When Superman inaugurated ACTION COMICS with its first issue I always thought he was instantly recognized by the company as a big draw. Of course, he was an unknown quantity, being the first comic book superhero. It turns out that 3/4 of the first eight issues (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) did not show him on the cover or mention him on the cover. After that, when he wasn't cover-featured there was a blurb or a small picture on the cover to tell the reader he was inside. Fairly soon, he was cover-featured every issue. Of course, he had a 9-to-13 page story in a 64-page book. Any thoughts?
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My guess would be that they knew the comic was selling well, but they weren't sure which character(s) was the big draw. Thus you got more variety on the covers. Once they did, then boom, you get a bunch of Superman.
-Although they didn't feature Superman on ##2-6, they knew enough to put him on the cover of the first issue.
-The newsstand feature at www.dcindexes.com can be set to show what DC was putting out each month
- When Action Comics #1 debuted DC's titles had a uniform logo style, in which the logo was backed by an area edged at the top and bottom with thick black lines. The style first appeared on More Fun #11, on sale Jun. 1936. It first appeared on Detective Comics with #2, on sale Mar. 1937, and New Adventure Comics with #15, on sale Apr. 1937.
-At the time of Action Comics's debut the covers of Detective Comics and New Adventure Comics usually featured non-series action scenes, like the early Action Comics ones that didn't feature Superman or Zatara. The Detective Comics covers were usually cops-and-robbers themed. I can't see a difference between the subjects of the non-series Action Comics and New Adventure Comics covers.
-Leo O'Mealia drew the Action Comics covers from #2-#6. (At that point Creig Flessel was doing those of New Adventure Comics.) After that the cover artist of the non-Superman issues of Action was Fred Guardineer to #18, including the two early Zatara ones (#12 and #14).
-The covers of More Fun Comics became adventure-themed rather than comedic with #42, on sale Mar. 1939.
First off, I love the design of the "10 cents" box on those early Actions. Very Art-Deco.
Does anyone know/remember if Action #1 had one of those mail-in surveys to tell the editor which feature the readers liked best?
By the time Action #7 (D'38), the second Superman cover, came out, there would have been enough time to get the sales figures and reader feedback on the Rookie of Steel. The sporadic Superman covers afterwards may have been to gauge if he really did sell more copies. Of course, he officially became the coverboy with Action #19, so it took eighteen months for that to happen plus there was the then-unprecidented Superman #1 as well.
As for the two Zatara covers, they were probably testing the Master Magician's marketability as he was Action's #2 guy until the Vigilante showed up. Then again the Prairie Troubadour only appeared on the group cover of Action #52 with Superman, Zatara, Congo Bill, Mister America and the Three Aces.
In fact, no feature was mentioned at all on the covers of Action during the 40s except for Superman!
I don't know if there was a mail in survey in Action #1...but considering the unsophisticated times, I doubt it.
Also, if they could barely get a kid to part with his dime for a comic...why would they want to encourage a kid to spend money on a postage stamp instead of their product? How much was postage at the time?
Kirk G said:
In the United States, for a regular domestic letter: three cents.
The GCD's page on the issue notes that the Fred Guardineer cover of Action Comics #8 is a "homage" to a painted illustration by N.C. Wyeth for The Last of the Mohicans, "The Battle at Glen Falls".
Kirk,
#1 had a contest for the kids to send in their own colored pages of a black and white story in the issue.
#3 had a contest for the kids to draw any character from the issue.
#4, however, had a contest where kids would write a letter to Action Comics and list their five favorite features in order.
And I recall reading that DC would carefully look at sales of individual issues and see which ones sold most. In the case of Action, it was when Superman appeared on the cover. By #22, the covers said "World's Largest Selling Comic Magazine!"
Kirk G said:
Early on DC sued a couple of companies (Fox and Fawcett) for publishing Superman imitations. Yet Zatara in Action Comics was a blatant imitation of the then-popular Mandrake the Magician. Initially he even had a big assistant, albeit Indian rather than African. On the other hand, in the first instalment he didn't have a moustache. The Tigress, his opponent in the first instalment, was a recurring villain in his strip early on.
The Tex Thomson story in Action Comics #1 is the earliest DC story drawn by Bernard Baily that the GCD found for me. It's not very good, but Baily was probably one of DC's top early creators, being the co-creator of the Spectre and Hourman. The Thomson feature went through a number of changes; he was eventually remodelled into the hero Mr America/Americommando.
This post displaced the thread Previews: Image Comics for April 24, 2013 from the home page.
Early on DC sued a couple of companies (Fox and Fawcett) for publishing Superman imitations. Yet Zatara in Action Comics was a blatant imitation of the then-popular Mandrake the Magician. Initially he even had a big assistant, albeit Indian rather than African. On the other hand, in the first instalment he didn't have a moustache. The Tigress, his opponent in the first instalment, was a recurring villain in his strip early on.
The Tex Thomson story in Action Comics #1 is the earliest DC story drawn by Bernard Baily that the GCD found for me. It's not very good, but Baily was probably one of DC's top early creators, being the co-creator of the Spectre and Hourman. The Thomson feature went through a number of changes; he was eventually remodelled into the hero Mr America/Americommando.
The first version of this post displaced the thread Previews: Image Comics for April 24, 2013 from the home page.
Prior to becoming Mr America Thomson had several bouts with a one-eyed super-criminal called the Gorrah. According to Baily, in an interview quoted here, he was forced to stop using him because a contest indicated he was too nearly popular to Superman.
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