To Be Continued, pt.10: Comic Books, pt. B
(Once the pulps went away, continued stories in a print medium pretty much disappeared. Only comic books carried the torch, and then only fitfully for many years. Today, however, the flame burns brightly. In To Be Continued, pt. 10: Comic Books, pt. A (don’t you love that title?)Tom Mason detailed the evolution of continued stories from the dawn of comic books to the beginnings of the Marvel revolution. Tom continues the saga below, taking us through from the 1960s to today’s complex, multi-title storylines. Enjoy.)
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By Tom K. Mason
Writing for the website Slate, Grady Hendrix explains the glorious soap-opera appeal of Claremont’s X-Men. “Under Claremont’s purple pen, abusive boyfriends and illegitimate children came crawling out of the woodwork, girlfriends died and their mourning lovers married their look-alikes, who, predictably, also died. Most importantly, he spotlighted the fact that the X-Men were mutants, a persecuted minority in the Marvel universe whose trials and tribulations were thinly veiled commentaries on real-world racism.”
Thus, X-Men stories became parables for real-life situations, and any oppressed minority or social outcast could graft themselves into the adventure with a “hey, this is about me” revelation.
Claremont was praised for creating and writing strong female characters, which was something Lee was not known for. Claremont also time-shifted his stories, presented alternate futures, picked up story threads dropped years earlier, all the while keeping the stories and characters moving forward. His work resembled nothing less than an epic novel with a new chapter unfolding every month.
But over at DC Comics, it was a much different story. In The Comics Journal #287, the critic Tom Crippen wrote that “when it came to super-heroes, a DC editor’s target audience was too old for happy larks but too young for continuing storylines.”
That attitude started to change thanks to Julie Schwartz. He was the editor of the Justice League of America, a title in which many of DC’s current heroes – The Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and Green Lantern – would join together to fight crime, while occasionally sitting around a large conference table in costume and voting on issues of the day. It was an updated version of the Justice Society of America from All-Star Comics.
However, it was still a DC Comics title and that meant that it didn’t quite have the same in-your-face appeal of a Marvel comic. The cover to Justice League of America #1 (October 1960) featured the team sitting at a conference table playing chess with the issue’s villain.
And DC’s corporate instincts at the time would seem to take an anti-marketing approach to comics. According to Comics Historian Ousimandias in his article “Mort Weisinger, Architect of the Superman Mythos” both Batman co-creator Bob Kane and Superman editor Weisinger both petitioned editor Schwartz to keep Batman and Superman “off the covers of Justice League of America, and, if possible, out of the book altogether.”
Any ideas about how Schwartz was expected to have a successful team book without showcasing two of DC Comics’ best-known and best-selling characters are lost to history.
Superman and Batman certainly weren’t on the cover of the first issue and didn’t appear until issue #5 (June 1961), where it looks like Schwartz won the battle.
The book quickly improved, too. In Justice League of America #21 (August 1963) and #22 (September 1963), Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky masterminded a story gimmick that would revolutionize the comics industry for decades. What developed was the idea that DC’s old heroes of the 1940s belonged to a different Earth than their modern counterparts, so in Justice League of America #21, the Justice League met up with the old Justice Society of America from All-Star Comics for “Crisis on Earth-One” and “Crisis on Earth-Two.” (Note from LL: I actually think the alternate Earth idea first appeared in The Flash #123, “Flash of Two Worlds,” where Barry Allen met Jay Garrick; it was not a continued story, but its success led to the JLA-JSA crossover. I’m no historian, I just remember buying the comics off the stands.)
The team-up became an annual event and would recur in JLA #29-30, #37-38, #46-47, #55-56, #82-83, #91-92, #100-102, #107-108, #123-124, #135-137, #147-148, #159-160, and beyond.
Schwartz was just getting started. Zatara was an old DC Comics magician-hero who had made his debut in Action Comics #1 along with Superman. Similar conjuring heroes existed throughout comics and comic strips of the era. From Lee Falk’s Mandrake The Magician to Fawcett’s Ibis, they were a comic book staple.
