Wow! I can get free comics? How??
Ahhh....behind all the flowery "DC Comics Club" and "Charter Membership" hoo-ha, it's really just a subscription pitch. And those "brand new DC Specials" are no doubt just reprint collections, like Super-Heroes Vs. Super-Gorillas and the like.
But wait...there's something different here...
"Groups?"Yup, rather than pitching subscriptions to single titles, DC was trying to make readers subscribe to three titles at a time, in preset groups. In each of these first three sets, you got 12 issues of each title + the 4 DC Specials for 9 bucks:
The last group was a bit different...you got just 8 issues of each mag and the 4 Specials, for $8:
So, here's the test: choose your poison, readers--if you could subscribe to only one of these four groups of 1971 DC titles. which would it be?Show your work...
Show My Work? Group 4 of course.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Worlds Finest has Batman; Batman features Batman and Justice League features Batman.
No Brainer.
Group 4!
Ahhh, but World's Finest & JLA only co-star Batman (and JLA not every story), and they're all only 8 times a year...so you're not getting as much Batman as you might think...
ReplyDeleteJimmy Olsen in 1971? That's Jack Kirby, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, that was during Kirby's run.
ReplyDeleteWhat they were really trying to do is get you to cajole your parents into buying all three groups unless you were a girl.
ReplyDelete- Lawrence
aka Mr. Digressius
The Swanderson junkie in me wants to go for Group 1, but 1971 was when the O'Neil/Adams Ra's al Ghul story was happening, so that's tempting me towards Group 4.
ReplyDeleteAlan also needs to keep in mind that World's Finest circa 1971 didn't always co-star Batman. In fact, he was in fewer than half the stories.
Kirby on Jimmy Olsen.
ReplyDeleteFrank Robbins, Neil Adams, and Bob Brown on Detective.
Bob Brown on Superboy AND those magnificent Swanderson covers.
Group II!
What, not group 3??
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd lean to group 4 if it weren't for the 8 times a year limitation.
And group 1 might be tasty, but that's a whole lotta Kryptonian (Adventure starred Supergirl at the time).
So I guess I'd go II.
I still am interested by the strategy of selling subscriptions in pre-set groups, as opposed allowing readers to pick 3 from a broader list...