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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 4, 2018 11:06:40 GMT -5
JLA was part one of the annual JLA/JSA crossover, with some of DC's historical characters brought in, by the Lord of Time. You get Jon, the Viking Prince; Miss Liberty, Jonah Hex, the Black Pirate and Enemy Ace. This was also right after the Earth-2 Batman had died, in the pages of Adventure Comics; so, Huntress, aka Helena Wayne, was dealing with the grief over the death of her father, while seeing her "uncle" Bruce, the Earth-1 Batman. The death of Earth-2 Batman was in Adventure Comics #462, cover-dated March/April 1979. Justice League #159 was cover-dated October 1978, almost 6 months prior. The scene you're thinking of happened in the next year's JLA/JSA crossover. Which is where Mr. Terrific was killed... 1979 was not a good year for Earth-2 superheroes. Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case, after I wrote it. I did not care for the Lord of Time as the puppet master of this; the guy was a weak Kang imitation and I'm not that fond of Kang. Other than that, this was a great crossover.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 5, 2018 8:40:23 GMT -5
July 1978 Amazing Spider-Man 185 Avengers 176 Defenders 63, 64 Devil dinosaur 7 FF 199 FF annual 13 Godzilla 15 Iron Man 115 JLA 159 John Carter 19, 17 Marvel Premiere 44 Marvel Preview 15 MTU 74 MS Marvel 20 PM/IF 53 Spiderwoman 7 Star Hunters 7 Star Wars 16 Steel 5 Warlord 15 What If 11 X-Men 114
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2018 11:34:30 GMT -5
More Whitmans, for me. DC was just starting to turn things around, with the Jenette Kahn leadership and many titles were starting to get interesting. Adventure wrapped up the Gerry Conway Return of the New Gods, with the final Bronze Age chapter coming a little further down the road, with the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover. Speaking of the JLA/JSA, JLA 60 concludes the Lord of Time story, where the combined groups face Enemy Ace, Viking Prince, Jonah Hex, Black Pirate and Miss Liberty. Superboy & the Legion sees the finale of the Khund War, with Mordru along for the ride. This was part of a nice run, with Joe Staton on the title. Staton had nice handle on both the superheroics and the futuristic look and technology. Star Wars features a tale of younger Luke Skywalker, as he races his space hopper through Beggar's Canyon, and helps fend off a sand people attack. Bless Whitman for their three-packs, as those of us without regular newsstands could find comics. As I recall, they weren't much behind regular distribution.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 1, 2018 16:15:28 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, I remember that issue of Star Wars - I rather liked the story, although I have no idea how well it holds up. Otherwise, though, I was still getting a bunch of DCs at this point thanks to the Whitman 3-packs, too. The initial issues of DC Comics Presents, with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN), were a particular treat. And I loved Adventure's dollar comic phase.
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zilch
Full Member
Posts: 238
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Post by zilch on Aug 1, 2018 21:12:20 GMT -5
Adventure Comics 460 (anthology goodness!!!) Fantastic Four 200 (wrap up to a great series of stories!) Green Lantern 110 (Golden Age GL backup!!!) Hulk 229 Iron Man 116 Justice League of America 160 (JSA team-up!!!) Nova 25 (with a retro '50s hero!) Superman 328 (Mr and Mrs Superman backup!!!)
...and subscription books... Avengers 177 (wrapping up the Korvac story... finally...) Defenders 65 Invaders 34 X-Men 115 (the creative team is firing on all cylinders! )
-z
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Post by brutalis on Aug 2, 2018 7:54:32 GMT -5
August 1978 starting up Sophomore year in high school and a young comic book buying fool with all the convenience stores surrounding the school which meant many a day surviving off french fries and a shake while spending the majority of lunch money and summer yard work savings: biggest thrills at this time being Fantastic Four 200 with Reed/Doom going at it, the Kiss Marvel Super Special and X-Men 115.