They all but faded in the 1950s and Zatara “disappeared” when his strip ended. In 1964, Schwarz and Fox cooked up a multi-part saga for DC Comics that was almost Fawcett-worthy and certainly uncharacteristic for the company.
Zatanna, a stage magician with real magical powers, goes searching for her missing father Zatara across the DC universe titles edited by Schwartz. Accessorized in a top hat and fishnet stockings, Zatanna’s quest to find her father began with her first appearance, Hawkman #4 (October-November 1964) by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson and continued in Atom #19 (June-July 1965) by Fox and Gil Kane, Detective Comics #336 (February 1965) by Fox and Sheldon Moldoff, Green Lantern #42 (January 1966) by Fox and Kane, and Detective Comics #355 (September 1966) by Fox and Carmine Infantino in the back-up story starring The Elongated Man. The epic storyline concluded in Justice League of America #51 (February 1967) by Fox and Sekowsky.
That wasn’t Schwartz’s only innovation for what would become known as the Silver Age of comics.
When Schwartz took over as the editor of Batman (#164, June 1964) and Detective Comics (#327, May 1964), he kicked it off by bringing in artist Carmine Infantino on Detective and having Batman’s costume redesigned with the addition of a yellow oval around the bat symbol; it was the start of the “New Look” era for the Caped Crusader.
Then, just as he had done with Zatanna’s cross-title storyline, Schwartz and his Batman writers launched a multi-part storyline, this time by killing Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in Detective Comics #328 (June 1964). In Detective Comics #334 (December 1964), a new villain appeared, The Outsider, who isn’t seen early on but works through surrogate villains. He returns again in Detective Comics #336 (February 1965), again in Detective Comics #340 (June 1965), and again in issue #349 (March 1966). Finally in issue #356 (October 1966), the mystery is revealed. The Outsider was actually Alfred, who wasn’t dead after all, but had been turned into the Outsider by an experimental machine courtesy of a standard comic book villain: the crazed scientist.
According to Greenberger, “other DC editors were slow to adopt Schwartz’s ideas but eventually did, with Weisinger and the Superman titles and even Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan in their books” like Challengers of the Unknown, Metamorpho and Doom Patrol. Kashdan went so far as to try to reinvigorate his collapsing Blackhawk title by turning them into super-heroes in a 3-part story that ran from Blackhawk #228 (January 1967) to Blackhawk #230 (March 1967). “Junk-Heap Heroes” was written by Bob Haney and illustrated by DC workhorse Dick Dillin.
In addition to handling the Superman titles, Weisinger was also the editor of Adventure Comics which had its share of two-part stories involving The Legion Of Super-Heroes. In Adventure Comics #335-336 (August-September 1965), The Legion was featured in a two-part story against Starfinger from writer Edmond Hamilton and artist John Forte. In Adventure Comics #340-341 (January 1966-February 1966), Brainiac 5′s homemade computer, Computo, goes horribly wrong and turns on the Legion, in a two-partier written by Jerry Siegel and Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Curt Swan.
But it was in Adventure Comics #346-347 (July-August 1966) that history was made. It was a two-parter that followed a standard Legion template: somebody in the group is a traitor. The story was written by Jim Shooter, who also provided the pencil breakdowns for the first part, inked by Sheldon Moldoff. The second part was illustrated by Curt Swan and George Klein.
It was Jim Shooter’s first published comic book story. He was 14-years-old.
Shooter soon became one of the regular writers on The Legion of Super-Heroes and embarked on a bonanza of two-part stories. Shooter was a big Marvel Comics fan and one of the first modern fans to turn professional – he read comics for fun and then got a job writing them.
In an interview in The Legion Outpost #8 (Summer, 1974), Shooter said that he tried writing for DC because he’d read an issue of Adventure Comics with the Legion and thought, “I can write better than this!”
Once Shooter started writing the Legion regularly he added continuity elements to the large Legion cast. Says Shooter in the Outpost, “Marvel Comics did that for quite a while. Each story was complete in itself and yet there was a continuing thread. With the Legion, I wanted to get into people’s backgrounds…I wanted to muddle around in their past lives and…I hate to use the word again, but like Marvel did.”
Shooter, who would eventually become the Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, brought a Marvel sensibility gained as a reader to the DC comics he was writing.
