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The 100-Page Super-Spectacular Story

Nelson Bridwell once said that the reason why the 100 Page Super-Spectacular series started with #4 was complicated, but he did not explain it. This article includes one possible explanation.

Immediately prior to the Super-Specs, DC's most recent "giant series" had been Super DC Giant, which was published into 1971. The last two issues are S-26 and S-25, both cover-dated July/August 1971. If you look at the five-digit number code (beginning with 3) on these books, you'll see that issues numbered before S-25 and S-26 were NOT numbered. Books that were cover-dated BEFORE June, 1971, have no number. The number on S-25 is actually later than the number on S-26; these numbers represent the conceptual TITLE, not the ISSUE number.

S-26 (31510, dated July/August) S-25 (31540, dated July/August)

As DC Comic prepared to “close up” the Super DC Giant series, they were luring away from Marvel with a new idea for a 50c series of magazines that Kirby would create. The first few books were supposed to be released in Summer, 1971, with cover dates of "1971." These were: In the Days of the Mob #1, Spirit World #1, and In the Days of the Mob #2.

The first two titles were released on schedule (possibly in May or early June, with a sales date of August or September). They tanked. That is to say, the idea of an adult-themed series of magazines done in a comic-art style was not yet something that the people were ready for. This would have been a way to get around newsstand distribution, as Mad magazine had done in 1954. Perhaps as a point of intentional comparison, EC had launched a successful giant series called Mad Special in Fall 1970 which sold for 60¢ per eighty-four-page issue. However, DC’s experiment was unsuccessful to the point that most existing copies came out of a warehouse find some years ago. Since the magazine size seemed to be an impediment, In the Days of the Mob #2 was canceled. One of the stories was published in 1974 in an issue of Amazing World of DC Comics, and some of the rest of the book has also surfaced in completed form.

Anyway, that makes three issues. It's POSSIBLE that the 50c series was converted that Summer from magazine format to format. Issues 4, 5, and 6 came out right after one another in Summer, 1971.

No. 4 (NOT "DC-4") is numbered 32012 and dated "1971". No. 5 (NOT "DC-5") is numbered 31958 and dated "1971". No. 6 (NOT "DC-6") is numbered 32014 and dated "1971".

No. 4 advertises that No. 5 would be out on about July 1st. One of my copies of No. 5 was purchased on August 19, 1971, so it probably came out in mid-to-late July. Someone else reports a copy of No. 6 that has an arrival date of July 27th. Thus, we can see for sure (despite others' claims) that the 100-page series came out AFTER the end of the Super DC Giant series, the last of which went on sale in May. Weird War Tales #1 is cover dated September/October and has a number of 31745. [I caution, though, that if a title was registered early and held back, it might appear out of sequence. This one doesn't appear to be out of sequence.]

So, we're likely looking at October/November, 1971, dates for No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 (meaning that the three books actually came out between late June and late July). I contend that the decision to make a new "giant series" with a 50c price was made just as Super DC Giant was printing its last issues. They test-marketed two of the three magazines and determined they wouldn't sell at that size. So... we got DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular. One hundred pages of story and art for 50c. Cheaper than Mad Special, and a way to test out content. A bargain!

The concept behind the Super-Spectaculars belongs to E. Nelson Bridwell. Bridwell observed that with the rising cost of paper stock, DC had been forced a planned discontinuation of their Eighty Page Giant series. In fact, that series (formally prefixed as the “G” series) had been reduced from 80 pages down to 64 pages at the end of 1968 – beginning with Action 373 = Giant G-57, which came out the first week in January, 1969, but which was cover-dated March/April, 1969. Bridwell had a terrific institutional memory and may have recalled the original, 100-page size of World’s Finest Comics, which had sold for 15c back in 1941-43. The giant size had done quite well for the book.

