Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Super DC mystery solved!

Trivia time, Blimey readers! I remember buying Super DC No.1 from my corner shop one dark evening in 1969. The comic carried no cover date and in recent times, doubt has been cast on that launch date, with some claiming it was 1970. This made no sense to me, as I remember wearing the free mini-calendar on my watchstrap at school, so I must have been at junior school at the time as wearing such a childlike item at senior school (which I moved to in 1970) would have led to ridicule or being thrown in the coal hole. Not only that, but Super DC had a copyright date on the inside for 1969, and articles pertaining to the 1960s. Plus, it ran for 14 monthly issues, so had it been launched in 1970, the later issues would have carried a 5p decimal price, not just the one shilling cover price they all had. So that pretty much sealed it... but doubts had been cast and, as I'd thrown away the free calendar decades ago, I even started to doubt my own memories.

Until today. 

The comics seller Phil Comics currently has the free gifts up for bidding on eBay, and that free mini-calendar which I long since discarded is there... clearly showing the dates of November and December of 1969, and January 1970. (Yes, the gift only featured those three months. Cheapskates eh?) Therefore, just as I recalled, Super DC No.1 went on sale in late 1969 (which is why it was a dark evening as I remembered). I'd put the launch as October 1969, so the calendar was ready to wear the next month.

Now, it's possible that unsold copies of Super DC were distributed to other areas such as Scotland or Ireland the following year, which may be why some remember it differently, but there's no doubt now that the comic was launched in October 1969, around the same time as Whizzer and Chips No.1.
If you want to know more about Super DC here's an article I wrote ten years ago, which you can read here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/super-dc.html

If you want to bid on the free gifts that Phil Comics have on eBay you can find them by clicking here.

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