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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

DC Comics Subscription Ad - 1981

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This exuberant subscription ad ran in many months' worth of DC's 1981 comics, and features, somewhat surprisingly, Aquaman along with his other superhero pals.

For some reason, I couldn't help but fill out these subscription forms, even though I never had enough money to actually subscribe to any of the books. To that end, almost all the comics I have that ran this ad feature my chicken-scratch handwriting. Luckily, F.O.A.M.er Andy Mangels sent me this nice and clean version. Thanks Andy!

Its a little surprising, really, that Aquaman got included, since post-1970 he has a very low batting average for showing up in subscription ads. Its even more surprising when you realize Green Lantern--who of course is a much-bigger star than Aquaman (/sarcasm)--isn't on here at all.

Love those Dick Giordano head-shots!


Just before I posted this, I remembered I had a scan of this ad that featured my aforementioned chicken scratch. Here it is:
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I'm not proud that I mauled one of my beloved comics (in this case Justice League of America #189), but we all do crazy stuff when we're young.

5 comments:

David J. Cutler said...

This is something I used to do, too, Rob, without giving it much thought. In retrospect I think there were three things going on: a little bit of fantasizing, a little bit of preparing in case I ever found a 50 on the sidewalk or something, and a LOT of hoping my mom would find the page open and filled out and take pity on her young offspring doing the rest of the work for me.

I actually did have some subscriptions in my high school years--Robin, Nightwing, and Amazing Spider-Man. I don't have a preferred company, but I'll say this: while the DC books were often very late arriving their condition was immaculate. Marvel's were very close to the comic shop sell date, but in the worst condition I'd ever seen. The first issue I got was sealed in plastic and yet somehow the cover was unattached and split open down the fold.

So subscriptions ended up being a pain but there was no comic shop for hundreds of miles--c'est la vie!

Bribaby said...

I never had a very positive experience with the subscription service of either DC or Marvel. The comics always arrived late, folded up, and too often not at all. But I was still gamely trying as late as the mid-90's. I once had to call Baldwin, NY, I believe, to report that I hadn't received any of my comics for that month, and as I was giving the lady the list -- Wonder Woman, Transmetropolitan, The Creeper -- she suddenly cut me off: "The Creepuh!" she exclaimed, as if she were horrifed that such a publication existed.

IADW said...

Ha! I used to do that to - sadly on the back of the mini comics that came with the Kenner Super Powers too.

Dam you ink! Why aren't you removable with regret?

Rick L. Phillips said...

I cutout a coupon to order the first meeting between Superman and Spider-man in Black Lightning #1. But for the supes spidey meeting it was worth it.

Colin Smith said...

It's so hard to look at that subs list & not go through it making choices as if the titles were still available. I can't help but realise MY choices now would be completely different to then. Jonah Hex and Super-Friends would be top of my list now, but not then.

As long as I've not paid too much for a back issue, I quite like it if the subs page is filled in. It's always interesting to see what people actually wanted to order back when, and this is a form of primary evidence which is far more trustworthy than memory.(I mean in general, Rob, Dave & Bribaby: I wouldn't imagine you'd fib about past tastes.) I don't mind the odd page in a back issue being defaced for the brief window back into someone else's long-ago wishing-list it offers.