Or to understand what came first - you have to understand what never left...

The go-go check marketing period of DC comics abounds with firsts, as do the couple of issues that pre-date the go-go checks by one or two months. A handful of new, long-term characters were introduced, some of whom have carried their own titles, while others have appeared in animation, and some of which (thankfully) passed into the sunset of comic life. Additionally, DC started going through its golden age character archives and re-introduced a number of characters that hadn't been seen since the 40s.

But to understand this, you have to understand what went before; before not only the go-go check period, but before the beginning of the silver age - before Showcase #4 and the introduction of the totally re-imagined Flash character in 1959.

The comicbook landscape of the 50's is littered with westerns & romances; true crime & detective books; sci-fi & jungle action; but not with superheroes. Four Color & Classics Illustrated were easy to find - funny animal books - and many books based on TV and movie personalities...

Except at DC. Someone at DC said 'Spoon this spoonity spoon spoon' - Superman is an alien - that's sci-fi, right? - and Batman is a Detective...OK maybe not exactly like that. But DC did continue to publish hero & superhero books all the way through the 50s.

Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Blackhawk, & World's Finest - eight books that started in the golden age and ran continuously through the go-go check period - from the birth of comicdom to the beginning of the Neil Adams period and the first inklings of the bronze age (Blackhawk wouldn't make it all the way to the bronze age - although it will be revived in the mid-bronze period).

Tomorrow - why aren't my books in QC yet?

Happy Hunting!

Lee K

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