At the time Bridwell was pitching the idea for the Super-Specs, #233 was being prepared. This was the last “G” series giant (G-85) to sell for 25c; the other 64-page giants would sell for 35c each, with the last member of the title going on sale in August and being cover-dated October/November. Apparently, Bridwell determined that DC should test-market a 50c giant series before terminating the “G” series. If there were demand for a 100-page reprint title, that title would replace the “G” series. It makes sense, then, that DC could have continued the “G” series with the 35c price tag if that format had proven to be more popular. DC tested the market by advertising three books in Summer, 1971.

The First Super-Specs

Nelson Bridwell was also right in estimating that the demand for DC reprints was high. The first three titles tested the market. One of the magazines was a horror/suspense reprint, another was a collection of love stories, and the third was a title. The romance title did not sell well at all at the 50c size, although the “regular” series was still selling at usual numbers. The horror book, with a fine cover by Berni Wrightson, sold well enough, but the superhero book (with a cover) was the clear sales winner.

A spotlight of the contents of the three books shows how broadly Bridwell was setting his trap for readers.

Entitled Weird Mystery Tales, issue 4 contained nine stories from the late-fifties Silver Age. These tales came from all across DC’s suspense titles: ; House of Secrets; My Greatest Adventure; and Tales of the Unexpected. With such diverse content, it was unlikely that suspense fans had read all of them. Rounding out the book were three Golden Age tales (from Sensation Mystery and ), all of which were somewhat scarce.

The Love Stories giant (issue 5) contained mostly newer material from the mid- Sixties. The rest of the stories appear to have been planned for Girls’ Romances but not used until this book. It cannot be a coincidence that the last issue of that title was the only issue to continue from a 15c regular-size book to a 25c giant (52 page) book. It is also no coincidence that the final Girls’ Romances issue was cover-dated October, 1971 – just before the Super-Specs started.

In issue 6, Neal Adams had paid tribute to the cover of All-Star #16 (April/May 1943) with his striking wraparound. The book cleverly reprinted the first two stories (from JLA 21-22), which featured both Silver- and Golden-Age heroes. The rest of the book was split between GA and SA heroes, most of whom were currently appearing nowhere.

Bridwell’s genius had captured a fair number of readers, and the stage was set for the Super-Specs to take the place of both the “G” and “S” series of giants.

Adding Quality to the DC Line

Naturally, and Batman were chosen to lead the way, and the decision was made to offer up one Super-Spectacular per month, following the same format of 100 pages with no advertising. With these issues, DC began re- introducing the world to the characters. DC had continued several Quality titles (most notably GI Combat and Blackhawk) in November, 1956, right after the company folded. However, DC had decided not to publish Quality’s mainstream hero titles like , , and Kid . Perhaps with the superhero genre not being as popular as it once had been, DC saw no need to add more characters – at least not until its own pantheon was revived.

At roughly the ten-year mark after Plastic Man’s last original appearance, DC decided to re-introduce the character. Plastic Man was revived first as a persona of Robby “ for Hero” Reed; later that year (November/December) his own series was revived. It lasted only ten issues. Aside from the occasional guest appearance, the next Plastic Man book was DC Special #15 (cover-dated November/December, 1971). This appearance coincided with a conscious decision at DC to see whether to introduce the Quality heroes.

To a great extent, that re-introduction came in the Super-Spectaculars. Even as the Plastic Man special was going to press, a tale was slated for inclusion in the next Super-Spectacular (cover-dated December, 1971/January, 1972). That issue, formally Superman #245 but also called “DC-7,” also contained reprints featuring the , Super-, Wave, and – in addition to one Golden-Age Superman story and a Silver-Age Superman classic.

Plastic Man returned in the Batman Super-Spectacular the following month (Batman #238 = Super-Spec DC-8, January, 1972). Along with two Golden-Age Batman stories were reprints featuring the , Sargon, the Atom, , and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The LSH had lost their title (Adventure) to in June, 1969, but they had been revived as a backup feature in (with #377) so this book made a good test for the group – to see whether they remained popular. Bridwell himself had been responsible for repositioning the characters with (beginning with issue #172). As it turned out, the Legion later earned a reprint mini-series. Instead of obtaining a new title of their own, they took over Superboy’s book, beginning with issue #197.

