COMPLETE SUPER DC COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Strike while the iron is hot, they say, so while there's currently a bit of interest in SUPER DC around here, I thought I might as well go the whole hog and present all 14 covers at the one time, along with a few associated images.  I've shown them before, of course, in three parts a few years back, but consider this a handy omnibus edition that'll save you trawling through the archives.

I've always found it immensely interesting how we associate certain things with certain times.  To me, these comics represent the start of the '70s, though, back then, there wasn't really anything different about the early '70s to the late '60s which preceded them.  I was a teenage schoolkid who lived in the same house as when I'd been at primary, still hung out with the same pals, and all the things with which I was familiar were yet present in my life; i.e. my favourite shops, TV shows, people, places, and the like.

That's the thing about different 'eras' - they don't announce themselves with a trumpet blast to mark their arrival and make it memorable; they just sort of sneak up on us when we're not looking.  One decade segues into another with seemingly seamless ease - the 1st of January 1970 isn't really any different to the 31st of December 1969, but when we look back years later, using the accoutrements of our life as markers to distinguish one period from another, there often seems to be a dividing line between them.

One comic might represent the 1960s to us and another the '70s, but may've been bought only a few days apart.  In our memories though, they somehow become 'ring-fenced' in their own respective segments, separate and distinct, and each occupying their individual place in our recollections.  However, having just said that and in seeming contradiction, although in retrospect I mentally file these comic under the '70s ('cos I know that's when I bought them), due to that period of my life being pretty much the same as the one which preceded it, they also tend to encapsulate my entire span in the house in which I'd lived from 1965, not just one particular part of it.

A paradox I know, and one that perhaps doesn't make much sense, but that's just how it is.  I suppose time is like an onion, in that it seems like a single object, but on closer inspection we then become aware of the numerous layers of which it's comprised.  Except, perhaps, it's the reverse in the case of my above screed.  Now, if anyone can actually understand what I've just been rabbiting on about, perhaps you can explain it to me?

However, enough of such philosophical perplexions for the nonce and on to the covers, as I unleash upon you the stuff of which memories are made.  Any personal reminiscences associated with these comics that you'd care to share will be most welcome!  (So get typing!)

Batman's right leg is seriously stunted on this cover.  One step and he'd surely topple over?  And
how can Superboy be in the same place as his adult self?  Oh, that's right - it's symbolic - but even
he looks surprised

First one to say that the above scene looks like four gay guys in a gym can leave the room - we
don't want that sort of innuendo around here.  (Oo-er, it was me, wasn't it?  I'll get my coat!)

Ah, now that's a better idea - use art from the actual story itself.  What an improvement.
I bought my original copy of this comic in the Old Village quarter of my town

I'd missed this issue when it first came out, but acquired it from a pal some months later, when
he brought out a pile of comics to read on his front doorstep while I was visiting.  (That's right -
I wasn't invited inside)

This mis-coloured ad was on the back cover of all 14 issues

The one-off Bumper Book...

...and its enclosed leaflet advertising similar editions

 

Below, with a Batman who's clearly been eating too many pies (and should really be called Fatman), is the cover of a collected edition of several issues of the mag, doubtless in an attempt to shift surplus copies lying around the stockroom.