ACTION COMICS #1000 will be released!

I don't think there's many kids currently buying comics anymore. I think the people falling for the first issue gimmick are predominantly older buyers who happen to be really REALLY stupid.

The laws of supply and demand tell us that any first issue published in the past 25 years is actually going to be worth LESS than the issues around it, because its print run was much higher and there were more copies sold.

 

Back in the 1980s (when I worked at a store that sold comic books), I used to think it was pretty impressive that DC still had ongoing titles that had begun their runs in the 1930s , 1940s, and 1950s.

Then, the whole "#1" craze began to dominate (as well as ongoing storylines between multiple titles that made single-issue stories a dying breed) and many long-time titles got axed.

I was able to witness the demise of:

Adventure Comics (which was a digest of reprints by the time it finally got cancelled)
World's Finest Comics
Brave and the Bold
Superman (its numbering was shifted to a new title called "Adventures of Superman")

Detective Comics' numbering had gotten wonky due to a period in the 1970s when it was released bimonthly, and Action Comics went on hiatus for a short time during the John Bryne Superman reboot. (And there was that time when it was released weekly.)

I seem to recall DC doing some sort of promotions more recently when their flagship titles went biweekly for the summer months, thereby making the numbering all the more convoluted.

 

One of the things that made Adventure Comics great was that it was home of so many great characters. Unlike Action Comics (which belongs to Superman) and Detective Comics (which belongs to Batman), Adventure Comics was the long-term home for many characters. Among those that come to mind: Aquaman, Dial "H" For Hero, Starman, Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), The Legion Of Super-Heroes, and Superboy (Clark Kent).

One of the reasons that there are so many #1 issues is due to all of the miniseries. They release a miniseries of a character which results in a #1 issue, then later they release another miniseries with the same character which again results in a new #1 issue.

One thing that would alleviate this situation is the return to non-specific title like Adventure Comics that can feature any character. DC already has a number of historical titles that could easily return as a home for many characters and as a place for stories that would not be put in a miniseries. In addition to Adventure Comics there is Showcase and The Brave & The Bold.

 

Congrats to Big Blue and all at DC!

Very curious to see what Bendis does with Superman/Action.

 

...I daresay it will be, Hud...I'd say that, ever since Julie Schwartz's retirement, the Silver.
---Bronze Age Superman being supplanted by the Byrne-izoid'did " Mylar Age " Big Blue, and the end of the Action Comics Weekly experiment, AC has pretty much always been just one of the Superman titles, with one BB story per ish, though there may have been occasional exceptions...Just as I remember DC's other 30s survivor, Detective Comics - Which ought to be having a plenty nifty #1000 in a coupla itself!!!!!!!!!!! - briefly going to 40 pages for a while during the 00s and adding an 8-page ' elsewhere in Batman's world-Gotham " story, Action may've, on occasion...









he Hud, post: 18078280, member: 33479"]Is issue #1000 all Superman? As you can tell, I don't know too much about this.[/QUOTE]

 

...From memory, it's April 10 to-day and the four-figure is will be going on sale the Wednesday after next, the 18th...I am told that DC us printing 500 thousand copies, so they're optimistic. ..The comics-fan friend who told me this was himself, before telling me that, pessimistic about A1000 getting much " normal "attention, saying " people don't buy paper anymore "...Myself, I was wondering whether Warned was together enough, corporate KY speaking, to push it, what with Justice's lawsuit over the proposed ATandT merger and mourning over the purchasers if Time Inc.'s magazine division announcing they'll probably break them up and sell most of them. DC's comics still have some some distribution to " newsstand " -non-comics shop -retail accounts, something which Marvel no longer does.

 

Barnes & Noble carries individual issues of DC Comics, somewhere usually in their magazine section.

If someone hasn't stepped foot into a comic book shop in awhile, they can always find one with this handy comic book shop locator tool.

There's A Lot to See and Do at Your Local Comic Shop!

