov. '71 (but with the old box Marvel emblem on its cover rather than the banner-and-circle that came in that (cover-date) month.

[T GUy]

IB:
Crazy! the comic was out in 1973

Me: a list. Inaccuratly including Crazy.

I really gotta read the whole thread before I go appending.

[Budman]

Here's what I said about the IF on my website awhile ago:

I got into this comic book series during my Jr. High and High School years because it did what I was doing - making fun of the superheroes and pop culture I loved. I still fondly remember my character, Cider-Man, a meek student who accidentally drinks hard cider at a party and suddenly is climbing the walls and swinging from the rafters. But, back to the Inferior Five. They were an inept team of would-be do-gooders: Merry Man, thin, dour defender of justice; Awkwardman (I love that name!), super strong amphibian who falls down all the time and inadvertently breaks things; White Feather, cowardly archer; The Blimp, fat man who flies very slowly, using the gas produced from the food he eats to keep him aloft; Dumb Bunny, beautiful blonde (Hey, every team had to have one!), Wonder Woman wannabe who was said to be "stronger than an ox and almost as intelligent." The group participated in satiric, Mad magazine-type, superhero adventures, sometimes featuring spoofs of popular characters from DC's competitor (ex. Cobweb Kid, Iron Pants, a Thor who said things like, "Yumpin' Yimminy! You bane de bad one now, Loki!") At times, the book even took on an educational tone, of sorts. Issue #4 featured a fairly accurate introduction to Norse Mythology and I don't know how the kiddies would have understood issue #5 if they hadn't first read "A Tale Of Two Cities" and "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (or at least seen the movies). Today, collectors enjoy the small chuckles and smiles each issue calls forth, the fact that each issue fairly screams "'60s" and '70s," and the Good Girl Art, especially when Winslow Mortimer and Tex Blaisdell did the pencils and inks for issues #7- #10. Their Dumb Bunny in #9 is one of the prettiest characters to ever appear in a comic book. My favorite line from the series comes from a bad guy who gleefully says, "A chance to shoot a woman in the back! What villain could resist such a temptation?" I also liked the fact that the parodied Marvel heroes worked for, and lived in fear of, a comic book editor named "Stanley." Get it?

[Mark Wallace]

While looking at LR's birthday comics for Oct of 72 over at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics, I was surprised to see Inferior 5 #12.

I don't remember ever being aware of this 70s version. Even if I didn't see a title on the stands, I'd usually see and ad for it in another title.

And if you look for it on the GCD, you have to use the number 5 in the title. If you search for Inferior Five you only get the first 10 issues from the 60s.

I just thought it was kind of odd that DC would change the title in that way.

Am I the only one who has never heard or seen these two issues from the 70s?:confused:

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=2027
News to me. I loved the IF, when I was a kid. The revival must have taken place during one of my family's moves from country to country.