In the “G” series, every thirteen issues of had been a giant-sized issue. The most recent OAAW giant, G-80, had been formally labeled Our Army at War #229. The title had been quite popular, and so the sequence continued with Our Army at War #242 (known in the Super-Spec series as DC-9). Consisting entirely of Silver Age reprints, the book retained its usual level of popularity.

Adventure Comics had also been placed on a thirteen-issue giant rotation – even though there had been just two giants prior to the coming of the Super-Specs. Still, Adventure #416 was slated to be a giant. Since Supergirl now controlled the title, this issue was devoted to female superheroes, giving DC the opportunity to reprint no less than four Golden-Age stories. Continuing the trend of reviving Quality Comics characters, a appearance from Police Comics was included here. [DC asserted that it owned Phantom Lady along with the other Quality characters, although Charlton believed to have purchased the rights to publish the character, in a string of sales running back to the Iger Studio – who believed that they owned the character. DC essentially won that battle by threatening a lawsuit against AC Comics, who thought they bought the character from Charlton.] Also reprinted here was ’s first GA appearance from #86; the character had recently been revived (JLA #21) and moved to Earth- One (JLA #74, 9/69). She had appeared successfully in Brave and the Bold #91 (August/September, 1970) and had been popularly linked with the revived Green ( #78, July, 1970). Consequently, a reprint of the character’s made sense.

Meanwhile, had been on a nine-issue cycle of giant-sized appearances, ever since issue 160. That cycle continued with Flash #214 (Super-Spectacular DC-11), featuring heroes like . This issue also revived Quicksilver by reprinting an appearance from Quality’s . A previously-unpublished GA Flash story also graced its pages.

Everyone’s favorite retcon teen, Superboy, had been appearing in giants once per year. His next scheduled appearance was issue 185, also known as DC-12. That issue showcased teen superheroes, including the Star-Spangled Kid and Little Boy Blue, who hadn’t been seen in some time. Meanwhile, another Kid Eternity reprint found its way into the book, keeping readers’ minds on the Quality Comics line owned by DC.

The following month’s issue of Superman (#252 and DC-13) was devoted to flying heroes. Reaching way back into the obscure, DC pulled out from Quality’s . Accompanying Supes and Black Condor were Hawkman, , , and the Spectre. But wait! There was a Quality double- shot in this issue, with an appearance of the Ray – all the way from Smash Comics #17 in 1940.

Suddenly, the Super-Spectacular title schedule was shut down, coinciding with a decision that same month to take all of DC’s regular titles down to 32-page size (from 52 pages). The following month, DC tried out a digest book (164 pages for 50¢), but it did not sell well. Would DC sell more copies with normal- sized 20¢ books than with a fleet of giants? Possibly. The company waited eight months to find out. Batman #243, which would have been a giant, instead gave us the first part of a three-part classic Neal Adams tale. During that time, the only giant book that was on DC’s schedule was a tabloid-sized tryout for what would become Limited Collector’s Edition. This book, devoted to Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer, reprinted Golden-Age appearances by the famous animal and his friends. [For the record, it came out in late October, 1972.] Technically, that book was considered part of a set of nineteen “other giants” that did not otherwise belong to a series. That book and the series that followed it were also Bridwell creations.

Back from Hiatus: the Super-Specs Return

Also in 1972, DC licensed the from Fawcett. Plans were underway to revive all of the major players in Captain Marvel’s universe. DC wound up purchasing the whole Fawcett superhero line in 1980. Meanwhile, DC’s promotion of Captain Marvel involved the creation of a new series (called !) that began with an issue cover-dated February, 1973. Thus, at this point DC began reviving the line of yet another of their former competitors.

Also having a cover date of February 1973, the Super-Specs returned as a stand- alone series. The Batman spectacular that could have been given to us as Batman #243 was instead served up as issue DC-14. With paper costs continuing to rise, the title was now promoted as the “Biggest Bargain in Comics!” The “no ads” format had been retained, and the Super-Spectaculars were as popular as ever – if not more so.

