Rob welcomes back fellow podcasters Greg Arujo and Sean Ross to talk some classic DC TREASURY ADS!
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Thanks for another fun episode gentlemen. A true treasure trove of nostalgic ads. Plus, a tragic look at a treasury that would never come to be. It’s a shame that King Arthur story never happened. Maybe that stone just refused to give up the sword.
It’s amazing how delightful it can be to look back at these old advertisements. You not only get a look at some great artwork, but also the art of marketing. The many different ways that they tried to entice you into buying these books. “Hey kids! Batman is SOLD OUT! Better order these other books while you can.” “Wow! Look at how valuable comics will be in the future! Better buy now! Invest in your future!”
Sometimes when I’m re-reading an old book I find myself spending more time looking at the ads, the story itself. Recently I went through my early 80s Marvel books reading those serialized comic strip advertisements for Dungeons & Dragons. Look out for the dripping green slime! Damn it Indel! We can’t take you anywhere!
Fun show fellas!
“We don’t rest on our laurels” sounds like it should come from the older, stuffier DC ran by Infantino and Sol Harrison, not Jenette Khan’s era. She must have been out the day that got approved.
That ad with the monster masks is interesting. The price tells me these are cheap latex masks, not the expensive, Hollywood-like quality Don Post masks. I’m not really an expert on them, but I’d guess they are either by Topstone, or more likely Ben Cooper, who of course also made the kids Halloween costumes. I still love the Ben Cooper costumes, despite their off-brand designs. It gives them a unique identity. I lucked into a boxed Spider-Man costume a few weeks ago at a great price, and I love it! Oh, and I wonder if a young Susana Hoffs saw this ad and thought “…HEY!”
The Rudloph DC comics were reprinted at least once, in an odd little Christmas ornament I own. It’s a small hardcover book, with a few pages of DC Rudolph content on the inside. There’s even a credit assuring readers that the book was reprinted with permission from DC! Rudolph is indeed a licensed character, although I think the different versions of him were held by different owners over the years. Now I think everything, the children’s book, the song, the Rankin/Bass special are owned by Classic Media, which according to what day it is, is now owned by Universal.
Based on his comments about seeing the first film, I now know why we never had Sean on Superman: Movie MInute.
Another great episode Rob! Being born in 1968, I saw many of these ads when they were first printed and I would drool over them!
I did want to point out the fact that one of the very first Dial “H” villain creators was renowned science fiction author Harlan Ellison.
Also, I was twelve when the “laurels” ad came out and I had to ask my mom what it meant. She thought it meant… bottoms. Definitely an ineffective tag line.
You beat me to it – I was just about to note that Ellison created a character for Dial ‘H’.
What a fun episode. I remember I enjoyed the Marvel ad episode with Greg and Sean so much I started tracking down their podcasts and did a deep dive into Pulp 2 Pixel pods. Great stuff. I distinctly remember some of these ads as a kid. Especially the Legion wedding and the Superman vs. Spider-Man treasuries. I was able to find the Legion one when it came out and read it to shreds. Still have it, too. I wrapped it up in plastic to keep it from disintegrating.
So many cool covers. I can just stare at these ads forever. Neal Adam’s Batman vs. Ra’s is amazing. Superman has to fight everybody! He even beat up the Bicentennial and tossed it to Tomahawk. And that “Super Year is Here” ad hit me as soon as I saw it. I remember that ad and wanting to go get every Superman comic in it! I think I ended up with about four of them. But in my defense I was 7.
“We Don’t Rest on Our Laurels”? Way to identify with the readers, DC. “Hey, my fellow kids. How about those Hall and Oates and the such?” I’m imagining it was green lit by the same guy who let Curt Swan draw Superman for 80 years (Apologies to Chris Franklin).
All in all a great trip down memory lane. Keep up the great work, Rob.
As with last year’s show about Marvel ads, I thoroughly enjoyed this one as well.
Otherwise, it almost seems like I can copy-paste my comment from that last show here, as they apply as well: first, the ad for the Batman/R’as treasury. I mentioned last year, and several times before I think, how deeply imprinted on my brain that house ad is (and how frustrating it was that the book never appeared in any of my usual grocery store/convenience store/drug store comic-buying haunts of the time; second, on the topic of how the treasuries were mailed – you could have just read my comment from last time, as I noted that based on the two (DC) treasuries I ordered back then, they were sent in sturdy cardboard mailers.
