Aquaman
#44 o/s 7 Jan 1969. I think I may have gotten this after a visit to the doctor. At least I remember reading it in the drug store.
Teen
Titans
#20 o/s 23 Jan 1969. I think I must have gotten this one after it had been on the stands for a while, because I seem to remember having reading it at my grandparents' house when cousins from out-of-state came in during Easter (6 Apr that year).
Superman's
Girl Friend Lois Lane
#91 o/s 13 Feb 1969. Although it's not obvious from the covers, this comic and Superman #215 have a similar theme. They are both "Imaginary Tales" of the marriage of Superman and Lois Lane. As I discuss in the main blog write-up for them, which I do as one, my memories of the stories actually blended into one. It would be fascinating to know what thinking was behind the publication of these two stories virtually concurrently. [blog]
Aquaman
#45 o/s 4 Mar 1969. Another one I associate with the drug store. Maybe I'd been to the doctor again. Or, it occurs to me, maybe it was my brother - he was kind of sickly as a child (he grew out of it) - and maybe it was a "consolation comic" for me being dragged to the doctor's office with him.
World's Finest #184 o/s 13 Ma 1969
This is one I missed on my initial pass through Mike's Time Machine images of covers, but was reminded of it when I saw the interior scans on Steven Thompson's The World's Finest Blog, posted 27 Oct 2013. A little jog to the old memory banks and I recall it well. Thanks, Steven!
World's Finest #184 o/s 13 Ma 1969
This is one I missed on my initial pass through Mike's Time Machine images of covers, but was reminded of it when I saw the interior scans on Steven Thompson's The World's Finest Blog, posted 27 Oct 2013. A little jog to the old memory banks and I recall it well. Thanks, Steven!
Superman's
Girl Friend Lois Lane
#92 o/s 25 Mar 1969. I have a memory of reading this on my
grandparents' patio.
Adventure
Comics
#380 o/s 27 Mar 1969. I remember reading this one in my parents'
new den, which I believe was built on to our house in the summer of
1968. Little did I know that the Legion would not be in the next
issue of Adventure....
Superman
#217 Giant #G-60 o/s 8 Apr 1969. I well remember several stories
from this comic – the first Supergirl, whom I didn't know had
originally been colored as the Kara Supergirl but recolored here so as not to confuse us little tykes; the origin of
Metallo.... It seems to me like I picked it up at a short-lived newsstand on Forsythe Avenue. I think it was also a "consolation-comic" for being sick.
Action
Comics
#377 o/s 29 Apr 1969. Legion of Super-Heroes
landed here as a back-up … this time as a lackluster reprint. I remember being dismayed by the stiffer art and simplistic story. I later developed an appreciation for these earlier stories, but then not so much. See my comment regarding the price increase at Aquaman #46 below.
Aquaman
#46 o/s 6 May 1969. This is the comic that I associate with the
jump to 15 cents. Perhaps I got it before the earlier issues immediately above; I doubt they were all as part of one stack because I think was allowed one comic per store visit; that's my memory, although I'm not sure how long that lasted. And Dick Giordano
printed a half-page apology for the price increase. ... Mera's story. Another memorable cover from Nick Cardy. And I remember a few issues hence a letter writer complained that ever since this issue his brother had been shouting "YOU DIE!!" at every opportunity.
Superman
#218 o/s 6 May 1969. This is one I had no memory of until I saw
the cover, then memories of the story came back to me.
Teen
Titans
#22 o/s 15 May 1969. Wonder Girl having fainting spells due to the absence of Paradise Island. We also find that she's essentially homeless, living in Titans h.q.
Superboy
#158 o/s 20 May 1969. This is another I had two copies of, this
time not my fault. I already had a copy when my mother's aunt and
uncle came to visit, and had bought me a comic book on the way.
Justice
League of America
#74 o/s 24 July 1969. I don't think I'd ever read a story with the Earth-2 "Golden Age" Superman before. I'm not sure I liked the idea of Black Canary immigrating to Earth-1 either.
Justice
League of America
#75 o/s 11 Sep 1969. Um, no? ... Okay, over time I grew to love Black Canary, but at the time I considered her a weak sister interloper.