Very quickly, Adventure Comics published a number of two-part stories, written by Shooter: Adventure Comics #352-353, #359-360, #365-366, #369-370, #371-372, #378-379.
The series caught the interest of fans who formed a Legion of Super-Heroes fan club, which spawned The Legion Outpost fanzine. Several members of the club eventually worked for DC Comics on staff or as freelance writers and artists.
In the mid-1960s, Marvel started to change the names of their older titles to reflect the super-heroes who starred in them. Journey Into Mystery, which featured Thor by Lee and Kirby, had a multi-part story that began in Journey Into Mystery #125 (February 1966) and continued in Thor #126-128 (March 1966-May 1966).
In the late 1950s, Marvel Publisher Goodman saw his distribution network collapsing and arranged for a company owned by DC Comics to handle Marvel’s distribution. DC agreed, but limited Marvel to publishing just 8 titles.
Lee was able to give the appearance of more by converting many of Atlas’ old horror anthologies into super-hero books with two features per issue. By 1968, Strange Tales featuring separate stories starring Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Dr. Strange. Tales of Suspense had separate stories with Iron Man and Captain America. And Tales of Astonish was split between the Hulk and Sub-Mariner. Marvel was anxious to drop the bland anthology-like names and re-brand them.
Fortunately, according to Daniels, by 1968, Marvel had enough sales clout “to rearrange its distribution deal with DC and publish as many books as the market would bear.”
But Marvel didn’t just rush in and start releasing books. As usual, Lee had a scheme to tie the expansion of the line to storylines in the Marvel Universe.
He used multi-part stories to launch the new titles.
Tales of Suspense #99 (March 1968) was the last issue before the title became Captain America with issue #100. The Cap story started in Tales of Suspense #99 and continued in Captain America #100 (April 1968). The Iron Man story in #99 was a multi-part saga that continued in Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (a one-shot from April 1968), Avengers #51 (April 1968), then concluded in Iron Man #1 (May 1968), launching the character in his own book.
To spin off Sub-Mariner, Tales to Astonish #101 (March 1968) started a multi-part story that continued in Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, then concluded in Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968) by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Tales to Astonish then became The Incredible Hulk with #102 (April 1968) by Gary Friedrich, Marie Severin and George Tuska.
In Strange Tales #168 (May 1968), the Nick Fury story by Jim Steranko, continued in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (June 1968). Strange Tales then became Dr. Strange with issue #169 (June 1968) by Roy Thomas and Dan Adkins, with a story that had continued from Strange Tales #168.
Marvel had managed to take three titles – Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish - and through continued stories and crossovers, split them into six “new” titles: Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, Sub-Mariner and Iron Man.
Also in 1968, DC corporate shook up things. In a controversial move Gardner Fox, Bill Finger, Otto Binder, and Arnold Drake were let go by DC. DC had claimed that their work had been declining in quality. But according to a biographical article on Fox by Jamie Coville, it was because the foursome “went to DC and asked for health insurance and other benefits.”
They were out and new writers, and new artists, all younger for the most part, were brought in. They weren’t interested in telling the traditional DC story.
Amid falling sales industry-wide in the late 1960s, Denny O’Neil and artist Mike Sekowsky revamped Wonder Woman with issue #178 (October 1968) and moved her away from the weird, Sapphic bondage comic where Wonder Woman was regularly tied to something Freudian like a just-launched rocket – and liked it – and moved her into the world of Diana Rigg from TV’s The Avengers.
For Showcase #88 (February 1970), Sekowsky created Jason’s Quest, a three-issue serial about a young man’s quest to find his long-lost sister before the mob gets to her. When Sekowsky took over Metal Men with #37 (May 1969), he re-fashioned them by publicly faking their deaths and reintegrating them into society as humans.
None of Sekowsky’s work on the books could be classified as traditional super-heroes in the capes-and-boots manner, but all of them read the way a television network might have portrayed super-heroes in the pre-digital era. None of the three titles were successful, however. Showcase and Metal Men were cancelled, and Wonder Woman reverted back to her old-school costume and adventures.