Amazing Spider-Man 1186 Avengers 177 Batman 305 Capt America 227 Capt Marvel 59 Daredevil 155 DC Comics Presents 3 Defenders 65 Devil Dinosaur 8 FF 200 Godzilla 16 Invaders 34 Iron Man 116 John Carter 18 Machine Man 8 Marvel Super Special Kiss MTU 75 MTIO 45 MOKF 70 Nova 22 Spectacular Spider-Man 24 Spiderwoman 8 Star Wars 17 Superboy and LOSH 245 X-Men 115
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 7, 2018 12:54:13 GMT -5
The death of Earth-2 Batman was in Adventure Comics #462, cover-dated March/April 1979. Justice League #159 was cover-dated October 1978, almost 6 months prior. The scene you're thinking of happened in the next year's JLA/JSA crossover. Which is where Mr. Terrific was killed... 1979 was not a good year for Earth-2 superheroes. Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case, after I wrote it. I did not care for the Lord of Time as the puppet master of this; the guy was a weak Kang imitation and I'm not that fond of Kang. Other than that, this was a great crossover. Hey, that's the first issue of the JLA I ever bought! I was so shocked when the JLA got beaten by these guys I've never heard of. Hey, I was only 9 years old at the time.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 7, 2018 13:00:36 GMT -5
What a great month to be a comic collector. I was still buying comics at the local Convenient Food Mart, not knowing about the comic book shop yet. These are the only ones I picked up at the newsstand Avengers #177 Fantastic Four #200 Justice League of America #160 Star Wars #17 Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #245 I got these later as back issues Incredible Hulk #229 Master of Kung Fu #70 X-Men #115 I have most of the Machine Man issues, but not the one from this month.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 7, 2018 13:09:14 GMT -5
I wasn't a regular buyer until 1979. I did buy a Brave & Bold with Green Arrow new off a spinner-rack around this time in 1978, and not that long after I got Batman #300 from a kid at school in a trade. The next DCs I bought were in 1980, a Flash and Batman which I then bought every now and then. I'm extremely nostalgic for all '70s comics!
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Post by comicsandwho on Aug 7, 2018 13:33:44 GMT -5
The death of Earth-2 Batman was in Adventure Comics #462, cover-dated March/April 1979. Justice League #159 was cover-dated October 1978, almost 6 months prior. The scene you're thinking of happened in the next year's JLA/JSA crossover. Which is where Mr. Terrific was killed... 1979 was not a good year for Earth-2 superheroes. Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case, after I wrote it. I did not care for the Lord of Time as the puppet master of this; the guy was a weak Kang imitation and I'm not that fond of Kang. Other than that, this was a great crossover. This is the second meeting of the Huntress and the Earth-1 Batman. The first occurred in an issue of BATMAN FAMILY, in which all the stories intersected, with the Huntress eventually teaming up with Batgirl and Batwoman, following an emotional introduction to 'Uncle Bruce' and the younger Earth-1 versions of Robin and Alfred.
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Post by comicsandwho on Aug 7, 2018 14:04:17 GMT -5
More Whitmans, for me. DC was just starting to turn things around, with the Jenette Kahn leadership and many titles were starting to get interesting. Adventure wrapped up the Gerry Conway Return of the New Gods, with the final Bronze Age chapter coming a little further down the road, with the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover. Speaking of the JLA/JSA, JLA 60 concludes the Lord of Time story, where the combined groups face Enemy Ace, Viking Prince, Jonah Hex, Black Pirate and Miss Liberty. Superboy & the Legion sees the finale of the Khund War, with Mordru along for the ride. This was part of a nice run, with Joe Staton on the title. Staton had nice handle on both the superheroics and the futuristic look and technology. Star Wars features a tale of younger Luke Skywalker, as he races his space hopper through Beggar's Canyon, and helps fend off a sand people attack. Bless Whitman for their three-packs, as those of us without regular newsstands could find comics. As I recall, they weren't much behind regular distribution. I had everything here except the STAR WARS issue. Like yours, they came from Whitman packs, and I was only 4 years old at the time! I just have vague memories of being with my mom in either drug stores or department stores in nearby towns(those were the only kinds of stores that carried the comic packs, and my hometown didn't have any stores like that(just a Woolworth, that only had DC Dollar Comics and 'Modern Comics' Charlton reprints; I didn't discover 'spinner racks' for another year or so). I seem to recall you're right about the Whitman editions coming out roughly the same time as the newsstand ones; I remember the 'house ads' in the comics were always current(the only one that ever threw me off was when DC did the 'Famous First Edition' of 'Superman' # 1, which included all the ads from the original...and, as