That Batman issue contained a two-part Batman/vampire story from 1939, a reprint of the first “new Batmobile” tale from 1950, plus appearances of the Wildcat, the Atom, and . A Quality reprint of Blackhawk (from issue 10) appears here as well, and making his first post-Quality appearance in this issue is Doll Man.

The March issue (DC-15) of the revived Super-Spec title was labeled as a Superboy issue, although it featured superhero youngsters from all around DC’s mythos. This issue did not feature any of the Quality characters, but the and Sandy are represented along with another Kirby group, the . Both the Commandos and Sandman had been featured as backup reprints in the 52-page issues of Mister Miracle and Forever People, respectively. Readers had seemed to like those reprints. Now that those titles were reduced to standard twenty-cent size, other avenues were sought to bring those classic tales to light. Boy Commandos wound up getting its own reprint title later that year (October). Alas, that title was only popular enough to last two issues. At least the Kirby reprints from lasted until April/May, 1975.

In the next issue – devoted to war stories and entitled Sgt. Rock, Nelson Bridwell explained that there were two reasons why very few war stories were being reprinted from : first, most of the stories were not realistic and modern fans preferred realism; secondly, many stories from the period contained racial stereotypes that DC did not wish to resurrect. Therefore, issue DC-16 contains no stories older than 1959.

The June installment in the series was devoted to the of America. Naturally, a Golden-Age Justice Society reprint also appears here. Also padding the issue (and not mentioned on the front or back cover) was another Kirby Sandman reprint. Was the lack of a Quality reprint indicative of an editorial decision to drop the characters? Absolutely not. In fact, bigger and better plans were in the works for Quality’s line of heroes.

Issue DC-18 was published in April and cover-dated July. Devoted to Superman, it featured no less than three super-stories: one from the Silver Age and two Golden-Age treats. The Atom appears here in both Silver and Golden incarnations, giving readers the chance to contrast the two characters. TNT and Dyna-Mite and the make rare appearances here, too. The other story in the issue starred the obscure Captain -- a Quality character who had appeared in Crack Comics from issue 27 through issue 62.

DC’s first issue of the long-running Tarzan book was cover-dated April, 1972. The title had migrated to DC from Gold with issue 207 – three months before the drop in price from 25c to 20c. Strip reprints from 1969 and 1970 appear in this issue of 100 Page Super-Spectacular (DC-19), which came out in May and was cover-dated August. “Tarzan and the Elephants’ Guardian reprints Sunday strips from January 12 to May 11, 1969. “Tarzan and the Prisoners in Opar” reprints strips from May 11 to November 30, 1969. “How I Met Tarzan” reprints strips from December 7, 1969, to February 8, 1970. “Tembo Haven” reprints strips from February 15 to May 31, 1970. Bridwell’s Super Spectacles column this time stated that plans were already underway for the next four issues of the magazine.

As advertised in Super-Spec DC-19, later in the merry month of May DC chose to reprint a set of Captain Marvel stories in the tabloid size, officially inaugurating the Limited Collectors’ Edition series. Almost immediately, that series seemed to rival this one. Would readers prefer 68 jumbo-sized pages for a dollar, or would they rather have 100 regular pages for fifty cents? For the time being, fans wanted both, but the Super-Specs were really catching on.

The Batman giants had always proven to be popular with readers, and Super- Spectacular DC-20 was no exception. Two- had been revived for the Bronze Age by artist Neal Adams in Batman #234 (August, 1971), and fans had been calling for reprints of early appearances of the character. DC did not disappoint, providing here three stories from the Golden Age, including the “original” Two- Face’s only three appearances, including his death. The Spectre, Black Canary, Starman, Wildcat, and Dr. Mid-Nite were all reprinted in this issue. In fact, the whole book was devoted to Golden Age reprints. This time, the Blackhawk Squadron story from Quality’s Blackhawk #13 represented that publisher.

DC’s commitment to reviving the Quality characters took a new turn that month. With a September/October date, Justice League of America #107 treated readers to a full-scale revival of the Quality line. The latest in the “crisis” series of stories brought us to Earth-X, where the Nazis had won World War Two, and where Uncle Sam, the Phantom Lady, the Human Bomb, the Ray, the Black Condor, and Doll Man still fought injustice as the Freedom Fighters. The story arc continued into issue #108.

