Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
Darkseid? Darkseid. It appears that DC/Ben Cooper were banking on the success of Super Friends: The Legend of the Super Powers Show, which debuted in September 1984 and was the first animated series to feature the super villain. The Kirby creation had been around in the comics since 1970.
Photo via Detective21
Oh, how they gleam with fresh-off-the-press-ness. I can smell them from here.
Horror titles (comics and magazines) were immensely popular at the time, and comic back issues will cost you a grip today, even in poor condition. The genre saw a huge resurgence in the ’70s for a number of reasons, all of them mutually reinforcing: the commercial success of 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and especially Rosemary’s Baby; changes in the Comics Code (1971) that permitted the depiction of “vampires, ghouls and werewolves”; the proliferation of syndicated horror showcases across the nation: Fright Night (1970), Creature Double Feature (circa 1972), Chiller Thriller (circa 1974), etc. (I’ll post some of the intros later on Facebook.)
As much as I love The Tomb of Dracula and all of Marvel’s monster titles, DC really set the comics standard with The Unexpected, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Witching Hour, and Ghosts. Weird War (not pictured here) was a brilliant combination of the horror and war genres. If I had a choice of a full run, that’s the one I’d want.
Above the comics you’ll see some magazines, including Monsters Unleashed, Vampirella, and Famous Monsters of Filmland. The pile of Mad magazines on the bottom right is #174. Cheap!
A couple of good-looking, talented fellows at the Chicago Comic Con. Look out for those collars!
What the hell, here’s Adams’ run of House of Mystery covers from ’77. (#252 is my favorite.)
And here are a few splash pages from Grell’s Warlord from late ’77 and early ’78.
(Images via Sword and Planet Books and Comics, eBay, and Diversions of the Groovy Kind)
2 Warps to Neptune 