Forty Years ago this Month

[dan bailey]

Otherwise, going by Mike's Amazing World's monthly llstings for not only DC & Marvel but also Gold Key & Charlton, it would appear that I didn't buy a single bloody comic in May 1971, except maybe for something from Archie or Harvey (not outside the realm of possiblity at all, but at this late date all their covers blend together for me, so I probably wouldn't recognize 'em even if they were pictured, too).

Which doesn't surprise me at all. For whatever reasons, about mid-1970 my comics consumption started seriously tapering off; by 1971 it would've been close to nonexistent. Maybe the 3-cent rise in cover prices didn't sit well with me; maybe I just didn't find the early Bronze Age very appealing after cutting my teeth on the late Silver Age. I know it wasn't the usual factor -- girls -- because I only turned 11 in 9/70.

As I've noted before, though, 1970 was the first year I started buying baseball cards, & with a 50-cent weekly allowance (which I think was still my going rate at the time) I could probably serve only 1 master. I didn't start taking any real interest in comics again till late '73, in the form of the Marvel sf titles Worlds Unknown & Weird Wonder Tales.

[zilch]

The Superman, Batman and Superboy titles all look familiar, so i probably got those. I might have already gotten subscriptions for Christmas by that time, but really got into stuff a couple months later when they jumped to 25 cents.

And two months until...

The Book!

[Slam_Bradley]

I was 3 1/2 in May of '71. So I wasn't buying funny books. Looking through the offerings...I know I've read a number of them, especially the Marvel's in various Essentials collections. But the only book that stands out for me is Tomahawk #135.



It stands out solely because I know I purchased it at a garage sale at some point in the late 70s or early 80s. And I think it's the only issue of Tomahawk I ever owned.

Nice Kubert cover.

[dan bailey]

Other-otherwise, checking Mike's, I see I now own 5 of the DCs that came out in 5/71 --

*Batman #233, since even though it's a watered-down 64-pager it's still part of the 80-Page Giant numbering system (as #6-85), & of course I own all of those;

*the two Super DC Giants (thanks to my fetish for the spiritual descendants of the 80-pagers),

*DC Special #13 (see previous parenthetical note ... & besides, I'd bought & enjoyed the series' first 2 "Strange Sports Stories" issues a couple of years earlier)

*Strange Adventures #231 (I've got all the post-Deadman issues).

And, as it happens, Superboy #176 is included in the Mile High order I submitted Friday (which leaves me lacking only 5 issues from a complete run of #s 121-354, which of course includes a couple of title changes, to Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes, then The Legion of Super-Heroes & finally Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes.)

[Simon Garth]

It's a bit of an educated guess, but in late May 1971, just 25 short months before I rediscovered Marvel comics through Spider-Man Comics Weekly #22, I would probably have bought this:

[edhopper]

Ed, I remember buying comics as a kid and noticing how the month published didn’t correspond with the actual month that I was buying the comic. I can’t recall how many months the difference was or if it preceded the buying date. I wonder how long that lasted, or if it still happens today?

It was done so that the comics would stay on the newsstands longer. Not as important with direct sales today.

[TAG]

Looking at that Mike's Amazing World site, it seemed like there was a definite horror theme running through many of the DC books that month. Wonder Girl became a witch, Supergirl met a ghost, Wonder Woman went to a haunted house, Hawk met a ghost and Batman fought a witch or something. Interesting, I wonder if it was a coordinated storyline or just a coincidence because the horror theme was hot?

Shawn, great pickup! It can't be a coincidence. I wondered what prompted the horror theme. Were horror comics big during that time period?

[MWGallaher]

Shawn, great pickup! It can't be a coincidence. I wondered what prompted the horror theme. Were horror comics big during that time period?

DC's "mystery" titles reportedly outsold much of their superhero line then, so a lot of the covers of the superhero titles tried to emulate the look of their spooky sister publications. And superheroes, both at DC and Marvel, started encountering more and more monsters. As we'll see in a short while, if this topic gets updated every month, it was a "Hero vs. Monster" comic that hooked me on the comics habit, so I can vouch for the effectiveness of the strategy.