 

They should designate first issues 1A, or AAA like Plumbers and Chinese Restaurants (or Chinese Plumbers) in the Yellow Pages

 

I don't think it would solve the problem since you'd just end up with multiple "A1" issues. That is why #1 issues are not very special, there are so many of them.

It's unfortunate they haven't done what was done with the series Metal Men in the 1970s. The series ended with issue #41, with #42, #43, and #44 being reprints. When they brought the series back, they continued the previous numbering and started the new series with #45.

 

I no longer buy new comics, but I collect Airboy. It's a pain because Hillman used a volume number for the year, then an issue number for the month that reset every January. Add to this that it changed titles from Air Fighters to Airboy part way through it's second year.

Another old title that I collect is Silver/Bronze age Flash Gordon. They went through four publishing names, King, Charlatan, Gold Key, Whitman, but continued the numbering, even though there was a lengthy gap between the end of the Charlatan run and the beginning of the Gold Key issues. Even the movie tie ins continued this numbering sequence.

 

Perhaps DC continuing the numbering had something to do with their 2nd-class-mail contracts.

Back in the late 40s / early 50s, in an effort to use their existing contracts (thereby saving money), EC Comics would carry issue numbering over from one title to another – and often come up with similar-looking titles in an effort to fool the postal inspectors.

"Moon Girl" (a superhero comic) was changed to a romance comic called "A Moon, A Girl...Romance". It eventually became the New Trend title "Weird Fantasy" – complete with the same numbering from the earlier titles.

In fact, most of the New Trend books had carried-over numbering. (The postal authorities eventually did catch on, thereby forcing EC to apply for new 2nd-class contracts, and putting the various titles to their "correct" numbering.)

In the case of DC, since they weren't changing the titles, it would have been easy enough to just carry on ("Showcase" is another title that had been revived after a long break – with its old numbering continuing.)

Of course, DC's rationale for using the old numbering might be completely different.

 

.. The " continuing old numbering, even after a break "thing was the norm even into the mid-70s/my being a "fan ", not " just " a reader - and when the ERB-based Tarzan and Korak, Son of Tarzan titles jumped to DC in 1972 they continued their numbering from Gold Key - and the "funny retutlings "bit to avoid a new nailing permit scam was't EC's alone either, again I can point to it as late as the Seventies-

 

OMG....all this talk about #1000 y'all are skimming over the biggest news about the issue. Supes is getting his trunks back!!! YEAH BABY!

 

I went into a comic shop a few weeks ago for the first time in over 25 years. I was actually more impressed by the toy collection and enjoyed looking at those more than the comics. All the classic toys I used to have and all the the "new" toys that are classic inspired. I saw some of these but they were 12 inch figures. I thought they looked cool. Looked like the original figures I had when I was a kid but they were gigantic.



And since this is a Supes thread I saw these classic Mego inspired figures

 

I grew up with the Megos as some of my favorite toys so I was excited when I heard they were being (kind of) reissued.
Until I saw Superman. They changed his face, his boots are too big, and his hips are wider than his chest!
Looks like they put the torso in upside-down!

 

...A1000 is going to ship with 10 different covers! Normal one, a blank version. .......and 8 new ones, each symbolically representing Big Blue's Adventures in the eight decades prior to this one in which he was hitting the stands! - As opposed to " hitting Stan " - Lee, he has enough problems currently!

 

Great idea for MacBook Pro decals.

I like the one where Superman is ripppng off his shirt.

Been looking for D.C. Jack Kirby ideas.

 

This sounds like what happened with Legion Of Super-Heroes. The series was officially named Superboy, but in the mid 190s issues The Legion Of Super-Heroes began to take over the title. The title changed to Superboy Starring The Legion Of Super-Heroes to Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes. However, the actual title of the series was Superboy until issue #247 (if I remember the number correctly) when it officially became The Legion Of Super-Heroes and Superboy left the team as an active member.

Although Superboy eventually returned, due to the John Byrne reboot he eventually was deleted from continuity (Superman began his career as Superman as a young adult and was never a Superboy). That, in turn, eventually ended up killing the team due to the massive number of attempts to fix the problem (leading to four different versions of the team at one point).