Anyway, looking forward to the next – 5-minute I’m assuming – ad show…
Fantastic episode as usual. I used to stare at these ads forever fantasizing about which issues I’d order once I mowed enough lawns. You even posted a few in the gallery I’d never seen before or have no memory of.
Concerning the Dick Tracy Treasury, and maybe I got this info from your article in Back Issue Rob (?) but I remember reading DC had planned to do a couple of these if Tracy sold well including a planned Terry and the Pirates collection but alas as you said the sales just were not there. I actually just got a copy last year thanks to a very generous friend who had a double, read it that night and had a blast, such a fun read.
Impressive podcast most impressive. While I never thought too much of these ends at the time they are kind of cool to look at now. And ever seen the Batman comic. At the house of the friend of my mothers when I was a kid. Where the women she worked with a dated a man who also collect comics. I don’t remember the one with swamp thing. Other than the one where he attacks Gotham. I don’t think it’s the same one. Religious movies were very popular 70s. And before that. It’s recent times with her not doing as well. I probably would start with Sampson in stead of Moses, but this is still cool. Joe’s art is great as always. As for Moses being JackED. Maybe in this comic he is played by Bill Goldberg. He was a wrestler. And also started in Santa slaves. As well as being in the last universal soldier was Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The Superman and Mohammed Ali comic is pretty cool. Though is most remembered for the artwork and the fact that Mohammed Ali is in it. Rudolph had a summer fun comic? Weird. The Superman versus one Woodcock was decent. Though you can definitely tell that unlike today Superman was their flagship character and not Bat man.s Superman versus shazam is kind of cool. As is the legions of superheroes. Grell had a great run on that book. Not as big as the Griffin run, but still. Not sure why you would start your licensing of Dick Tracy with a treasury. But, it is what it is. Probably would’ve been better to do the editor are talking about having it. Different comics. Maybe having Dick Tracy keep up with Batman. And other characters. Then building up to a treasury. The first edition thing is kind of cool. Ah the customs. I remember the Batman costume. It felt like it was made out of rubber is not sure how was. And the crappy paper mask that you also that with the batgirl custom. The giant sized Mistry comic looks fine
. It is too bad that the King Arthur, get published. Though I’m not sure why he’s wearing a toga. I’m pretty sure that’s not how they would’ve dressed at that time. Particularly if he’s drawn Excalibur. The long cape and well toga. Aren’t exactly what one would go into battle with. Specifically you take the time to put on those blue things all the laces on them. If the cover is anything to go by it would’ve been a cold treasury. The best of DC thing is fine I see night of the reaper again. I remember buying at last 14 at a comic store I shopped at.
Acadiana booking comic shop. The lady who owned the store Ms. Teresa had this in one of the boxes that they were selling comics. I bought it at the time because I wanted something with the Neal Adams art on Batman. Still it was a fun read. What you wanted to get married with an open shirt? Why not go the full route and get the blue spandex and Cape? As for what everyone’s wearing. This appears to be a bit of a casual wedding. The priestess didn’t even put on her robes. See that there is some weird purple bathrobe with a hood. Her hair looks nice however. That they can’t say the same for the bride. As for the dress was she trying to bring back little mermaid fashion? FinED out bottom of her dress with the strange gold trim makes it look like a mermaid tail. The Cape is not helping. I know the issue is important. But, geez Louise. I think the expression of Superman’s face is it because his states stood him up. It’s that he has to stand around here with everybody looking ridiculous.
If what lightning lad is what replaces a tux. I can see why Superman decided to stay his costume. The football uniform talk spoke of would look less ridiculous than whatever this thing is lightning lad is wearing. This this wedding photo is what drove their child to magnets to become part of the fatal five. The Kubert art on Superman does look cool. The man was definitely a master at art. I’m glad that I went through the correspondence course for the Joe Kubert world of cartooning.
What a fantastic follow up to the Marvel Ads show! Having Greag and Sean back is wonderful to hear.
For a Canadian (and one on the Left Coast, to boot), “4-6/6-8 weeks for delivery” seems normal to me. This is how I grew up and it just seemed like it always took forever to receive anything by the mail. I want to say that everything was shipped from some warehouse in New Jersey. Comics, comic t-tshirts, Nintendo Power, the Clark Kent Super Powers figure…… This whole next day Prime stuff seems like science fiction to me! What’s next? Are they going to beam the comics into our homes in minutes?? What’s that now about comics on tablets?
Ha! I love those cheap Halloween masks. Every kid wants to be the Goof!