But, “let’s not forget Dick Giordano,” reminds Greenberger. Giordano came to DC as an editor in 1970 from Charlton Comics and brought with him some of their best creators including Steve Ditko, Jim Aparo and Denny O’Neil. With them, came a slew of new ideas.
One of Giordano’s first tasks as editor was to revamp Aquaman with writer Steve Skeates and artist Aparo. They began a long-running serial about the Sea King’s search for his missing wife, Mera. According to a 2007 interview with Skeates at The Aquaman Shrine it was Giordano’s idea, influenced by popular serialized TV shows of the 1960s like “The Fugitive” and “Route 66.”
According to the interview, Skeates says, “It was Dick’s idea to start off with a rather huge story arc lasting a year and a half, in which Mera is kidnapped and Aquaman searches practically every community on the ocean floor in hopes of locating his missing wife. It was up to me to figure out what these undersea towns would be like and how visiting them would ultimately lead to a reunion betwixt Aquaman and Mera.”
The storyline began in Aquaman #40 (August 1968) and continued through 9 bi-monthly issues before culminating in issue #48 (December 1969).
In 1970, Superman editor Mort Weisinger retired and Superman passed on to Schwartz who wasted no time in making a change. In Superman #233, Denny O’Neil and artist Curt Swan introduced the “Sand Superman” storyline about a creature from another dimension who had absorbed some of Superman’s powers from a full body impression the Man of Steel had left in the sand. The Sand Superman appeared in #234, 235, 237 and 238.
In an approach similar to Marvel Comics at the time, the Sand Superman was not the major story in many of the early issues, but his appearances were designed to give the feeling that something bigger was building. That something bigger was the 3-part finale that ran in Superman #240-242 (July-September 1971) where Superman won the battle but lost half his power (power that was later restored in subsequent revamps).
Also in 1970, DC Comics would undergo a drastic change in their relatively staid environment with the arrival of Jack Kirby. The company had lured the increasingly unhappy co-creator of The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and most of the Marvel Universe over to the other side of the street. Kirby brought with him a wild enthusiasm and a style of storytelling that he had honed for the last decade at Marvel.
He took over Jimmy Olsen with issue #133 (October 1970) and immediately did away with stories that turned Olsen into a giant turtle or gorilla reporter. Kirby rebooted Olsen into a more heroic adventure hero that opened the door to Kirby’s “Fourth World” saga that began with Forever People #1 (February 1971), New Gods #1 (February 1971) and Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971). Kirby was creating an ongoing super-hero soap opera storyline that would run across four DC titles and feature two warring worlds, Apokolips and New Genesis, using Earth as a battleground. With appearances by Jimmy Olsen, Superman and Deadman, the series was tied into regular DC continuity.
The Fourth World series was cancelled before it reached its conclusion, but it was enough to shake up DC, and it was the first time that DC had used a creator’s name as a brand to actively promote its titles.
Writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams took over Green Lantern after it was merged with one of their long-standing secondary characters Green Arrow. A two-part story in Green Lantern-Green Arrow #80-81 (October 1970-December 1970) involved a trial by the Guardians. But in issue #85 (September 1971), O’Neil attacked the nation’s drug problem with a two-part story that concluded in issue #86 (November 1971). O’Neil revealed that the hot-headed Green Arrow had been an epic failure as a father-figure to his ward and sidekick, Roy, aka Speedy. Hence, Roy became a heroin addict causing no end of hand-wringing and speech-making, all dramatically illustrated by Adams.
Even DC’s war comics were not immune to the increasing trend of continued stories. Star-Spangled War Stories #181 (August 1974) began a three-issue story that pitted Steve “Balloon Buster” Savage against Enemy Ace. Written by Robert Kanigher, the stories were illustrated by Frank Thorne.
In Avengers #85 (February 1971), Marvel took a little jab at DC by introducing a two-part story starring the Squadron Supreme, analogs for DC’s Justice League. The story concluded in Avengers #86 (March 1971). The Squadron Supreme would return again in #147-148 (May-June 1976).
Later in 1971, Marvel had the Avengers in the middle of the Kree-Skrull War that ran from Avengers #89 (June 1971) to Avengers #97 (March 1972) by Roy Thomas and artists Sal Buscema, Neal Adams and John Buscema.
