DJ Art Roberts and Marvel Comics

Daredevil #12 (January 1966) [Olympia Publications Inc. (Marvel)]

Not sure when this story actually began, as it started sometime in mid 1965 in Chicago, IL.

But, it began in the pages of Marvel Comics with a Jan. 1966 cover date.  In the letters pages, a Merry Marvel Marching Society (MMMS) member writes about hearing a radio disk jockey mention that he'd also joined the club.  That DJ was Art Roberts of WLS in Chicago:

Now this was big news!  The media was beginning to pay attention to Marvel Comics.  Marvel had received a little attention from newspapers and other media, but this was a True Believer!  Not just someone reporting a story.  A real fan of comic books in the media.  Not the usual media drumbeat of how comic books were bad for children.  His show was from 9 to midnight, and he'd been on since 1963.

The MMMS had been introduced less than a year earlier in the February 1965 issues of Marvel comic books.  With the huge lead time for editorial material in comic books, Art must have been an early member.  Since Daredevil #12 was on the newsstands in November 1965 and Marvel's lead time for letters could easily have been four months, the letter could have been written in July 1965.  So Robert's mention of the MMMS was probably in the summer of 1965.

So, Marvel played it up BIG.  Three more fan letters were printed in other issues that same month that talked about hearing Art Robert's broadcast.

Amazing Spider-Man #32 (Jan. 1966)

Avengers #24 (Jan. 1966)

X-Men #16 (Jan. 1966)

Then again in Fantastic Four #47.  Though it was cover dated Feb., it was actually part of the previous months editorial group.  All four of the those issues had the same Bullpen Bulletins page which had another big news item.  Roy Thomas was starting to work for Marvel.  A fan had become a pro.

Fantastic Four #47 (Feb. 1966)

So Art Roberts got lots of attention from Marvel.  One cover month later, another letter in Amazing Spider-Man #34 again mentioned his broadcast.

Amazing Spider-Man #34 (Mar. 1966)

Note that these letter writers are from all over the country as WLS reached two-thirds of the US.

The following months Bullpen Bulletins page is talking about how much media attention Marvel is receiving. This is new for Marvel.

Amazing Spider-Man #35 (Apr. 1966)

Two months later, Stan Lee lists all the DJs and stations that are talking about Marvel on the Bullpen Bulletins page.  Of course including Roberts.

Amazing Spider-Man #37 (June 1966)

And in July's Amazing Spider-Man Bullpen Bulletins, Roberts gets mentioned again.

Amazing Spider-Man #38 (July 1966)

And the flood is on, as Stan's next Bullpen Bulletins talks about how 100 articles on Marvel had appeared across the nation.

Amazing Spider-Man #39 (Aug. 1966)

Then a month later in an unusual thank you, as Roberts gets put into an Amazing Spider-Man story.

Amazing Spider-Man #40 (Sept. 1966) pg 8

Over a 9 month period, Art Roberts gets his name in more than nine different comic books.

It appears that Art Roberts was one of the earliest media people to get the Marvel Silver Age media flood rolling.  And Stan Lee thanked him by putting him in an issue.

In an interview much later, he said:  "That was my debut in the comics. Truthfully, I got a big kick out of it. I believe it was meant to be a birthday present from Stan Lee. "  (Interview)

Roberts was on nights until 1968 and at WLS until 1970 when he went to San Francisco.  As typical of the radio business, he programed and managed in many cities in the US over the next 30 years.  He passed away in 2002.

This is my salute to another comics fan who made a difference.  He was at the forefront, maybe even one of the initiators of all the media attention Marvel started to receive.  It seems they are every where these days, in movies, TV, and even theatre.  But back then, he was the exception and helped turn back the negative view of comic books and made them be cool.

Comics Buyer's Guide Jan. 8, 1988

Comics Buyer's Guide #738,  Jan. 8, 1988

Dated today, in 1988, is a pretty standard issue of CBG except for things that didn't happen.  The first is this cover item for a new weekly or bi-weekly comic book series by Marvel Comics, titled Marvel Universe.   Now the comic book promoted in this article did come out, just not under that name.  It became Marvel Comics Presents.  The vote came down on the side of bi-weekly and the series lasted for 175 issues until March 1995.  Pretty good for an anthology title in the 1990s.

As you would expect, most of the stories were pretty forgettable, Except for the classic Wolverine origin Weapon X storyline that started with #72.

Marvel Comics Presents #72 (March 1991) [Marvel Comics]

There were other good series, like Coldblood from Paul Gulacy, and a lot of good artists contributed to stories.

The other item in CBG #738 that didn't happen was on page 1, the Marvel history book.

Well, it kind of did happen.  The 400 page book by Brad Elliott and Stan Lee titled The Story of Marvel Comics never came out, but a Marvel history book did come out.  There were some messy disagreements and even legal action (more here).  But eventually, the Les Daniels' book Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics came out in Sept. 1991.  Its too bad.  I think the original concept would have been better.

The highlighted comic book of the issue was Dinosaurs For Hire which came out in March 1988.

This was a fun concept and lasted through 1994 with 2 series and a few specials from Eternity/Malibu.  The second series had some really nice Mitch Byrd art.  An underrated artist in my mind.

This issue also had a great full page ad by underground comix publisher Rip Off Press.  An advertisement in the advertisement was a nice touch.

Rounding out the issue was an ad for the Watchmen role playing game from Mayfair Games.  The Watchmen series hadn't ended that long before, so its full impact had not yet been felt.