That Best of DC with Alex Toth’s Dirty Job would have been amazing at Treasury size. I feel whether you are religious or not, that was one of his best stories. Ahhh, who am I kidding? ALL his stories are his best stories!
The Super Year Is Here and the We Don’t Rest On Our Laurels are my favourite ads. These are the types of ads I loved seeing as a kid. Anytime they had a bunch of different titles in one ad, that was the best because you could see what you had and what you didn’t. I feel like it also got me to try out some different titles by just seeing all those covers. The problem was, the reason I wanted to try these titles, is because I couldn’t find them at the store! Comic distribution being what it was back then, some of these titles seem like a fantasy that never got made because they just never showed up at the corner store.
What a fun trip down memory lane! It makes me want to peruse the spinner rack for all of these titles! Keep up the great work!
I have taken a look through my dad’s copies of AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS to see what they had on the unpublished KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE treasury comic. This is what I found:
First mention was in AWODCC 7 (July 1975), page 15: Announced KING ARTHUR AND HE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE as a bimonthly comic book series, and mentioned that editor Joe Orlando did the page layouts, which might explain his top billing credit in the ad you talked about.
Next mention in AWODCC 8 (Sept 1975), page 33: KING ARTHUR will now be published as a $1 Limited Collectors’ Edition tabloid instead of a bi-monthly 25 cent title. I guess the tabloid would collect the first planned four issues in one volume, explaining the “four-part series” line in the ad.
On page 31 of AWODCC 10 (Jan 1976): The KING ARTHUR script by Gerry Conway was reported to be finished and the project was currently “in various stages of art”, and expected to be released in May 1976 “barring unforeseen problems.”
On page 13 of AWODCC 11 (April 1976): Mentioned the KING ARTHUR Limited Collectors’ Edition is “nearing completion. We hope to have it to you in late summer or early fall” [of 1976]. This paragraph also stated that “you’ll find the cover… adorning these very pages”, but there was no cover image in the entire issue. In fact, there was no art for the KING ARTHUR project shown in any issue of AWODCC.
However, there were pages shown in a 9-page article in BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE 11: Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11, plus the wraparound cover that was supposed to be shown in AWODCC 11. The cover was an awesome watercolor painting. Perhaps AWODCC staffers found they couldn’t print it well in black and white and decided not to, and either forgot or had no time to correct the text in AWODCC 11.
The BACK ISSUE article includes quotes from Gerry Conway that confirmed this was originally planned as a four-part comic book series that would end with the death of King Arthur, but also suggested that this would be printed as a four-issue tabloid-sized series, because he said he finished the script “for the first issue” when DC decided they “no longer wanted to run original material in the large format books” – the same reason the JLA “Earth Dies Screaming” and the Super Juniors Christmas tabloids never saw treasury-sized print.
So now we know what happened.
This was a great episode. The descriptions really bring back those ads to my memory; I must have seen some of them, because many of them do ring a bell. It’s like I can see them in my mind’s eye even now. I think that my next door neighbor actually had the Wizard of Oz treasury. I can remember paging through it, but I know that I never owned it myself. The kid next door seems like the most likely person among my friends to have had an Oz book like that.
I’m not Canadian, but I will agree with Mike Deines in regard to shipping times. To my memory of being a kid in the 70s, “allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery” (or even sometimes 6-8) seems pretty standard. Not just for comic books, but for just about anything you ordered through the mail. Toys from the Sears catalog, X-Ray Specs, those K-Tel record albums they advertised on TV. Everything seemed to ask you to allow 4-6 weeks.
I never ordered enough stuff to know how accurate 4-6 weeks was. Maybe they over-estimated, so that if you got it before that, it felt like a treat!
I don’t post very often, but I just wanted to pop on and say how much fun this episode was. I really enjoyed it!
Great episode as usual.
I think the reason they were claiming Superman #1 was the “most important comic ever published” was that it was the first comic devoted to a single character exclusively. All the other golden age titles were anthologies. It was so important that we shortly got Batman, All-Flash, Wonder Woman etc. At least that is the story I am going to go with!
And man I would have loved to see that King Arthur story in any format. The AWODCC articles are cool but… I do like the idea of having other characters traveling through time and using the pages. Nestor Redondo’s art is amazing in Rima and Swamp Thing.
Almost, ALMOST as good as the Marvel Ads episode.
But only because I’m more of a Marvel fan.
The three of you make for a titanic trio of podcasting power. I hope you’ll come up with another fun excuse to record together. Kudos!