In 1971, Schwartz was responsible for another Fawcett-like two-parter that began in Detective Comics #411 (May 1971) and ended in Batman #232 (July 1971). Writer Denny O’Neil and artists Neal Adams and Giordano introduced Ra’s al Ghul, his daughter Talia and the League of Assassins.
According to Greenberger, Ra’s al Ghul would continue to bedevil Batman in Batman “on and off for the next year and the stories formed a coherent whole.”
Archie Goodwin took over as editor of Detective Comics with issue #437 (November 1973) and launched one of the more famous and critically-acclaimed continued back-up stories in the title’s history. Goodwin, with artist Walter Simonson, launched Manhunter, in “The Himalayan Incident.” It was a revival of Paul Kirk, the Manhunter from DC’s 1940s Adventure Comics. The series would conclude in #443 (November 1974), in a book-length story guest-starring Batman.
It would effectively make Simonson’s career and make him an in-demand creator for the next three decades.
By issue #444 (January 1975), Schwartz was back as the editor of Detective. In #468 (April 1977), a new artist, Marshall Rogers was brought on the book. In #471 (August 1977), writer Steve Englehart, working with Rogers and Austin, launched a long-running storyline with Hugo Strange and Silver St. Cloud that remains a high-point of the series more than 30 years later. The Englehart-Rogers run contained the now-classic Joker tales “The Laughing Fish” and “The Sign of the Joker.”
One of Marvel Comics’ most famous continued stories is a 3-parter by Jerry Siegel and George Tuska starring Angel, now flying solo from the X-Men. The first two installments, appeared in Ka-Zar #2 (December 1970) and Ka-Zar #3 (March 1971), a giant-size reprint book with the Angel story as the only new content.
According to Diamond Galleries’ Wilbur, the multi-part story was produced during the X-Men “hiatus” when the regular book wasn’t being published. “It has a significant plot point with the death of Warren (Angel) Worthington’s parents and his inheritance of the family fortune.”
It was “totally unbilled and unpromoted,” Wilbur says, including the final part that appeared in Marvel Tales #30 (April 1971), another classic Marvel reprint book. “Unless you were getting these books anyway for the reprints, you would never have known the brand new content was there.”
Thanks to widely-available – and relatively cheap – Xerox technology and the rise of the neighborhood copy shop, the 1970s saw an increase in the number of comic book fanzines and publications devoted to the buying and selling of back issues. Publications like The Comic Reader kept fans informed of upcoming titles, and if you missed one, you could consult the pages of The Buyer’s Guide For Comic Fandom to buy it from any number of back issue dealers.
Plus there was an increase in the number of comic book conventions. From New York to Chicago to Philadelphia to San Diego comic book fans were gathering in earnest to talk, trade, buy and sell.
There was also a growing realization on the part of publishers that their audience was significantly older than the 8-12 year olds they’d been writing for (as evidenced by the demand for Stan Lee’s presence as a speaker at various colleges).
And while there was a shift in the kinds of stories being told in comics, there was also a greater shift concerning the way that comic books were distributed. Traditionally, comic books were shipped to newsstands, drugstores, and other outlets like traditional magazines. Unsold copies were returned to the publisher for credit. Sales figures weren’t available until many months after publication. That market was wheezing and comic book sales were dwindling.
Fortunately, independently owned and operated comic book specialty shops were starting to pop up. From George Henderson’s Memory Lane Books which opened in Toronto in 1967, to the Supersnipe Comic Emporium in New York City, there were a growing number of stores devoted to just comic books. And they were having difficulties with the traditional magazine distribution system.
In 1974, Phil Seuling – who was already a master at hosting New York conventions – launched Seagate Distribution and established a business that allowed him to buy comics directly from the publishers and start distributing them to a growing number of comic book specialty stores.
An entire industry grew from that over the years, and helped create the Direct Market. Eventually, all comic book stores were buying their comics directly from distributors who bought them from publishers. Retailers could order in advance based on perceived need, and unsold comic books were no longer returnable. Publishers could now print based on advanced orders instead of having to guess what a book might sell.
