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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 14, 2016 19:02:18 GMT -5
There's a whole thread here about how the Post-Crisis Superman is terrible, too.  |
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Post by realjla on Mar 14, 2016 19:14:14 GMT -5
The best thing about Crisis was that it (eventually) got Cary Bates off Superman.
The worst thing was that it got Curt Swan off Superman on a monthly basis(well, he got to do a whopping 8 pages a month, in 2-page chunks, for the weekly Acton Comics, at least).
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 14, 2016 19:34:37 GMT -5
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Post by realjla on Mar 14, 2016 21:50:21 GMT -5
My favorite part of the 1970-1986 period was Martin Pasko's run in the late '70s. Len Wein also had a good handful of issues in 1979. By the early '80s, though, it was Cary Bates back on both SUPERMAN and ACTION, and, unless Gerry Conway filled in, that era was pretty forgettable. Even Marv Wolfman's 1982-84 stint on ACTION made little impact. When Wolfman left ACTION, DC basically decided to 'preach to the choir', and turn the book into a showcase for 'fun, whimsical, Silver Age-style' stories, sometimes three 8-pagers in one issue. At that point, the Bob Rozakis letter columns were more entertaining than the stories.
As for SUPERMAN, the best issue of the regular title after 1980 was the Julie Schwartz 70th birthday 'surprise' in '85. (Interestingly, Cary Bates was writing some similarly underappreciated, but far more compelling, stuff in THE FLASH up until that title was cancelled. Too bad little of that excitement was to be found in Metropolis).
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Post by zaku on Mar 15, 2016 2:33:05 GMT -5
I don't deny that the Superman precrisis stories were some kind of underestimated jewels, but the undeniable fact is that none were reading them. I read somewhere (maybe I'm wrong) that just before Crisis the Superman comics were around the 80th position in the top 100 Comics Sales. And we are talking about the DC flagship character. There's a whole thread here about how the Post-Crisis Superman is terrible, too. Undoubtedly. But at least people were reading him. Comics publishing is not a some kind of nonprofit activity. Edit. find this: (Vigilante was the most sold DCU comics!)  |
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Post by foxley on Mar 15, 2016 3:57:20 GMT -5
I don't deny that the Superman precrisis stories were some kind of underestimated jewels, but the undeniable fact is that none were reading them. I read somewhere (maybe I'm wrong) that just before Crisis the Superman comics were around the 80th position in the top 100 Comics Sales. And we are talking about the DC flagship character. There's a whole thread here about how the Post-Crisis Superman is terrible, too. Undoubtedly. But at least people were reading him. Comics publishing is not a some kind of nonprofit activity. Edit. find this: (Vigilante was the most sold DCU comics!) What's Tales of the Teen Titans then? Chopped liver? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2016 4:01:33 GMT -5
Of course these were direct market only numbers, to get a complete picture, you would need to get the statement of ownership for Superman that year to see what circulation/sales were on the newsstands and through direct mail subscriptions. Even in the early 80s, newsstand sales were higher than direct sales on most books.
Also of note, which distributor's numbers were those in the chart? -as at that point there were 4-5 distributors to the direct market (Capitol, Geppi/Diamond, Bud Plant and others), and not all of them provided numbers for sales, so I doubt it is the combined total sales for the direct market, but could be combined reported sales for the direct market.
As a side-note, it makes sort of sense that the best selling DC books in the direct market were the direct only books like Vigilante and Omega Men, as they were exclusive to comic shops. No newsstand sales to supplement those numbers.
-M
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Post by zaku on Mar 15, 2016 7:33:08 GMT -5
I found this excellent site (it's using statement of ownership too), but the owner is still working on the 80s...  www.comichron.com/ |
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Post by MDG on Mar 15, 2016 7:54:24 GMT -5
These seem like direct sale numbers--in '84 there was still a good amount of newsstand sales.
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Post by dupersuper on Mar 15, 2016 11:09:27 GMT -5
There's a whole thread here about how the Post-Crisis Superman is terrible, too. There is? |
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Post by Action Ace on Mar 15, 2016 16:42:17 GMT -5
I agree with Greg Hatcher about as often as Superman celebrates a birthday, but I agree with him here. The Maggin/Bates era is one of the highlights in Superman's eight decade career. The part I don't agree with is that it sold well. Superman had the best selling comic on the stands when the decade opened and, like the rest of DC, he was nearly cancelled before the decade was over. 1970 circulation statement 446,678 1981 circulation statement 148,637 (or three times what he sells today) It got so bad in the early 1980s they had to use New Teen Titans to prop up his sales. I grew up in this decade and I was the only kid on the playground that preferred DC to Marvel. The only character they liked was Batman. Four decades later, nothing has really changed. On the bright side, the grocery store rarely sold out of the DC Comics I was looking for. |
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Post by Action Ace on Mar 15, 2016 16:42:58 GMT -5
There's a whole thread here about how the Post-Crisis Superman is terrible, too. There is? The Shaxper vs Action Comics Weekly Thread. |
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Post by dupersuper on Mar 15, 2016 19:48:51 GMT -5
He's long past Action Weekly: he's getting to the really good stuff now.
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Post by zaku on Mar 16, 2016 2:34:54 GMT -5
He's long past Action Weekly: he's getting to the really good stuff now. Don't you know? The only good Superman stories are those in which Lex Luthor wants to destroy the world because he suffers from premature balding. Or those where Superman come up with a complicated plan to protect his secret identity from Lois Lane. And again. And again. AND AGAIN!!!  |
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Post by realjla on Mar 16, 2016 15:37:00 GMT -5
Or that one time when Steve Lombard tried to catch Clark with the 'bucket on top of the door that falls on his head when he opens the door' trick...but Clark raced to the Fortress of Solitude at invisible super-speed, and, in a fraction of a second, rigged the Phantom Zone Ray to work 'long distance', so that Steve and the bucket were sent into the Zone, the water fell on...or through...General Zod, and all the Kryptonian bad guys gave Lombard an intangible wedgie. Except Mon-El, that guy was always a phantom killjoy.
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