Kid Eternity was the Quality character chosen to appear in the next Superboy spectacular (DC-21), which was cover-dated October, 1973. One Golden-Age Superboy story and two Silver-Age appearances highlighted the issue, along with a Legion of Super-Heroes story from . Supergirl and the first appearance of the Teen from #54 made the issue complete.

The Flash Super-Spectacular (DC-22) offered fans two reprints of Silver-Age Flash stories, one Golden-Age story, and one appearance each of the and Johnny Quick. Yet again the title was popular, and plans had been in the works for several months to publish issue DC-23, a Shazam book devoted to the Marvel Family.

By this time, however, rising costs had necessitated a change. The Shazam Super- Spectacular did come out, complete with Nelson Bridwell’s Super-Spectacles column, but with 88 pages of story and ads to fill out the book – instead of the previous no-ads format. The giants had been so popular, too, that DC had decided to expand several of their books to Super-Spectacular size on a regular basis. Detective, Batman, Superman, Justice League of America, two romance titles, and Hour joined the giant-size pantheon right away – with other titles following suit. Within a few months, twenty-cent sized Superman’s Pal became giant-sized Superman Family. Tarzan and Shazam began regular runs at 100-page size, with other books like Superboy and Wonder Woman hosting occasional Super-Spectaculars.

At the beginning of 1974, the price rose from 50c to 60c, and with the size now “typical” instead of “spectacular,” the Super-Spectacular title was dropped from the cover of books cover-dated after April-May, 1974.

As costs continued to rise, DC bumped the price of its regular-sized books to 25¢ on issues cover-dated January, 1975. Since they had been selling for 60¢ for a full year, the giant-sized magazines temporarily avoided that price hike, but just three months later, on books dated March/April, 1975, DC decided to stop publishing the larger size entirely.

When Batman #262 came out in January, 1975 (and cover-dated April), the reference to its size had been removed from the cover. Instead, the book cost only 50¢ but was now just 64 pages in size. Although their super-spectacular name had been gone for nearly a year, it was the reduction in size brought on by rising paper costs that finally brought an end to the special format.

The return of the 64-page size brought with it the revival of DC Special, the creation of new titles like DC Super-Stars, Four-Star Spectacular, and Batman Family, and it prompted Korak to inaugurate Tarzan Family. However, the price of regular-sized books wound up going to 30c on books cover-dated April, 1976. This brought with it a reduction in page size of the giants. Beginning in April/May, they were just 52 pages long. DC had started the Super-Spec trend just before dropping from a giant size of 52 pages for 25¢ to a regular size of 36 pages for 20¢. Now just five years later, DC had giant books costing 50¢ and regular-sized books costing 30¢.

Alas, the inflationary period of the late 1970’s created several more changes at DC. All of the dates shown below are cover dates. April/May 1977 – first Dollar Comic – 80 pages with ads June, 1977 – regular titles go to 35c; 52-page giants go to 60c. August, 1978 – last 52-page giant September, 1978 – The DC Explosion. All titles go to 44 pages for 50c. September/October, 1978 – Dollar Comics go to 68 pages with no ads December, 1978 – regular titles drop to 36 pages for 40c. September/October, 1979 – Dollar Comics go to 68 pages with ads; this month DC tries out a digest-sized, 100-page book at 95c ( and other Tales). The Best of DC begins as a 100-page digest April/May, 1980 – first issue of DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest (100 pages for 95c). May/June, 1980 – The Best of DC digest increases to 144 pages for 95c. This only happens for one issue; the following issue is 100 pages again. September, 1980 – regular titles increase to 50c. December, 1980 – Dollar Comics drop to 52 pages. Note that these $1.00 books are the same size as the books that had cost 25c in 1971 and 50c in 1976. October, 1981 – regular titles increase to 60c. August, 1982 – The DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest is cancelled, replaced by Adventure Comics digest in September. September, 1982 – last Dollar Comic title; that same month DC inaugurates the 95c, 100-page Adventure Comics digest. October, 1982 – GI Combat sells at 72 pages for $1.50. After this, the title drops to 44 pages for $1.00. Note that this is twice the DC Explosion price from 1978. That same month, the Best of DC digest and Adventure Comics digest increase to $1.25. September, 1983 – Last issue of Adventure Comics (digest) December, 1983 – GI Combat increases to 44 pages for $1.25. August, 1984 – the Best of DC digest increases to $1.50. March, 1986 – GI Combat drops to regular 75c size. April, 1986 – Best of DC digest is cancelled.