It was now impossible to miss an issue of any comic book and comic book publishers had a more or less captive audience. Once they realized this – and once they realized that their target market was no longer children but teenagers and adults with disposable income – they started tailoring their output for them.
By the 1980s, DC and Marvel had fully-integrated long-running storylines and story continuity throughout their books. DC’s super-hero titles tied into the DC Universe just as Marvel had started doing 20 years earlier. Characters popped up in other books, titles were launched and re-launched, there were more crossovers and cross-pollination than ever before.
In 1979, DC launched the 3-part stand-alone World of Krypton mini-series and its success spawned many more.
In 1980, DC launched The New Teen Titans as an ongoing series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. The two creators took more than a few pages from Claremont’s X-Men and ran with it, creating what is often referred to as the first Marvel comic book published by DC.
From then on, the floodgates were open. Stand-alone titles with definitive ends (mini-series, maxi-series, limited series) became ubiquitous. DC launched the 12-part Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland in 1982, the 4-part The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson in February 1986, and the 12-part Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in September 1986.
Marvel rarely strayed from titles connected to their universe. They launched the 3-issue Contest of Champions in 1982 and the 12-part Squadron Supreme limited series in 1985.
New publishers – some launched by creators just to publish their own books – also started to emerge. Bud Plant began publishing Jack Katz’ 24-part fantasy series in 1974. Wendy and Richard Pini launched WaRP Graphics to publish their epic saga Elfquest in 1977. That same year, Dave Sim started publishing his epic 300-issue Cerebus through his own company. Dozens of independent publishers sprang up – some publishing these kinds of personal, creator-owned and controlled projects, and others more interested in trying to duplicate the success of Marvel and DC.
First Comics (1983), Eclipse Comics (1978), Malibu Comics (1987), Dark Horse Comics (1987), Valiant Comics (1989), Image Comics (1992) and many others all had super-hero titles with continued stories.
Fantagraphics Books began publishing the multi-part, multi-generational Love & Rockets by Los Bros. Hernandez (1982). Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird launched The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1984) through their own Mirage Studios, in response to Frank Miller’s run of continued stories on Daredevil (#158-191, 1979-1983). Jeff Smith launched Bone through his own publishing company (1991).
But 1984 and 1985 would really mark a turning point for modern super-hero comic books. As editor-in-chief at Marvel, Jim Shooter launched the 12-part Secret Wars saga, a series that would feature nearly every character in the Marvel Universe battling a common enemy. Critically reviled, it was also hugely successful and a 9-part sequel debuted in 1985.
DC Comics own continuity was weighed down by the large number of characters that it had who lived on different versions of Earth. Marv Wolfman and George Perez created Crisis On Infinite Earths, a 12-part “maxi-series” that would involve nearly every DC character in an attempt to reset DC continuity by conveniently forgetting some history and killing off a few characters.
Those have led to other events like Marvel Civil War and DC’s Zero Hour, Final Crisis and so many more.
In 1996, there was even a 4-issue DC Vs. Marvel crossover, and a 4-issue Justice League/Avengers crossover in 2004.
The sales success of these events has led to dozens more continued stories in the form of crossovers, mini-series, limited series, and event comics that are now an annual feature from both Marvel and DC who use them to drive sales, pump up other titles in the line and launch new books.
DC has killed Superman (don’t worry, he got better) and recently killed Batman (don’t worry, he will get better), both in multi-part stories that led up to their deaths and then picked up the pieces post-funeral. Marvel killed Captain America last year (and he recently got better too).
Continued stories were more or less a novelty when comic books began. They have now come to dominate the industry to the extent that you can’t follow them without a checklist and database software. There will doubtless be more.
# # #
[As always, I am indebted to my friends and co-horts for their recommendations, references and expertise: J.C. Vaughn (editor of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide), Mike Wilbur (Diamond International Galleries), comics historian Robert Greenberger, the gang at The Grand Comics Database and Mike Valerio (writer/producer ABC Family Channel). Notes on errors and suggestions on additions are welcome.]
LINKS:
Action Comics #1
The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
The Comic Chronicles/John Jackson Miller
Gardner Fox Bio by Jamie Coville
Bob Greenberger’s books
The Essential Batman Encyclopedia