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How popular was Flash during the period from 1959 - 1963?

Started by bronze johnny,

48 posts in this topic

JohnJacksonMiller-migratio

JohnJacksonMiller-migratio

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I have many more numbers which I have yet to post, but it is certainly true that the early 1960s -- when publishers were first forced to publish their sales figures -- resulted in some incomplete information.

 

Gold Key only published subscription figures for 1962, which was a consequence I believe of their split with Dell: the new business manager probably didn't understand what the form required. And DC and Harvey both dropped sales figures in most, but not all, titles in 1963 when the Statements no longer had to be notarized. They didn't return to all DC titles until 1965, when DC actually ran two forms -- one without numbers, and one with -- and the Harveys weren't fixed until the end of the decade.

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bronze johnny

bronze johnny

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The lack of accurate sales figures during this period makes it difficult to see just how popular DC revival superheroes were. We can see that the Justice League appears to be the most successful revival and one book that closely follows the Superman titles based on the information provided. Flash comes in after that. It appears that the Justice League "led" the DC revival. But it also appears that Superman titles still dominate DC during this period.

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Moondog

Moondog

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All I know is back in the day all my friends read The Flash. We had our own comic book club and had about 15-20 members. We would meet monthly at one another's homes and our mothers would prepare sandwiches, kool-aid, and cookies. No kidding. And The Flash by far was the most popular comic amongst our members. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

 

(thumbs u

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solm4st3r

solm4st3r

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All I know is back in the day all my friends read The Flash. We had our own comic book club and had about 15-20 members. We would meet monthly at one another's homes and our mothers would prepare sandwiches, kool-aid, and cookies. No kidding. And The Flash by far was the most popular comic amongst our members. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

 

Cool story

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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All I know is back in the day all my friends read The Flash. We had our own comic book club and had about 15-20 members. We would meet monthly at one another's homes and our mothers would prepare sandwiches, kool-aid, and cookies. No kidding. And The Flash by far was the most popular comic amongst our members. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

Too cool!

 

:cool:

 

What year(s)? What city?

 

???

 

 

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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It wasn't until I got a paper route at 12 that I could afford to buy everything I wanted off the stands.

 

Precisely my experience, and at exactly the same age! I think I started my route in the late winter of 1964 and I turned twelve in April.

 

:)

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Stevenrams

Stevenrams

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All I know is back in the day all my friends read The Flash. We had our own comic book club and had about 15-20 members. We would meet monthly at one another's homes and our mothers would prepare sandwiches, kool-aid, and cookies. No kidding. And The Flash by far was the most popular comic amongst our members. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

Too cool!

 

:cool:

 

What year(s)? What city?

 

???

 

 

Circa 1962-1968 though some members moved on to girls, rock music, marijuana and parties. Me--Never got into the drug scene though I somked a few joints now and then. Tried cigarettes but gave that up after about 6 months and more or less stuck with comics, girls and Pete Seeger concerts.

 

North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Burbank and Sherman Oaks, Calif. (San Fernando Valley)

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shadroch

shadroch

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I was in first grade in 1964 and we would play super-heroes almost every day. Sometimes we were the Justice League, sometimes The Legion. Occasionally, we would play Flash Gordon. Not a Marvel character in the schedule.

Then The Man From Uncle hit the tv screen and thats all we ever played, except for War.

In my group, the characters to be were Green Lantern and The Flash. Superman was in his Bizzaro phase and us kids just thought it was stupid.

 

I always get a kick out of DC's decision to exclude Supers and Batman from the covers of the early JLA stories. Seems they were afraid of overexposing them.

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namisgr

namisgr

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From 1959 to 1963, Archie and Harvey comics were very popular. The first comics I remember reading in the early '60s were Archie, Casper, and Richie Rich, along with Superman. The Flash? Not so much.

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Stevenrams

Stevenrams

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Circa 1962-1968 though some members moved on to girls, rock music, marijuana and parties.

 

Were girls allowed in your club?

 

???

 

Did girls collect comics back then. None that I knew. They didn't even read Archie comics. I think they were more into the Bobsey Twins and Nancy Drew. But if I knew that Kathy Harris or Shelley Cohen or Nina Rosenfeld read comics, I would've extended them an invitation. But I did get invited to Debby Gordon's Bat Mitzvah.

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bronze johnny

bronze johnny

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That's the thing- the issue as to whether the Flash was one of the more popular superheroes during this period of time is still open for debate. The numbers alone give you an idea that some of DC's newest SA superhero entries did not overcome the existing hierarchy of top selling books. The only "newer" DC book to challenge the top books was the Justice League's. Perhaps it was the Justice League that ignited interest in non-superman titles during this period for DC? If so then more historical significance could be accredited to BB 28 as the primary SA book? Giving it a greater role than Showcase 4 in the development of the DC Silver Age?

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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Putting in my own two cents here, I found Superman and Batman too commonplace and thus relatively boring when I first got into superhero comics in 1961-62. I found Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Hawkman, Jaguar, Fly, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman much more interesting heroes in roughly that order. Captain Atom would have made my pecking order ahead of Superman and Batman as well but he just didn't last long enough in Space Adventures to really catch my attention.

 

(shrug)

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Zonker

Zonker

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I don't think anyone has ever made the claim that the Flash was the most popular DC of the time, just that it was the first successful post-Code launch of a super-hero to survive as a headliner outside the Superman / Batman / Wonder Woman family. It didn't exactly take over the world, but just showed there were still possibilities for the costumed super-hero beyond the Big 3.

 

From Infantino's Flash revival, you get Gil Kane's Green Lantern, then JLA, Kubert's Hawkman, then the Atom, etc.

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