Doug: Time does get away, doesn't it? It's again been a few weeks since we last took a turn on the Spinner Rack. Now that's rectified. The link below will take you to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, and the books cover-dated...
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Hmm, I recall this as a kind of odd period in my comics reading. I didn't have as many superhero books, as I was just getting out of my Archie and funny animal phase (and I did in fact have a few of those Gold Key Disney comics, and one or two of those Archie books).
Even so, I did have that issue of Action Comics pictured, as well as DC Comics Presents #2 and that month's issue of JLA - but all of them were from those bagged 3-packs that had the Whitman logo on them instead of DC's. Other than that, I do remember having that issue of Adventure Comics - the start of its all-too-brief run as a dollar comic.
Also, I remember having a few of those E-man reprints, those were my first introduction to the character.
By the way, 12 Richie Rich titles this month. Holy cow!
Don't you love the variety of material on the stands back then?
Ah, the summer of 1978. I had just graduated from high school and was working as a busboy to save money for Art School in the fall. Of course, I had to hold back some funds for those four-color treasures.
I had quite a few of them this month. My favorite character Spider-Man was in a slump at that point, but there were some great things going on in X-Men, Detective and Avengers! And like Edo, I enjoyed the Dollar anthology in Adventure, Oh, and I'd forgotten Thor's appearance in Invaders; that's worth hunting down again...
Edo --
As an aside, I thought of you when I leafed through this month's Back Issue! magazine. There are articles on the Pyms, the Atom, Sword of the Atom, and the DC Digests. You can check it out here -- only $4 for the digital edition.
Doug
Oh, and the Micronauts, too! Duh -- that was one of the main things I thought you'd be interested in...
Doug
Hey, Superman, why don't you just punch it into so much dust? I'm sure insurance will pay for a new globe... (geez, I've gotten jaded in my old age :-)
Doug, thanks for the tip; it's been awhile since I bought the digital edition of Back Issue (#65 I think).
The cover that really jumps out is The Incredible Hulk because that was also the cover for Marvel UK's Mighty World of Marvel weekly in October 1978 and it had a huge banner splashed across the middle of the cover saying "Britain's No.1 TV Show" (meaning the Hulk TV show) which obscured a lot of the cover and ruined it - and it was a lie anyway because The Incredible Hulk wasn't Britain's No.1 TV show.
Well what a Marvel snob I was!! Looking through those covers, there were several that looked really familiar -- surely my memory isn't so good that I just recall having seen them on the stands? I found it interesting that the character Arsenal was in this month's Iron Man -- I thought he only appeared in that Avengers Annual.
Here are the books that I am positive I bought that month: ASM, Avengers, Cap, DD, FF, Invaders, Nova, Peter Parker, Thor, the Thor Annual, and X-Men.
I was really surprised that there wasn't an issue of Secret Society of Super-Villains or Teen Titans, but then those may have been bi-monthlies. I was also surprised that I didn't pick up any Batman books, and I am positive that I didn't have that particular issue of All-Star Comics (although I was a regular buyer in those days -- distribution problems?).
Doug
By the way, Doug, looking over those covers at Mike's Newsstand, I just recalled that I very likely had, or had borrowed from someone, that reprint title Dynamic Classics - the cover looks really familiar, and I specifically remember reading one of those early Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter stories in comic book, although I never had any of the original issues of Detective in which they appeared (a little bit before my time).
When we have a Spinner post, I always jump over to Mike's Amazing World of Comics. For today's I popped over and......realized I hadn't bought many comics cover dated Sept '78. That was weird. So I jumped back a month and realized I had hit that month hard. Like rented mule hard. Like a train leaves Chicago heading west hard, like really REALLY hard.
And then I sat for a while to think about that summer. After 7th grade. I had started mowing lawns. I know I hard something coming in and then I remembered, I had parlayed most of my month's earnings into a 1/150 scale model of the famous clipper ship Cutty Sark. That was an entire summer's project. I don't think I have ever grown to hate something so much as that model.
The Prowler (inna gadda da vida, honey.......).
