Early on, I decided not to cover other comics where the JLA guest-appeared, partly because it would throw off the flow of following the regular book, and also because it would force to me to go round up a lot of comics I don't have, which is tedious and holds no interest for me. But I am making an exception for books that had all-JLA issues, and this the first one we've gotten to.
100-Page Super-Spectacular is the confusingly-numbered DC series that featured a different star or stars each issue. Sometimes the 100-Page book was part of a series' regular numbering, sometimes not, like in this case.
Released in between JLA #s 105 and 106, the book features a nice Nick Cardy cover, no ads, and the poster-like back cover which you see above. Inside it reprints "Drones of the Queen Bee" from JLA #23, "The Card Crimes of the Royal Flush Gang" from JLA #43, plus "The Injustice Society of the World" from All-Star Comics #37, and an untitled Sandman story from Adventure Comics #65.
There's also a decent-sized text piece on the history of the JLA. Uncredited, but E.Nelson Bridwell seems like a good bet...
Yep, that text page would have been written by Nelson. He edited those reprint collections, and also provided that sort of historical text piece even for books edited by others. The final giveaway is the "N" number up there with the logo. The company was then using a billing system that gave each editor on staff a specific letter as a way to keep track of which editor had assigned which job. So for instance, cover art drawn for Julie Schwartz got a code number beginning with the letter "S" while a job done for Joe Kubert got the letter "K" -- and "B" was already taken by Murray Boltinoff, so Nelson got "N" instead.
ReplyDeleteWow, that text piece was all kinds of awesome. Mike Gold wrote a similar bit in the back of Green Arrow #3, which I also really enjoyed. Sometimes its nice to have a publication history of these characters, rather than a personal history that operates on a sliding time scale.
ReplyDeleteI still believe you should have featured that Mystery In Space issue where the JLA met Adam Strange for the first time. And there is an issue of ACTION coming up within the next year that features the entire JLA vs another group of bad guys... If you don't feature it, I guess I'll have to write about it over at Hey Kids! ;-)
ReplyDeletei considered posting on that issue of MIS, but the cheapest copy i could find on ebay was for around $15 and i just couldn't justify spending that kind of money for one post.
ReplyDeletepart of the reality of doing all these blogs is, after a while, it starts getting expensive. luckily i own all these JLAs, and the Aquaman Shrine is practically self-perpetuating because of the contributions i get.
(the b/w mag blog has, unfortunately, kind of become a chore because now i have to buy mags to write about each day)
but that issue of Action is probably pretty cheap, do you know which issue it is?
These 100-page Super-Spectaculars were pretty great when they were 50 cents and had no ads. Once they added ads, they were a lot less special. I remember walking home from the drugstore with my mom after buying this, and, wouldntcha know it, when i got home the power was out so i had to try and read it by candlelight. Mostly i just looked at the back cover, because that bold target design was one of the only things that was clearly visible. This contains my favorite golden age JSA story ((to the best of my limited knowledge)).
ReplyDeleteAlso, ENB's type piece sort of omits the fact that the Earth-2 Batman was visible taking place in a JSA meeting for one panel in JLA #82!
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