As I have stated many times before, I have a great fondness for those thick US 80-100 specials, especially those published by DC in the early 1970’s. There was just something appealing about these books with their thick spines and the classic reprints all contained within the confines of some of comics greatest cover. I have waxed lyrical in the past over some of these stunning covers that still take pride of place in my collection and to this list I have to add the above classic cover by legendary artist Nick Cardy for DC-14, from February 1973.
Although all issues in this series featured some form of a wrap-around covers, it was only issues DC-6 to DC-14 that featured a continued cover illustration (others featured either a poster type back cover or a reproduction of the front cover without the logo). Above shows Cardy’s cover in its full glory (illo taken from DC Wiki as my copier isn’t big enough to scan the full cover).
Above: The table of contents page from this issue.
The above page containing an article on the contents of this issue.
The DC 100 page Super-Spectacular series ran for 19 issues that were published between 1971 – 1973. This series had a strange numbering system, for example the first 100 page spectacular (Weird Mystery Tales) started with issue 4 (there were no issues numbered as 1,2 or 3) and with issue 7 the numbering system was changed to add the prefix “DC” (ie. DC-07 – DC-22)to the number. In addition some issues like
DC-13 which featured Superman (above), were also numbered as part of the regular Superman series, in this case Superman issue 252. From issue DC-14 - DC22 the title of the series was changed to "100 Page Super-Spectacular".
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
Those 100-pagers were troves of great comics. DC was doing wonderful things with different formats and styles of comics at this time, more creative than Marvel in many ways. But Marvel undercut them on price on the core books and stole their thunder anyway. It was likely inevitable.
ReplyDeleteNick Cardy's cover art is some of my all-time favorite. He had an absolute gift to draw handsome figures in natural poses.
I don't think I can recall an average Nick Cardy's cover, everyone was beautifully illustrated. Pity he didn't do more Marvel books (I think he only drew one cover?!).
DeleteI've got the Superman issue, which is a replacement for my original. (I've owned it for far longer though.) I know I had the Batman one back in the day, but can no longer recall whether or not I ever replaced it. Yeah, those Specials were, er - 'special'. I've got a mug, given to me by a pal back in the late '70s or early '80s, which had that Supes figure on it, but unfortunately it's now worn off and is just a plain white mug.
ReplyDeleteMy Superman issue is a replacement as well. I have 6 of the 19 Super Spectaculars, 3 of which are my original copies. This one (DC-14) was a replacement I got in London a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe only two that I have are DC-14 (as featured in your blog) and DC-20 (also a Batman issue featuring a Nick Cardy cover). Bth of the issues I currently have were replacements in the past 5 years for originals I sold back in 1984. These were really one of the the last gasps for the "Giant" reprint concept, which I loved. I'm pretty sure that the early Super Specs (Weird Tales DC-4 and Love Stories DC-5) never made it to the UK. The first one I got was DC-6 "World's Greatest Superheroes".
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the series started with DC-4 ? I wonder if there were any "ashcan" tryouts of DC-1 to DC-3? It's a mystery
I've never read anything to explain why the numbering of these specials starting from DC-4, it would be interesting to know the reason .
ReplyDelete