365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 40: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 7

Subscription ad for 'Mazing Man (1986); printed in The Legend of Wonder Woman #1 (May 1986)
Ad art: pencils by Stephen DeStefano, inks by Karl Kesel (signed)

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 39: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 6

Subscription ad for Detective Comics; printed in Detective Comics #489 (April 1980)

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 38: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 5

Subscription ad for The Adventures of Bob Hope and other National Comics; printed in Batman #175 (November 1965)
Comic cover art: The Adventures of Bob Hope #96 (December 1965-January 1966),
script by Arnold Drake, pencils and inks by Bob Oksner, letters by Stan Quill
Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp; Super-Hip art by Bob Oksner

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National Comics subscription ad printed in Strange Adventures #185 (February 1966)
Ad: pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein, letters by Ira Schnapp
Comic book cover: Action Comics #33 (February 1966), pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Sheldon Moldoff

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 36: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 3

Two-page subscription ad for DC Comics (1972); printed in Batman #239 (February 1972)
Scripter and artist uncredited. (Is it Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano?)
Click image to giant-savings-size
Here's a half-page version of the same ad, from Secrets of Sinister House #4 (April-May 1972). No scissors for Tommy in this one!

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 35: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 2

Subscription ad for "The DC Explosion"; printed in Dynamic Classics #1 (September-October 1978)
Well, The DC Explosion didn't work quite as well as DC had hoped, and instead led to the infamous DC Implosion (Read more about it here).

Wikipedia tells us: "On June 22, 1978 DC Comics announced staff layoffs, and the cancellation of approximately 40% of its line." Yikes! Listed in this subscription ad were titles that were quickly cancelled (All-Star Comics, Batman Family, Black Lightning, Claw the Unconquered, Doorway to Nightmare, Firestorm, House of Secrets, Our Fighting Forces, Secrets of Haunted House [this resumed publication about a year after cancellation], Showcase, Star Hunters, Steel, and The Witching Hour), including a handful cancelled after their first and only issue (Army at War, Battle Classics, Dynamic Classics). Also cancelled were several titles not on this subscription list (Aquaman, Kamandi, Mister Miracle, Secret Society of Supervillains, and Shade the Changing Man). There were even victims of the DCI that were never published (Demand Classics, Western Classics, The Vixen and the not-listed-here Deserter and Starslayer).


Covers to Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 and 2 (1978), pencils and inks by Al Milgrom (#1) and Alex Saviuk (#2); logo by Todd Klein
Some of the ill-fated books eventually saw publication in the Xerox-only Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, two books released in editions of 35 copies each in order to protect DC's copyrights on the material. Scripts and artwork for some cancelled books were worked into other comics or eventually printed as back-up stories.

But did you know that DC's longest-running title was also on the chopping block for the DC Implosion until a timely eleventh-hour save? That's right: Detective Comics was planned to end with issue #480, "until the decision was overturned following strenuous arguments on behalf of saving the title within the DC office, and Detective was instead merged with the better-selling Batman Family." (Wikipedia). Whew! Now that was a cliffhanger escape from death worthy of the Batman himself!

Some comics critics have warned that the large amounts of material being published today could eventually lead to another implosion across the industry. We've seen it mostly in smaller publishers going out of business after overextending their lines (CrossGen, some manga publishers). It happened in 1957 to Atlas (later Marvel) and in 1978 to DC. If you're a fan of patterns and conspiracy theories, consider: 21 years elapsed between those events. In 1999, 21 years after DC's implosion, Kitchen Sink Press went out of business after an ill-fated expansion into merchandise (hey, I liked those chocolate bars). 21 years after 1999 is 2020. Shall we meet back here in seven years to see what the comics business is like then and who is going to go out of business then? Place yer bets!

To conclude, as it says in the ad: "Please allow 10 weeks for first copies to arrive." To which I add: "Plus eternity." Somewhere, somewhen, a little stuffed bull is still sitting by his mailbox, eagerly and patiently awaiting his mailed copy of Demand Classics. Wait on, little guy.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 34: DC House Ads Super-Subscription Week, Day 1

Flying out from the edges of the galaxy accompanied by the stirring theme from Superman: The Movie, it's...



Subscription ad for Batman and The Brave and the Bold; printed in Detective Comics #489 (September-October 1978)
Pencils and inks by Jim Aparo (?)