Throughout the years, rising paper costs forced DC to consider several formats for its giant-sized books, but perhaps the most fondly remembered of those formats was Nelson Bridwell’s 100-Page Super- Spectacular. Simultaneously, Bridwell helped revive interest in DC’s Golden Age and brought interest to the company’s newly-acquired properties. Characters who normally could not sustain an entire book were given space in the Super-Specs alongside well-established characters. E. Nelson Bridwell proved himself to be a genius in many ways. The Super-Specs are a to that genius.

How rare are the Super-Spectaculars?

In the table below are the numbers of books that sold on eBay in the month of November, 2007. In addition, the final column shows the numbers of copies that have been slabbed by CGC.

Super-Spectacular Census 30 Nv 2007 Issue eBay CGC HCA Issue eBay CGC HCA No. 4 1 63 5 DC-14 9 32 10 No. 5 1 33 4 DC-15 5 44 11 No. 6 7 83 10 DC-16 2 26 4 DC-7 12 24 2 DC-17 7 25 6 DC-8 4 34 3 DC-18 8 35 10 DC-9 6 18 1 DC-19 2 19 8 DC-10 6 38 1 DC-20 2 34 10 DC-11 6 39 3 DC-21 3 15 2 DC-12 6 15 2 DC-22 9 25 8 DC-13 8 45 3

CGC Super-Spectacular Census 06 Ja 2020 Issue CGC Issue CGC No. 4 152 DC-14 73 No. 5 79 DC-15 76 No. 6 186 DC-16 57 DC-7 58 DC-17 53 DC-8 122 DC-18 86 DC-9 40 DC-19 34 DC-10 86 DC-20 71 DC-11 95 DC-21 40 DC-12 33 DC-22 66 DC-13 137

As we interpret the census from 2007, we noted that some copies that sold on eBay had been slabbed by CGC as well. Thus, the two columns are not mutually exclusive. To some extent, the CGC census has to be discounted, because the most valuable issues (No. 4 – No. 6), the most popular to collectors, and the hardest to find in grades (No. 4, No. 20) tended to be slabbed more frequently than the others.

The HCA column indicates copies sold through Heritage Comic Auctions. A number of these were slabbed by CGC as well.

In 2007, we judged the relative popularity of the books in the series and concluded that these were the hardest-to-find, with the scarcest of the titles listed first:

No. 5 – Love Stories DC-21 – Superboy DC-9 – Our Army at War No. 4 – Weird Mystery Tales DC-16 – Sgt. Rock DC-12 – Superboy

Since that time, interest in the Love Stories issue rose dramatically, and CGC has certified more copies of it. Now in 2020, it appears that the two Superboy issues, Our Army at War, and Sgt. Rock remain on the list of scarcest issues. Joined by these in the Top Five is the Justice League of America issue (DC-17).

DC-12 33 DC-19 34 DC-9 40 DC-21 40 DC-17 53

Issues No. 6 and No. 4 have been slabbed the most times, although part of their frequency there may be attributable to the collectability of the books themselves. Following them in popularity are the first Superman and Batman volumes. The most frequent books occur over four times as often in the census as the scarcest ones. DC was clearly aware that the giant-sized Superboy and Sgt. Rock issues were not selling as well as the others in the set, for neither title jumped to 100-page size in 1973 when the Super-Specs entered the mainstream series for the second time.

© 2007, 2020 Frank Daniels