Was this DC's greatest house ad of the 70s? It's one of the first one I remember, and it still intrigues me to this day. I don't think I had ever seen so many characters crammed onto a single page. I am not sure how for how long this ad ran, but I it showed up in quite a few of the earliest books I remember owning. I know that it was supposed to be announcing the short-live Adventure Line, but I was just as intrigued by the other image. I had never seen Deadman before, and he really stood out from the other heroes. I was not familiar with the Mystery characters, but they certainly disturb my young mind. I became quite familiar with the Adventure Line characters at a early age because these books were regular habitués of my local comic shop's 10 cent rack, as well as the comic box in my grade school's rainy day room. This ad made me very curious about the Avenger and the Stalker, and those remain my two favourite titles from this fun line of comics.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Highlighting House Ads: DC's 1975 Adventure Line
Was this DC's greatest house ad of the 70s? It's one of the first one I remember, and it still intrigues me to this day. I don't think I had ever seen so many characters crammed onto a single page. I am not sure how for how long this ad ran, but I it showed up in quite a few of the earliest books I remember owning. I know that it was supposed to be announcing the short-live Adventure Line, but I was just as intrigued by the other image. I had never seen Deadman before, and he really stood out from the other heroes. I was not familiar with the Mystery characters, but they certainly disturb my young mind. I became quite familiar with the Adventure Line characters at a early age because these books were regular habitués of my local comic shop's 10 cent rack, as well as the comic box in my grade school's rainy day room. This ad made me very curious about the Avenger and the Stalker, and those remain my two favourite titles from this fun line of comics.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Scott:
Yeah, I loved this one as a kid, too. It was a great invitation to try out the rest of the line. The other DC house ad that really connected with me was this one by Joe Staton for the DC explosion:
http://ow.ly/2WLvp
Again, great characters I wasn't familiar with that I couldn't wait to check out. (And I still love Staton's art on that piece!)
Cheers,
Andrew
ComicsBronzeAge.com
STALKER was my favorite of that Adventure line with the gorgeous Wally Wood inks over Steve Ditko's magical art.
JUSTICE INC was cool because it was Kirby. I didn't know anything about the Avenger when I first read these. But it was a fun read.
TOR, I managed to get much later. Vintage Kubert is always nice
I remember CLAW as just a boring rip-off of Moorcock's Corum. I wasn't too impressed with KONG and BEOWULF either.
Even Mike Grell's WARLORD wasn't that good back when it started. It became something hot much later.
I remember studying this ad. The only title that hooked me for life was the Warlord. When I see Grell involved, I'll check it out. I don't read anything else Grell does, just the Warlord. I'm usually disappointed but no more so than if I read Swamp Thing or one of the various, current Batman or Superman issues.
This ad strikes one of my pet peeves. Not for the Adventure line, but the so-called "Mystery" line. Why did DC call their horror books "mystery" books? Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were mystery books. Sherlock Holmes was mystery. Not Unexpected, House of Mystery, or Ghosts!
My only plausible guess is that DC was still touchy about horror comics and the Wertham thing, and that a different label would help ward off future comic book witch hunts.
Still, comics have had a hard time doing genuine mystery tales that didn't involve horror or long-john underwear.
Post a Comment