Dollar Comics: Superman Family #182

Here's the second of the first two of DC's Dollar Comics, released on December 14th, 1976. From what I have read, the issue sold in some places that did not sell comics and sold very well overall, but was not really a fan-favorite. (See Comic Book Implosion page 30)

And looking over the book you can see why. Besides the snazzy cover by Curt Swan and Neal Adams the insides are pretty dreary.  

There's a nice table of contents that prints the cover image in a light blue and gives us story titles and credits. Nice to see DC putting credits in the front of the book.

A quick note on the printing: It's pretty bad. Actually, really bad. It probably does not do the artwork any favors, although as we will see some of the artwork does not do itself any favors thanks.

First up is a Jimmy Olsen story by Bill Dennehy, Kurt Schaffenberger and Vince Colletta. Bill Dennehy is referred to in one of the editorial pages as a "pseudonym for one of the most respected writer-editors in the business." In fact, it's Murray Boltinoff who I know did edit comics and wrote part of this one. I do not know how well respected he was in the field, just that he was in the comics biz. 

Kurt Schaffenberger is one of my favorite DC artists of this period. He'd drawn The Marvel Family (and probably some other related comics) at Fawcett. Later on he drew Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (among other titles) at DC. He has a nice clean slightly bigfoot style. Really an all-around great comics artist, although he was probably a bit out of fashion by 1976.

Unfortunately for us, this story is inked by Vince Colletta, my least favorite inker in the history of comics. Much has been made of Mr. Colletta's genuine talent, and the fact that he didn't let that talent get in the way inking comics quickly and badly. Mr. Schaffenberger's clean lines are put through the mediocrity filter and this is what we get. It makes me sad to think of the many many penciled comics pages that were subjected to Colletaization. It's not one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th Century, but might well be in the top ten.

Jimmy finds out that a hockey player is on the take. Two mobsters recognize him and try and shoot him as he gets into his car. Jimmy wastes his time speculating as to whether he is in a dream or not, instead of trying to get away. When he does finally try to get away, he happens to see Clark turning into Superman.

Which Clark could do at super-speed, so fast that there's no way Jimmy could spot the switch. Supes hauls the bad guys car away and gets them i trouble with the law. Which brings us to the single finest panel in this comic, which barely looks like it was inked by Vince Colletta at all.

Jimmy decides that he only saw Clark turn into Superman in a dream. Or something

At some point Jimmy tries to run away from the gangsters again, and that great Kurt Schaffenberger cartooning is squashed under some heavy handed inks.

At some point Superman dresses as a goalie and captures the bad hockey players using his heat vision. Because that's just what Superman would do. And Jimmy once more decides that Clark can't be Superman. 

There's a goofy Superbaby story by E. Nelson Bridwell, John Calnan and Joe Giella. It's a reminder that the Superman comics at this time were aimed at pretty young children. That first panel of Ma Kent is an interesting experiment in showing the passage of time, but I'm not sure that it works.

Lois Lane finds corruption in the world of professional wrestling in a story by Bill Kunkel, Jose Delbo and Bob Layton. Apparently every sport in Metropolis is on the take somehow.

Kudos to whoever decided to put the bad guy in this story in a Mexican wrestling match. Do we know if any members of Los Straightjackets did jail time in Metropolis?

Paul Kupperberg, Marshall Rogers and Frank Springer give us a World of Krypton story that introduces Jo-Mon, sort of a Kryptonian Space Jesus. It's pretty silly.

Why doesn't Clark just clean the dishes and put everything away at super-speed? He's make the poor Ross family do a lot of extra work.

There's a story in which Supergirl battles Lex Luthor on Mars, the best part of which is the part where Luthor's rocket goes into a psychedelic "Space Warp". Paul Kupperberg, Mike Vosburg and Al Milgrom do the honors.

There's a Krypto the Superdog story by Bob Toomey, Bob Calnan and Bob Smith which is silly. Which is fine, really, as the story is aimed at very young children.

We get a one-age preview of the next issue, likely drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, but without any credits. Man, Kurt Schaffenberger was pretty darn great!

And another Jimmy Olsen story in which he temporarily becomes telepathic.

And it's more Vince Colletta inks over the great Kurt Schaffenberger. Ugh. Cary Bates provides the story.

And that's it. 80 pages of comics, ads and editorial material. I've been wondering why the Dollar Comics didn't last, and the quality of the material may have been one of the reasons. I know I'm not the target audience for this, and even in 1976 I was a bit old for this approach to comics. But I would have liked to get better stories for my buck.

Next: You will believe a G.I. can combat!