The Legion of Super-Heroes Subscription ad

 

I'm running short on time this week as I prepare to head down to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. So I am giving you an old DC subscription ad to The Legion of Super-Heroes. I was fortunate as a kid to always have a local comic store. Even when I moved up to Northern Canada as an early teen, the town had just opened a new comic shop. I never had to get a subscription.

I would be curious about others experience with it. Did you have a comic book subscriptions back in the day? Did they arrive in good shape or were they ever mangled? Just curious...leave a comment if you've have any stories to share.
 

House Ad - The 1990's - Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City

Dark Knight, Dark City ran in Batman 452-454 back in 1990. A good story arc, it would later go on to be used in Grant Morrison's Batman run twenty years later. Check out this interesting article and comparison on the Comics Alliance website.

www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/01/batman-and-robin-16-preview-dark-knight-dark-city/

More proper ads to come next week.

Marvel Galaxy of Super-Stars

Year
1982

Spotted in

 

House Ad - The Outsiders

From 1985 comes an ad for the Outsiders. The Outsiders came about when Batman wanted to rescue 

Lucius Fox from Baron Bedlam, who had killed King Viktorin, ruler of the fictional European country of Markovia. Batman asked the Justice League for help but they refused saying they had been ordered to stay out of the conflict. Batman said "screw you ", left the team and headed to Markovia taking a non-leaguer by the name of Black Lightning with him. While in Markovia they picked up Geo-Force, Metamorpho, Katana and Halo, thus forming the Outsiders. 

The ad above is for volume two of the Outsiders, now without Batman.

House Ads - The 1980's - Charlton Ditko

I've been thinking about Steve Ditko lately. I recently watched the great documentary "In Search of Steve Ditko" by Jonathan Ross. This in turn lead me to buying the Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 1 as well as Ditko's Mr. A comic. Steve Ditko is the comic world's JD Salinger, but where they differ, at least I think they differ is in their motives for becoming recluses. To be fair Ditko never did completely drop out of sight and his work can still be found in various comics since leaving Spider-Man (the character he co-created with Stan Lee) and Marvel back in the sixties. He did a productive stint at DC creating Hawk and Dove and the Creeper amongst others things followed by work at Charlton Comics before returning to DC to create Shade, the Changing Man.

Ditko later did work with Jim Shooter's start-up company Valiant working on the companies WWF wrestling comic. Shooter recently talked about this period over at his blog. 

 

The most interesting thing I've read about Steve Ditko was his requirements for accepting work on comics.  He believed in the true hero. No gray areas here. The hero must be good. It's black and white and he expressed these ideas as far back as his Mr. A comic. You will never see a Ditko penciled Punisher story. Ditko was profoundly influenced by Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism...

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

 

House ad - The 80's - Captain Carrot

 
What I want to know is where is Captain Carrot in this whole New 52? Bring him back! The Captain and his Zoo Crew were there for Final Crisis...

Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew in Final Crisis #7

Marvel Mutant Massacre Map

Marvel's Mutant Massacre. Found in X-Factor #9. 1986

Star Comics

From 1985 comes a Marvel house ad for the Star Comics line. The line started the year before in 1984 and primarily featured adaptations of children's cartoons and toys. The only one I remember reading was Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. I was immediately fell in love with the play on words...Porker! Spider-Ham! How can you not love that...

House Ad- The Seventies - The DC Line

From 1974 comes a left over from the special series I did on house ads. "The Line of DC Superstars." Just in time for the impending DC line-wide reboot that starts this week I believe.

House ads - The 1990's - Starman

This just looks...so bad.

House Ad- The 1990's -Ravage 2099

So I finally found a Marvel house ad and it's a bad one. Ravage 2099. This book stank. Ravage was created by Stan Lee and was the first new creation in the Marvel 2099 family of books. Read this article for more information. Bad book....really bad book. Were they trying to go for a Jonah Hex look? Yikes.

House ad - The 1990's - Nintendo comics from Valiant

An ad from Valiant Comics before they released their superhero line. Speaking of Valiant, they are set to return in 2012

House Ad - The 1990's - Wonder Woman #50

 

So I've been looking through my back issues trying to find house ads from the nineties. One thing that is jumping out at me is the lack of house ads in Marvel books of that era. Granted my collection screeches to a halt at around 1993, there is nothing but video game and tie in merchandise ads. I guess the more advertising revenue you have the less house ads you need. Just take a look at a Dark Horse or other early independent book, full of house ads. So nineties week is going to be heavy in the DC field with a couple of the smaller publishing houses thrown in. Maybe Dark Horse, maybe some Valiant. Doesn't mean they are bad ads. Here's one for Perez's Wonder Woman.  

House ad - 1990's -Batman: Knightfall

 
 Today starts the last week in House Ad month. In the past three weeks we covered the 60's, 70's, 80's and now the 90's. Lets start the week with a house ad for a big nineties event...Batman: Knightfall. 

House ad - The 80's- King Conan

House Ad - 1980's - Marvel Treasury Edition #28

I remember my mom picking this up for me when I was a kid. I was almost a 100% DC fan and this was the first exposure to Marvel outside of the old Spider-Man cartoon. Jump over to Jim Shooters blog where he just finished going over the genesis of the project and all the drama that went with it. 

House Ad - 1980's - Power Man and Iron Fist

House Ad - 1980's - Battle of the Planets

1981. Battle of the Planets from Gold Key comics. Since this ad is from a comic my mom most likely bought for me at a K-Mart it was released by Whitman.

House Ad - The 1980's - Coyote

From 1983 comes an ad for Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers Coyote.This book was on Marvel's creator owned line Epic. Read about the origins of Epic over at Jim Shooters blog. This is a book I'd like to read someday.

House Ad - The 1970's - Superman Family #200

From 1979. Oh pre-Crisis DC...these Superman Family stories were ridiculous but I loved them as a kid. Listen to these story synopsis pulled from http://dc.wikia.com.

Synopsis for "Unhappy Anniversary"

Lois Kent discovers she is pregnant, and, since she wanted to resume her reporting career, is driven to tears by the turn of events. Laura Kent, in the meantime, finally starts exhibiting super-powers. Clark solves the problem for Lois by saying he will give up his reporting career, though not his fatherly or superheroic ones, and Lois will be allowed to be the reporter in the family. They are reconciled in time for a wedding anniversary party attended by all their longtime friends and colleagues

Synopsis for "The Thief at Sky's Edge!"

Lucy Lane-Olsen loses a statuette intended as an anniversary gift for Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and Jimmy decides to retrace her trip to see if he will be victimized by the same thieves who took it.

Synopsis for "Clark Kent's Frantic Fan"

While his daughter Laura is finally manifesting super-powers, Clark Kent is victimized by an elderly “fan”.

Synopsis for "Something Swims the Time Stream"

Superwoman, now Governor Linda Danvers of Florida, goes back through the time-stream and films highlights in the relationship of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, intending to give them the film as an anniversary gift, since both of them are married. However, she encounters a Time Beast which preys on travelers in the time-stream. Since she cannot effectively destroy it due to its ability to manipulate the time-flow around itself, Supergirl flees, luring the creature to the very edge of time. The Time Beast then rapidly ages and dies. Superwoman returns to her native time with the film.

Next week are house ads from the eighties.