Here's the kind of comic book publishers' ad that you just don't see anymore!
(Click to Enlarge!)
From various DC Comics released in early 1966 (February or March?).
It not only crosses characters, but GENRES as well!
Like THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD # 65 (Cover Date: April-May, 1966), still two issues shy of becoming the de facto "Batman Team-Up" book, which it would remain until its end in 1983!
And the immortal (at least to me) BATMAN # 180 (Cover Date: May, 1966) - the SECOND BATMAN comic I ever bought! (Its predecessor, # 179, being the FIRST!)
This issue featured the one-shot villain "Death Man", who thanks to fandom overseas (primarily Japan) is now known as "Lord Death Man"...
...And has since appeared in the animated series BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and the BATMAN '66 comic book! (...By now, probably more!)
...And it all started with this comic!
But we also BREAK GENRE with this "Paul McCartney lookalike" known as SCOOTER!
Scooter even rates an official welcoming plug from none other than Superman and Lois Lane!
Anyone who could get the Silver Age Superman to say "It's DC's newest swingin' star -- SCOOTER! Everybody'll dig him!" must be quite groovy indeed!
Alas, Scooter was a little "too swingin' for me" - even back in the "too swingin' sixties"...
...And, while I will ALWAYS have a soft spot for "Go-Go Dancing Penny Robinson" and her groovin' fellow space traveler, Swingin' Smith...
...I did take a pass on SCOOTER!
However, an ad like this did sell me on TWO of the THREE comics therein...
...And that's not a bad success rate, by any means!
Besides, back then, Superman did enough... er, "swingin' of his own" to keep me entertained!
...Scooter, I think you got away easy!
6 comments:
Never bought any issues of Scooter. It looked like a girl's comic. I did see that ad in other DC comics. They were really pushing it hard, and were obviously trying to jump on the Beatles band wagon.
Speaking of obviously jumping on the bandwagon and exploiting a fad, The Brave & the Bold became "a de facto 'Batman team-up book'" in 1966-67, when the campy TV series was a hit and the Batmania was sweeping the country. Batman was in B&B #67-71, and then had an uninterrupted run from #74 to #200, when the title was cancelled.
Of course, the fad passed and the TV show was cancelled in 1968, but the character did regain much of his popularity in the 1970s, after Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams restored the grim Dark Knight image.
TC:
Like every publisher, DC was not averse to “jumping on bandwagons”, especially during the period of that ad! Look at the BOB HOPE title in its final years – from the chronicles of a girl-crazy reluctant adventurer, to “teens, super-teens, and monsters”!
I never bought anything that smacked of being an “Archie-clone”, much less one that looked to be additionally based on “Beatlemania”. Heck, I hardly ever bought the “real Archie”! …But I certainly did enjoy The Beatles – even in their SatAM Animated series!
Funny thing about THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD is that, while it DID become “The Batman-Team-Up Book” due to the meteoric success of the 1966 TV series, it REMAINED so long after the TV series – and several later animated incarnations – ran its/their course! The association became so strong that the more recent “The Batman-Team-Up Animated Series” was named BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD!
Speaks well for the versatility and adaptability of the character.
The Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams run (…and let’s not forget Frank Robbins at the same time) may have been the best run of Batman in comic books – but, as with so many other things in life, by some time in the 2000’s, the “Dark Knight approach” was taken too far, and needs to be walked back – at least to Bronze Age through mid ‘90s levels!
It does seem odd that B&B became a Batman comic on a permanent basis after the Batmania fad passed. I would have expected it to go back to the mix-and-match team-up format after 1968. Flash and Doom Patrol in one issue, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter in another, and so on.
And, yeah, DC has gone overboard with grimdark. I don't necessarily want Batman to go back to the 1966 camp comedy version (or the animated cartoon version who was not even allowed to throw a punch), but the "I'm the g*d-d@#ned Batman" version is no better than the villains.
Couldn't agree more, TC!
I think the Bronze Age may have struck the best balance - when you factor in stories by O'Neil and Robbins, counterbalanced by Bob Haney!
Oh, so the Lord Death Man character actually was from the original comics? I knew of him from an article about those Japanese bootlegs, and since 'Lord' or no 'Lord' the name sounds a bit off, as for that matter does the concept, I'd always assumed he was a fully original creation.
Achille:
“Lord Death Man” or, as I knew him – and still prefer him to be – “Death Man” (seems less awkward that way), was indeed an intended one-shot villain from the 1966 Batman comics!
My pure guess is that “LORD Death Man” evolved out of the process of translating the character’s name into Japanese, and then back into English!
After reading that story in early 1966, I never saw or heard anything about the character again… until the 21st Century, learning that he was “rebranded with a upgrade in rank” and was somewhat of a sensation outside the United States!
…And, to think, he actually originated in the SECOND BATMAN COMIC BOOK I READ!
For what it’s worth, the very popular POISON IVY also originated in THE VERY NEXT ISSUE – and the THIRD BATMAN comic I read!
It’s nice to have vicariously been a part of so much comics history!
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