Marvel Zombie Society

One of the best things about the Golden Age of comic book fandom (1960s) was the fanzines.  They now fetch hundreds of dollars on EBay because of their low print runs and nostalgia factor.

But print fanzines didn't end with the 1960s.  In fact, there were probably more printed in the 1970s than in the 60s and there were of a much higher quality than those ditto zines.  Even with the Internet, there are still printed fanzines.  Ditkomania is one I still get.

In that era just before the World Wide Web, I belonged to one which was one of the better ones, The Marvel Zombie Society.

 Marvel Zombie Monthly #18 (December 1989) [Marvel Zombie Society]

The monthly newsletter was a little different than most as it was a cross between a typical fanzine and an (Amateur Press Association) APA.  It had an extensive feedback (or comment) section.

The more than 6 pages of comments on previous articles, reviews, and previous comments was almost half this 15 page issue.  That was pretty typical.  If you added Readers Replies to the monthly poll, this was a chatty group.

 There wasn't much art in the issues, as this issue only had a graph I included in an article I wrote for the issue.

But that chattiness is what made this group of fans special.  It became a tight group that even went to the San Diego Comicon together a few years latter.  Not surprisingly, there were several well known letterhacks and a few others who became industry professionals like myself and Charles Novinskie.

By this time a year later, it had become the MZS-APA and that is when it really became a tight group.  That's when we went to San Diego Comicon and had a lot of fun.  The membership remained at 30 people even though members came and went.  We even had some artists who went on to do some work for Marvel & DC.

Doing a little Internet search, I discovered it is still hanging on, but there was something about a farewell issue.  So it may be on its last legs.  Something like 270 issues or so.  Has a Facebook page if you are interested.  Not bad for a zine that started in 1988.   No DC Deviants need apply.

Box Score 1949 prt 2

Here are the two interior pages from the S-M News Box Score that I started in a previous post.  It covers circulation for the last 6 months of 1948 & 1947.

A few things to point out on the Magazine Groups listing which is where most of the comics are listed.  Looking at 1948,  If you change the focus of the ranking to Avg Sale Per Issue for each company, it changes the list quite a bit.  Here's the companies ranking by Avg Sale Per Issue with their Total Sales Ranking after it in brackets:

- Lev Gleason Comic Group  [6]
- Archie Comic Group  [8]
- United Feature Comic Group  [11]
- National Comics Group  (DC)   [1]
- Harvey Comics Group  [7]
- Fawcett Comics Group  [3]
- Hillman Comic Group  [10]
- The Thrilling Comics Group   (Standard/Better)  [5]
- Quality Comic Group  [4]
- Marvel Comic Group  [2]
- American Comic Group  (ACG)  [9]
- Famous Funnies-New Heroic Comics  [13]
- The Premium Group of Comics  (Novelty)  [12]

Note that Marvel drops from #2 to #10.  Demonstrates quite clearly how Goodman liked to glut the market with product.

Another fact to point out is that if you took the Avg Sale Per Issue of the Lev Gleason Comics (703,178), and plugged it into the main list of publications, it would have been #26 on the list.  In fact, if you had done that for every one of the Comic Groups, they all would have fit in the top 100.  Since each of the Comic Groups consisted of 2 or more comic book titles, had you actually broken the comics down into titles, you can image how overwhelmed the top 100 would have been with comic book titles.  Once again, this is without Dell Comics and other publishers whose circulation numbers are not included.

Also note that 4-Most Comics (Premium) and True Comics (Parents Magazine) are already separated out as #52 and #74 on the 1948 ranking.

Now of course, comic books were only at $0.10 cover price where almost every other magazine was at least $0.15 or more.  That changes the comparison between them and mags a bit.

If you like these kinds of numbers and comparing sales, a great web site is John Jackson Miller's The Comics Chronicle (http://www.comichron.com).  There is massive amount of data and great discussion too.

Update: John Jackson Miller does an interesting comparison of these numbers and today's comic books at his Comics Chronicle here.

Comics' Buyer's Guide #733

Today we have the December 4, 1987 issue of the Comics' Buyer's Guide, #733.  The lead story is about Don Martin's acrimonious exit from Mad Magazine.  The other cover story is about 3 Marvel titles (Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, and G.I. Joe) going bi-weekly for the summer months of June thru August.   These stories are concluded on page three which I've included below so you can read the whole story.

This issue is only dated today, but really came out a couple of weeks earlier.  They are just following the lead set by comic books themselves. 

The actual first page of the newspaper has a story about the 1988 Marvel Annuals being part of a larger connected storyline.  This turned out to be the Evolutionary War crossover.  And the first of 5 years of similar crossover events in Marvel Annuals.

Also there is story about a 3,500 Golden Age comic book collection on page 1.  They were supposed to be in very nice condition, but I don't remember it ever getting a name like some famous collections discovered before.  But I could be wrong as I'm not a Golden Age collector.

Page three concludes the articles from the cover and previews MICRA #6 from Comics Interview.  MICRA only lasted one more issue (#7) that came out in the spring of 1988.  Though there was a graphic novel which I think reprinted #1-3.

One other interesting article in the issue was about the Playboy Channel showing a feature on Japanese manga on the May edition of Sexcetera: The News According To Playboy.  It of course focused on erotic comics, but also discussed the differences between our two societies.

On The Newsstand Today In 1961

Tales of Suspense #26 (Feb. 1962) Marvel.

A great monster cover by Jack Kirby.

On the newsstand on Nov. 6.  The average circulation for this title in 1961 was 148,929 copies.