"Peak" Golden Age, what is the Month/Year? 0

[rjpb]

4 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Man, that would have been a tough month on my allowance...

When I was 9 years old I got a quarter a week allowance, which covered two comics a week, if I didn't buy any candy. When they went up to 15¢ I started buying second hand comics for a nickel and scrounging for pop bottles to return for the penny deposit. That would have been like getting a dime a week in 1942, or enough for a single comic a week. My four books in that month in 1942 at that age would probably have been Batman, Captain America, Adventure, and USA.

[lou_fine]

7 hours ago, Electricmastro said:

During World War II itself, it could have been December 1942, which is when all these books are said to have been on sale.

 

 

6 hours ago, comicjack said:

What you could get for a dime back then 

Or if you are lucky like Chuck, you could have gotten approximately 20,000 of them in pristine condition back in the mid to late 70's for only a dime each or for the grand sum of only a measly $2,000.      

Edited January 26, 2020 by lou_fine

[Electricmastro]

And if we're talking about between the end of World War II and the end of 1949, then August 1949 seems the most busy. Whereas December 1942 had at least 105 books, August 1949 more than doubled that by having at least 213 books.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Electricmastro

[rjpb]

I count 55 romance comics, including 9 western romance books, and only 16 costumed/masked hero books. A sad time to be a 12 year old boy.

[Electricmastro]

36 minutes ago, rjpb said:

I count 55 romance comics, including 9 western romance books, and only 16 costumed/masked hero books. A sad time to be a 12 year old boy.

Yep, they don't call it the baby boomer generation for nothing. It was only really DC, Fawcett, and Quality who still seemed committed to the superhero genre at this point, with the Superman franchise having actually expanded in 1949 when Superboy started his self-titled comic. I imagine he got even more popular by the time the Adventures of Superman TV show premiered in 1952.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Electricmastro

[rjpb]

2 hours ago, Electricmastro said:

Yep, they don't call it the baby boomer generation for nothing. It was only really DC, Fawcett, and Quality who still seemed committed to the superhero genre at this point, with the Superman franchise having actually expanded in 1949 when Superboy started his self-titled comic. I imagine he got even more popular by the time the Adventures of Superman TV show premiered in 1952.

Sales figures are spotty prior to 1960, but it appears the Superman family of books, along with Disney titles were best sellers through much of the 1950s. But other than Batman, it seems other superhero titles were middling to weak in sales, and the industry was constantly looking elsewhere for what might appeal to the audience. Even the Silver age was slow going for the first five years between Showcase #4 and 1961/1962 when both DC and Marvel began introducing new characters at an accelerated pace. Compared to the explosion of Superhero books in the two years after Action #1, it was if publishers didn't really want to believe the genre could have a second wind, or the market was so diversified in a way it hadn't been in 1940, that superheroes were just seen as another niche, and that Superman was unique in having widespread appeal.  

[Electricmastro]

And in regards to romance, I noticed that Fox in particular had gone from having the most focus on the Blue Beetle to having the most focus on line-ups such as this: