This cold case is finally closed.
Okay, I lied last time, I’m still doing ’70s ‘zine stuff today. Sorry, a mystery cropped up in my The Comic Reader collection, and it needed to be solved! I even sent a message to one of the folks involved in the mag around this time…but then I figured out the answer myself. Ah well.
So here’s the deal: I recently acquired two batches of Comic Readers…the one I discussed previously that contained issues sent to Sergio Aragones, and another set of issues 73-75 and 77. Now, I already had a #77 in my collection, but the batch was cheap enough that I went ahead and bit.
Then something funny happened. Here’s the #77 I received from eBay, a 8 1/2 by 11 publication (combined at the time with the ‘zine On the Drawing Board:
Here’s a close-up of the masthead:
However, here is the #77 I already had in my collection, a digest-sized item:
And the masthead for that:
Now it was about this time Paul Levitz took over The Comic Reader and combined it, for a while, with the
But a closer look points toward the full answer. Here is the masthead of issue #79, the second issue of the Levitz regime:
At this time, the combined Et Cetera/Comic Reader ‘zine kept the issue numbering for both publications. (And you thought Marvel’s current numbering system was confusing!) Et Cetera is at #11, and Comic Reader is #79.
Let’s look again at the digest-sized puported #77’s masthead:
This time Et Cetera is #10, matched up with that #77. Also, it’s the same month of publication as #79. It looks a whole lot like, unless #78 was matched up wtih Et Cetera #10.5, that there was indeed a misnumbering and this is in fact the first Levitz issue, #78.
And wouldn’t you know it, in an editorial piece on the back page of #79, here’s the explanation confirming it:
And there you go. Anyone out there wondering why they can’t find an issue of The Comic Reader numbered #78, that’s why. The larger Comic Reader #77 is the actual #77, the smaller digest-sized #77 is actually #78. THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED, you can all return to your homes.
Good to know that Levitz became a much better editor (and writer, and executive) as time went on.
They weren’t wrong about the Toth Black Canary story, it is indeed a thing of beauty. The paneless page where Canary whoops up on the mustachioed thug is pure cartooning genius. IMHO one of the finest pages he ever did.
Not sure if paying such obsessive attention to detail to a funny book flub from half a century ago should qualify Mikester for a no-prize, or to be the next writer for DC comics.
Yes, I’m looking at you, “John Constantine.”
@ LouReedRichards
I purchased several of those early 1970s Adventure Comics awhile back at a great price and there is a lot of fun content in them. Beyond the outstanding Black Canary two-parter by Alex Toth, there are some nicely illustrated Zatanna stories and Vigilante stories by Gray Morrow, the cool reprints of Animal Man, Enchantress, and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the all new Mod-era Supergirl stories with the expressive Bob Oksner art. That Dr. Mid-Nite story was a fun addition as well.
Now I’m intrigued to find World’s Finest no. 210 to check out the reprinted story featuring The King–a Golden Age character I know nothing about. I wonder why he never appeared in All-Star Squadron?
I totally agree Sean. The few Adventure Comics I’ve seen from that era had an impressive mix of characters and creative teams. I got into comics after the anthology books had all but vanished, and missed out on the variety of characters and seeing masters like Toth craft such satisfying stories in 8 pages or less.
Issue #425 has a Kaluta cover, a Toth 8-pager, a Kane 6-pager, AND an absolutely stunning Alex Nino 7.5 page Captain Fear story. Nino manages the impossible and actually outdoes Toth!
All for the equivalent of $1.54 today – not accounting for the massive circulation differences of course.