[Scott Harris]

According to Mike's, this was on sale in May, 1971 even though it has a cover date of August. My pick:




I love this era of OFF thanks to the logo experimentation by Kubert; during this extended stretch, rather than a regular logo, he would work a custom logo into each different cover. Plus this is a classic 70's DC war cover, with the old setup where we the reader see the Nazis lying in wait but the heroes are oblivious to the trap they are about to walk into. But mainly I just love the graphic design elements.

[inferno]

It was done so that the comics would stay on the newsstands longer. Not as important with direct sales today.

Ed, I remember buying comics as a kid and noticing how the month published didn’t correspond with the actual month that I was buying the comic. I can’t recall how many months the difference was or if it preceded the buying date. I wonder how long that lasted, or if it still happens today?

I want to point out that the May books came out several months before May. So if we want to be accurate to what we bought that month. We should be looking at July or August dated books.

I'm pretty sure it's still in effect. I can't quote specifics, especially since (a) my comics are at home & (b) covers these days tend to omit month & year, but I'd bet Cei-U!'s money (my own is too precious, of course) that a comic coming out, say, this week will be indicia-dated August or September.

Today, there's a two-month difference. Books hitting the LCSes this week will be dated July 2011. I think there would have generally been a two-month difference back then b/w the cover date and the newsstand date.

When I was actively collecting as a kid, Marvel had stretched their dates so far that there was a FOUR-MONTH differential, and they rebooted by putting dating four consecutively monthly issues as "nov" "late nov" "dec" "late dec" so that they were only two months behind again. Note also at this time, comics were widely available at both LCS and newsstands, but newstands/drugstores got the books two weeks later.... good chance to snag issues you missed at the LCS.

So the point is I'm guessing forty years ago this month, books dated May 1971 were dwindling and/or being returned while books dated August 1971 were hitting the stands.

[pakehafulla]

I'm pretty sure it's still in effect. I can't quote specifics, especially since (a) my comics are at home & (b) covers these days tend to omit month & year, but I'd bet Cei-U!'s money (my own is too precious, of course) that a comic coming out, say, this week will be indicia-dated August or September.

What the heck are you guys on about. Of course comics come out at the same time as the cover date.

They always did when I started collecting, and it was years before I realised it was only because they spent months getting here on a boat.

O the joys of living on the bottom of the world.

[inferno]

http://www.google.com/search?q="may+...e%3Acomics.org

http://www.google.com/search?q="may+...e%3Acomics.org

http://www.google.com/search?q="augu...e%3Acomics.org

[inferno]

I don't think I've read anything cover-dated this month. Not that I can identify or think f. Apparently the Spider-Man drug issues began dated May 1971, but I don't think I've read them.

The Harlan Ellison plot sounds interesting!

[TAG]

DC's "mystery" titles reportedly outsold much of their superhero line then, so a lot of the covers of the superhero titles tried to emulate the look of their spooky sister publications. And superheroes, both at DC and Marvel, started encountering more and more monsters. As we'll see in a short while, if this topic gets updated every month, it was a "Hero vs. Monster" comic that hooked me on the comics habit, so I can vouch for the effectiveness of the strategy.

Thanks. Mystery solved.

According to Mike's, this was on sale in May, 1971 even though it has a cover date of August. My pick:
I love this era of OFF thanks to the logo experimentation by Kubert; during this extended stretch, rather than a regular logo, he would work a custom logo into each different cover. Plus this is a classic 70's DC war cover, with the old setup where we the reader see the Nazis lying in wait but the heroes are oblivious to the trap they are about to walk into. But mainly I just love the graphic design elements.

Scott, that logo experimentation is pretty cool. Did Kubert have a background in graphic design? Did you ever notice that artists who have a background in graphic design always make great cover artist.

To be consistent, should we go with the cover date or the date the comic was on sale?

[zilch]

you guys posted two of my fave comics series (OFF and Son of Tomahawk)!

My brother was a big WWII nut so we compromised and got OFF as one of our subscriptions for Christmas, so i probably got this comic in the mail.

And Tomahawk was one of the first comics i remember reading (#117).