Go! - Go! - Go!

The Go-go check period, representing a slice in time from early 1966 through the middle of 1967 is more than a ploy to make DC's books stand out on the spinner rack from all the competition.

On the surface, it isn't much different than the Marvel picture frame period or even the 1976 Bicentennial issues; it does cover a specific period of time, and it created a cover design format that was used across multiple books in every genre by the publisher and it did make those books look like part of a group on the stand - comic companies still use this technique today to tie-in all the books in a crossover event (just in case you need all 250 issued of the Fall of the Mutants).

But a deeper look into the books shows the remains of an intense advertising campaign - 1/3 page adds sprinkled throughout the books read: For the best in (Humor, Adventure, Thrills...) Go! Go! Go! - earlier interior adds read: When chosing your comics, Go check, then go doublecheck! The Direct Currents (letter page) masthead was changed to incorporate the checks; bad beat poetry was written in an effort to promote Swing with Scooter and The Adventures of Bob Hope all surrounded by the checks as well...

But for a period of 18 months (about) every DC title had black and white checks across the top and around the top corners, linking the CCA emblem and the DC Comics logo, so when viewed by a prospective purchaser on the spinner rack, they stood out.

Spanning 526 issues in 51 titles, the go-go check collection is about 25% larger than the Marvel picutre frame collection - it covers all genres: Humor (Adventures of Bob Hope, Sugar & Spike), Adventure (Strange Adventures), Superhero (Action, Wonder Woman), Team Books (Justice League of America), Team-ups (Brave & the Bold), Romance (Falling in Love, Young Romance), Western/Frontier (Tomahawk), and guys without powers (Sea Devils)...it includes 1st issues (Plastic Man, Inferior 5, Swing with Scooter), key issues (Batman 181, Lois Lane 70), and 80 page giant issues (18 of them).

It includes great cover art (Batman 189, Brave & the Bold 72, Detective 365, Our Army At War 173, Strange Adventures 197, Tales of the Unexpected 99), terrible cover art (Justice League of America 53, Showcase 62 & 67, Wonder Woman 165, World's Finest 161) and gorilla cover art (Hawkman 16, Star Spangled War Stories 126, Strange Adventures 201, Wonder Woman 170) [DC sure loves their gorillas].

The go-go check collection has fewer issues that Amazing Spiderman (complete) or Detective (complete)...but is still very large. Will I ever complete it? probably not - at least not in high grade. High grade issues of Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Swing with Scooter, and the half-dozen romance titles are hard to come by. Most of the romance books were in the Savannah pedigree - but for the most part, I was badly outbid on them. I do suspect that I should be able to complete maybe 80% of the collection, if I keep at it.

I'm happy with the go-go check collection as a goal - and it should keep me busy for many years to come. I hope you are as happy with your goals.

Happy Hunting & nice knowing you;

Lee K