CSBG Archive
Scott’s Classic Comics Corner: Multiple Personality Disorder Titles Pt.3 – Adventure Comics in the 70s
Ok – I’m only taking a quick look at a dozen or so years worth of Adventure Comics. Anything more than that would be exhausting. Here a quick look at the revolving door that was Adventure Comics in the 70s (and just a sliver of the 80s).
I’ve never really understood why the Legion was dumped from Adventure Comics (and wound up as a back-up in Action Comics), but this allowed for Supergirl to get her first real shot at solo fame. During this stretch, you get some wonderful Bob Oksner and Mike Sekowsky artwork and lots of great back-ups in the ‘Giant’ issues, most notably Len Wein and Gray Morrow’s Zatanna and a Black Canary story with Alex Toth art. I guess things worked well, as Supergirl was awarded her own series and Adventure Comics morphed into a true adventure anthology title. This may be the most interesting stretch of the entire series, as you get art by Gil Kane and Alex Toth, Alex Nino’s Captain Fear and a rare Vigilante cover appearance. Fun stuff, and I can’t imagine this stuff will ever be collected.
That experiment didn’t last long, as Sheldon Mayer’s Black Orchid was introduced and Adventure was back in the superhero game. This was a fascinating strip with luscious Tony DeZuniga artwork, but it only lasted 3 issues. I can’t really complain about that because it cleared the path for my one of my all-time favourite arcs; the Spectre by Mike Fleisher and Jim Aparo. This legendary and rather infamous stretch truly lives up to its reputation. They’ve been reprinted at least once, but I truly think that they are worth tracking down in their original form for the great back-ups.
The Spectre’s run was far too short, but at least Jim Aparo stuck around. The Skeates/Aparo run on Aquaman was brilliant, so it is a true joy to see them back at it here. There are some great stories in this run, and some truly eclectic back-ups like Star Spangled Kid and J’onn J’onzz. Next up, is the return of the prodigal son; Superboy. This is an ok stretch – I like the Michelinie/Staton stories but the Bob Rozakis stuff is pretty bad. There’s also a rare Eclipso sighting in the last couple of issues.
In 1978, Adventure Comics got tagged with the Dollar Comics label and became home to many of DC’s homeless stars. This is a fine, fine run highlighted by appearances by Deadman (Aparo!), Aquaman and New Gods (Newton!) and the JSA (Staton!). It’s a full blown love-in for DC Bronze Age geeks. As Adventure Comics entered its 6th decade, the book returned to standard format. In my opinion, this is an underrated period in the title’s history with the Steve Ditko drawn Starman and the Joe Staton Plastic Man (trying to take advantage of the Saturday morning cartoon, no doubt) who were soon join by Aquaman (how many times can he pop up in this series?).
Proving that no idea ever truly dies, Adventure Comics became home to the lovable Dial H for Hero strip. I have very clear memories of buying Adventure Comics #479 off the racks and thinking that this was a brilliant gimmick. I was wrong. Check out the latest issue of Back Issue magazine to get the full scoop of the history of “Dial H for Hero”. After a short hiatus, Adventure Comics returned for one last gasp. This time, it was a digest-sized book, and featured an odd mix of reprints and new stories. These issues may be a bit tough to read, but are very fun to collect – with some great Legion covers.
So that’s the final 100 issues or so of one of comicdom’s great series. It was a rudderless period, but there’s a lot of great reading in those pages.
For more random comic talk – stop by my blog Seduction of the Indifferent , and feel free to drop me a line at Scottshouldbegood at yahoo.com
13 Comments
DubipR
February 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Another great article, Scott!
Aside from the Fleischer/Aparo Spectre run, a lot of the Adeventure Comics run deserves TPB format. I forgot how enjoyable the Skeates/Aparo Aquaman run was (bought each issue for a dollar apiece). Never tried the Vigilante run or the Dial H For Hero books, but definitely have to look out for them.
I look forward to more
Mark D. White
February 17, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I really miss books like this – anthologies with no apparent them (space, horror, etc.), but simply featuring an assortment of stories about characters who (presumably) could not carry their own books. (Showcase ’94, ’95, etc. was a more recent attempt at this which I liked).