a result I wanted to go to K-Mart and get Action Comics # 14!) DCCP # 3 was a great story, and, while I had the 'Superboy and the Legion' shown here, and the previous issue, I just wasn't interested in that title. The Action Comics story was the start of a three-parter: After 'almost 30' years, the light from Krypton's explosion reaches Earth, and, in the cliffhanger, Brainiac traps Superman(who has been pushing himself to 'keep busy' and do anything to avoid all the hype about 'watching the light show' from Metropolis) to force him to watch it from 'close up', magnetized to the outside of Brainiac's ship. Superman's eyes are temporarily damaged, and, coupled with the psychological impact of 'reliving the trauma', he spends the next two issues 'acting out' a bit, before things return to normal. I somehow missed the previous issues of 'Superman' and 'Justice League' at the time, but when I finally tracked down both, they also turned out to be excellent stories. I have an odd memory associated with this month, of reading the JLA issue while hearing a lot of construction noises outside(a nearby street was being expanded, with several houses being built, and so plenty of bulldozers going all afternoon for a while that summer.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 7, 2018 23:05:13 GMT -5
More Whitmans, for me. DC was just starting to turn things around, with the Jenette Kahn leadership and many titles were starting to get interesting. Adventure wrapped up the Gerry Conway Return of the New Gods, with the final Bronze Age chapter coming a little further down the road, with the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover. Speaking of the JLA/JSA, JLA 60 concludes the Lord of Time story, where the combined groups face Enemy Ace, Viking Prince, Jonah Hex, Black Pirate and Miss Liberty. Superboy & the Legion sees the finale of the Khund War, with Mordru along for the ride. This was part of a nice run, with Joe Staton on the title. Staton had nice handle on both the superheroics and the futuristic look and technology. Star Wars features a tale of younger Luke Skywalker, as he races his space hopper through Beggar's Canyon, and helps fend off a sand people attack. Bless Whitman for their three-packs, as those of us without regular newsstands could find comics. As I recall, they weren't much behind regular distribution. I had everything here except the STAR WARS issue. Like yours, they came from Whitman packs, and I was only 4 years old at the time! I just have vague memories of being with my mom in either drug stores or department stores in nearby towns(those were the only kinds of stores that carried the comic packs, and my hometown didn't have any stores like that(just a Woolworth, that only had DC Dollar Comics and 'Modern Comics' Charlton reprints; I didn't discover 'spinner racks' for another year or so). I seem to recall you're right about the Whitman editions coming out roughly the same time as the newsstand ones; I remember the 'house ads' in the comics were always current(the only one that ever threw me off was when DC did the 'Famous First Edition' of 'Superman' # 1, which included all the ads from the original...and, as a result I wanted to go to K-Mart and get Action Comics # 14!) DCCP # 3 was a great story, and, while I had the 'Superboy and the Legion' shown here, and the previous issue, I just wasn't interested in that title. The Action Comics story was the start of a three-parter: After 'almost 30' years, the light from Krypton's explosion reaches Earth, and, in the cliffhanger, Brainiac traps Superman(who has been pushing himself to 'keep busy' and do anything to avoid all the hype about 'watching the light show' from Metropolis) to force him to watch it from 'close up', magnetized to the outside of Brainiac's ship. Superman's eyes are temporarily damaged, and, coupled with the psychological impact of 'reliving the trauma', he spends the next two issues 'acting out' a bit, before things return to normal. I somehow missed the previous issues of 'Superman' and 'Justice League' at the time, but when I finally tracked down both, they also turned out to be excellent stories. I have an odd memory associated with this month, of reading the JLA issue while hearing a lot of construction noises outside(a nearby street was being expanded, with several houses being built, and so plenty of bulldozers going all afternoon for a while that summer. Mark Evanier, in a column, wrote a bit about them and quoted Paul Levitz that Whitman was a big deal for DC, as they were taking in the neighborhood of 50, 000 copies of titles for sale in the 3-packs. These were sold non-returnable, so that was a big deal for sales; though some of it was offset by unscrupulous retailers breaking open packs and returning the covers for credit., though I think that was more the earlier DC program, not the Whitman one, as the Whitman comics had their logo, in place of the DC bullet (and a blank UPC box on Marvel books). Western/Whitman also distributed some of the Treasury editions to retailers, with Whitman logos, including Superman vs Muhammad Ali and Marvel's Battlestar Galactica book.