A strange summer, that one. I was working for a couple of school chums who were running their dad's pig farm. My Mom was dating the guy, and I think he only took me on in an effort to win her favor.
So, I had a bit of money (though not much)-- but I know that I didn't buy more than five or six of these books at the drug store. I do distinctly remember picking up 1984-- which, geeze, is kind of a sleazy, titillating embarrassment now!-- but where was I spending-- oh, of course. I was a HOPELESSLY girl-crazy by that point, and pretty much was spending every available cent as it came in on whatever dating exploits I could afford. Comics were quickly falling down a serious gravity well on the ol' priority list.
The BIG comic memory from that summer comes a month or two later, when a buddy brought me the coveted first issue of the HULK magazine that came out then-- while I was in the hospital-- recovering from being attacked by a rampaging sow on that pig farm I mentioned before.
It's alllllll connected-!
HB
Hey, quick question-- does anyone know what was going on with that spate of titles that released more than one issue in the same month, here? DC's HERCULES is particularly perplexing, as they don't seem to be consecutive issues, even.
HB
HB --
I caught that as well, and wondered if it had anything to do with second printings, distribution issues, or simply a mistake on the issues' cover copy.
Doug
I was 6 when these came out, so I have no specific memories of any of them...although I was definitely reading comics at that time, because I remember having the Marvel Tales reprint of the Death of Gwen Stacy a few months later. That Jonah Hex cover looks really familiar too (I'm also using Mike's Newsstand as a resource).
Speaking of covers, Rich Buckler did some good ones that month...Superman, Flash, JLA, Wonder Woman...that Superman cover with Kobra on it looks really cool!
Mike W.
HB, I know hindsight is 20/20 but do you ever think that if you would have treated her nicer on the date, that sow would not have gone pig shit crazy on you, gone crazy, crazy on you???
The Prowler (tired of gettin shot at tired of gettin chased by the police and arrested).
Prowl, Prowl, Prowl--- where's the respect??
I tell ya, though, it was YEARS before I could bowl w/out it being painful-!
Ironically, the Nurse's Aide that was in charge of me was in high school in a neighboring town. We really hit it off, and she was my girlfriend by the time fall rolled around. . .
HB
Ah! This was the big kick-off of the "DC Explosion" (or as pessimists call it "3 months before the DC Implosion"...)
So I'm looking a little more carefully at the entire month's inventory, and I see that I incorrectly assumed that was the DC Hercules title. . . and it's not! It's Charleton's! And closer observation maybe suggests an answer to my earlier question. Charleton looks very much like it was in the midst of a name-change, and that this particular month was the BIG rollout. While there are a few covers w/ the "Charleton" logo in the corner, the vast majority are now being called "Modern Comics"-- and I'll just bet that the marketing strategy was to absolutely flood the spinner-racks with product, including more than one issue of popular titles (including the popular E-Man reprints), in order to burn that new, trendier name into the minds of their hoped-for readers.
Could I be onto something here? It does look like Charleton was the only company doing the multiple-issue tango. . .
HB
Prime buying years for me -17 books, of which 15 were Marvel! The other two were Legion and Superman Family. I was firmly entrenched in superheroes.
Can't get over all the Archie and Richie Rich titles!
HB, ol' buddy only you could make the negative of being attacked by a rabid pig and turn it into a positive by getting a girlfriend out of that ordeal! :)
- Mike 'climbs into pigpen but only gets bacon' from Trinidad & Tobago.
There was no SSOSV or Teen Titans because those had just been cancelled in the DC Implosion.
I purchased Captain Marvel, Fantastic Four and Peter Parker.
Eric C
This was a slow buying period for me. This was around the time my local carrier stopped carrying, and I would have to make a 30+ mile trip to do any buying. My only mode of transportation being a bicycle, I only made a couple of visits every few months. I did subscribe to a couple (JLA, Green Lantern), so I did get both of those....GL/GA was near the end of the Mike Grell run, from what I remember. I also remember getting the Detective Comics (part 2 of 2 with Clayface....some great Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin art), and the last All-Star Comics and Black Lightning issues, and that Savage Sword of Conan. I also remember seeing that splay-legged Frank Robbins cover from Captain America. :)
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