World's
Finest Comics
#189 o/s 11 Sep 1969. I have a distinct memory of this issue,
where they have cut Superman open to harvest his heart, the panel
being blacked out with a big white block-lettered “CENSORED”
printed diagonally over it. At least that's how I remember it. Here are the panels I found online:
 |
| Source |
Oddly, that source blog seems to indicate that it came from the next issue. I don't know, I didn't even remember it was a multipart story (but would I have?), and I don't remember that cover nearly so well. It wasn't uncommon, as I've mentioned, to miss out on parts of multipart stories in those days because of the precarious nature of newsstand distribution.
Teen
Titans
#24 o/s 18 Sep 1969. I remember a few coloring errors, where the artist had drawn Wonder Girl's new sleeveless costume with sleeves, because of the cold, but the colorist apparently didn't get the memo and continued to color her arms "flesh-tone pink." The result was a line-less transition between the colors at the shoulder.
Batman
#217 o/s 21 Oct 1969. Batman goes on alone after Robin goes away
to college. He and Alfred move into Gotham City. But what I
remember most is trying to throw a nail file so that it would stick
point first into the floor like is done in this issue! ... I'm really surprised that (on my first pass at least, which I'm sure is my most authentic since each pass will expose me to covers that might seem familiar on that count later) I don't remember having any more Batman comics than this.
Justice
League of America
#77 o/s 28 Oct 1969. Snapper Carr had pretty much dropped from
the book before I started reading, therefore I think I know him
mainly from later reprints. So his betrayal didn't move me like it may
have older fans. I never really developed a liking for him.
Aquaman
#49 o/s 4 Nov 1969. I always confused the title of this one, "As the Sea Dies," with #37, "When the Seas Die" (q.v.).
Teen
Titans
#25 o/s 18 Nov 1969. First DC had taken Wonder Woman out of costume (#179), now at the end of this issue the Titans gave up their costumed identities as well. I wasn't happy with this, and really it didn't last nearly as long as with Wonder Woman, but I did keep buying Titans after this and there were some good stories.
Justice
League of America
#78 o/s 11 Dec 1969. I think this issue was my introduction to
Vigilante. For some reason I also identify this issue with the new-look Green Arrow, but looking back he'd been around a while.
Adventure
Comics
#389 o/s 23 Dec 1969.
And that brings us to the end of 1969. I had just turned eight years old the previous month. By this time, the number of comics I remember was increasing beyond practical limits to try to compile a list. I may write entries on some comics from the next couple of years - in fact, I already have a couple in mind - but I'm thinking that this makes as good a cut-off point as any.
And that brings us to the end of 1969. I had just turned eight years old the previous month. By this time, the number of comics I remember was increasing beyond practical limits to try to compile a list. I may write entries on some comics from the next couple of years - in fact, I already have a couple in mind - but I'm thinking that this makes as good a cut-off point as any.
I think I'm one year younger than you, as these 1969 comics represent my first wave of purchases. I loved the covers of this period, as Infantino had started laying them all out and they became quite serious and often sad. I especially remember the Superboy issue with the Neal Adams cover of Superboy exiling himself to the moon, and the great Brown/Wood art inside. One thing I remember from the era of buying my comics from the corner store - I bought most of them in a special DC "3 Pak" - I think there were 3 comics for 40 cents, and the middle comic was always a mystery! I can;t find much info on the web about those. Did you ever buy that way? Anyway - keep up the postings.
ReplyDeleteI was born at the very end of 1961. Yes, the covers during that period were often very striking, and often much better than the art on the inside of the comic. I'm very much in favor of the interior artist(s) providing the cover art for their book, and for a long time considered the use of different, "catchier" artists for the covers to be a lamentable development of more recent years, but obviously have had to shed that misconception, especially when I realized that most DC covers in the early-mid 1970s was provided by the great Nick Cardy. For a period in the late 1960s, as can be seen above, Neal Adams provided many.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't remember buying 3-packs on more than a few occasions. Usually I bought individual issues off a spinner-rack or stand.
Thanks for the encouragement. This was always meant to be a very occasional blog, although I never meant it to be quite so occasional as it's turned out. I'm always thinking about getting back to it though. I have several issues in mind to cover.
Cheers,
Kent