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Post by comicsandwho on Aug 8, 2018 13:17:00 GMT -5
I'm a regular reader of Evanier's column, and that history of Western Publishing was one of the more extensive (and often repeated) one's he's done. I remember seeing some house ads in the comics mentioning 'Gold Key', and wondering what that meant, since the covers of my copies weree Whitmans, and the indicia only said 'Western'. To paraphrase Vinnie Barbarino, 'I wuz SO CON-FUUUUUSED!' I wonder if the Whitman DC editions were faced out gradually, and regionally? I've seen lists of 'variant' editions that were published on and off into 1980, with the latest I can find being August cover date, on sale in May. (The following month, DC raised its price to 50 cents, and increased story-page count from 17 to 25). There were some gaps earlier in '80 where it didn't appear that there were any Whitman editions. But in my experience, in the S.F. Bay Area, the DCs just sort of disappeared from shelves of department and drug stores around the summer of 1979(although a few stores I remember that only sold Gold Key/Whitman bagged comics were still selling them after that). I can also remember that, as I was going on 6 years old at the time, it took a while before my parents figured out that 7-11 had comics(unwrapped, 'one at a time', on racks...a weird concept to me back then! But, there were a few months before that 'discovery' where the only DC comics available were Dollar Comics, tabloids and digests, which were sold at supermarkets...unlike the regular-sized comics.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 8, 2018 13:24:25 GMT -5
Amazing Spider-Man 186
Captain America 227
Green Lantern 110
I also picked up FF 200 and Flash 267 at yard sales some time after the fact.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 8, 2018 19:09:38 GMT -5
I'm a regular reader of Evanier's column, and that history of Western Publishing was one of the more extensive (and often repeated) one's he's done. I remember seeing some house ads in the comics mentioning 'Gold Key', and wondering what that meant, since the covers of my copies weree Whitmans, and the indicia only said 'Western'. To paraphrase Vinnie Barbarino, 'I wuz SO CON-FUUUUUSED!' I wonder if the Whitman DC editions were faced out gradually, and regionally? I've seen lists of 'variant' editions that were published on and off into 1980, with the latest I can find being August cover date, on sale in May. (The following month, DC raised its price to 50 cents, and increased story-page count from 17 to 25). There were some gaps earlier in '80 where it didn't appear that there were any Whitman editions. But in my experience, in the S.F. Bay Area, the DCs just sort of disappeared from shelves of department and drug stores around the summer of 1979(although a few stores I remember that only sold Gold Key/Whitman bagged comics were still selling them after that). I can also remember that, as I was going on 6 years old at the time, it took a while before my parents figured out that 7-11 had comics(unwrapped, 'one at a time', on racks...a weird concept to me back then! But, there were a few months before that 'discovery' where the only DC comics available were Dollar Comics, tabloids and digests, which were sold at supermarkets...unlike the regular-sized comics. I covered Western in my Other Guys review thread (Evanier was a great resource). They were almost exclusively selling via the bags, by 1981 and I think it was just their stuff, as DC started testing the waters of the growing direct Market system (as was Marvel) with titles exclusively for it. Western ceased publishing in 1984. Most of their sales had been to discount retailers and department stores, for their toy departments and they never really made great inroads with the comic shops as they were resistant to the bas, because of duplicated titles across sets and an overall resistance to things that weren't DC and Marvel (apart from some of the early independent material). Harvey and Archie had similar problems, as their traditional outlets were disappearing and the comic shops wouldn't touch them.
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