This would be a great idea for Aquaman (again), Blue Beetle, Manhunter, and other characters who are beloved by many fans, but not enough to support their own books.
joecab
February 17, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Those Digests were fantastic! It was a cheap way to get caught up on the early Legion stories. Regular sized comics Marvel’s Greatest Comics and Marvel Tales (with the original coloring and everything) did the same for the FF and Spidey, respectively.
Hard to believe back then that reprinting old comics was kind of a low-end business and now it gets a lot more attention. Guess they needed older fans to get a little older. (That’s not so good for us fans having to shell out for this more expensive stuff.)
Wesley
February 17, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Any chance of sharing a link of Back Issue magazine with the story of Dial H?
Erik
February 17, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Too bad these anthologies don’t do so well, even with established characters as the lead… Remember the Showcase ’93-’96 series? I guess with the image that these are “inventory” type stories that are necessary to read to understand the DC Universe, they just languish…
Kelson
February 18, 2009 at 1:30 am
I just finished tracking down the last of the Dollar Comics that featured Flash stories. I’ve been reading the entire books, and some of the stuff is just plain trippy, even considering that it’s only a few years before I started reading comics.
Graeme Burk
February 18, 2009 at 6:22 am
I eagerly bought Adventure pretty much from its Dollar Comics days onward– I loved the Dollar Comics with regular Flash stories plus other great stories (I became a fan of Deadman from it) and when the JSA moved in it was brilliant. I also still love the Starman/Plastic Man/Aquaman which I agree is underrated (the Pasko/Staton Plastic Man was hilarious and Levitz/Ditko Starman is brilliant).
And as we know from my entry in 365 days of comics. The Dial H For Hero phase made me a full-fledged comics fan.
Even the digest, which I bought less, was really good– they were doing a Marvel Tales thing by reprinting Legion stories right from the start (with text notes by Paul Levitz no less)– they also reprinted interesting stuff like late ’60s Spectre, Simon and Kirby Sandman and others. I would have liked them to have gone full sized for issue 500 though.
Looking back, Adventure was my gateway into collecting comics– Dial H just sealed the deal. It was a great format that gave you great value for money as a kid.
Graeme Burk
February 18, 2009 at 6:23 am
Just for the first issue or so. The rest of it was Jose Luis Garcia Lopez– and it was unbelievably gorgeous too.
googum
February 18, 2009 at 9:29 am
The digests were my re-introduction to the Legion. Love ‘em, no matter how tiny they were.
kirbydotter
February 18, 2009 at 4:34 pm
When I started collecting Bronze Age comics, high on my list was pretty much everything that had some Ditko art in it. His Bronze Age stuff was pretty cheap to buy at the time, and still is for most of his later stuff. I started to become really nut about owning his ADVENTURE COMICS run when I was reading James Robinson’s STARMAN. I became fanatic about any version of Starman ever made.
I was surprised that it took me a few years to accumulate the full run (# 467-478). Only 12 issues, but for the longuest time i was missing 2 or 3 issues. It never was a particularly “hot” run and you could sometime find them in the “cheap comics”bins that nobody wanted. Even on Ebay, you will not seldom see a full set of Ditko’s run.
I finally managed to complete my set and loved Ditko’s Prince Gavvyn/Starman. The big bonus for me was Pasko and Staton’s Plastic man. I never really was a fan of the character, but their run really was fun and quite enjoyable.
Aquaman was just okay for me. Typical late Bronze Age DC superhero. Lukewarm.
Too bad the Adventure Club theme lasted only 2 issues. It seemed like a cool idea.
Generic Lad
February 19, 2009 at 3:38 am
Aquaman’s new headquarters is… a clam?
stephen cade
February 19, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I have some of the dollar comics issues, due to the presence of the JSA, and I have the entire run of the Plasticman/Starman/Aquaman period–due to Plas.
They were fun. Staton and Ditko made it that way visually as well.
Jeremy A. Patterson
February 22, 2009 at 10:52 am
Mark D. White: I think that current Global Guardians team would work well in an anthology format, too!
J.A.P.