Why Adventure Comics was canceled for so long? 3 3

[BA773]

DC had at my knowledge 3 essentials series who was used most of time to introduce new charachter and told stories for secondary charachters who did not deserve her own title. These series was Detective, Action and Adventure, but when we re looking the publishing, the 2 first survived through the time while Adventure Comics was canceled during a crazy gaps between 1983 to 2009. Why this famous série was canceled for so long? 

 

[CAMPER49]

I can only give you my opinion on this. Maybe others can chime in here and correct me if I'm wrong.

Adventure Comics underwent several format/character changes in the 1970's...Supergirl to Spectre to Aquaman to Superboy.

In 1978, they changed the format to a Dollar Comic showcasing popular super-heroes (including the death of Earth II Batman) as part of the DC Explosion (#459-466).

Poor sales occurred during 1977/78, partly due to the recession, inflation, rising printing costs and blizzards(!), referred to as the infamous DC Implosion thus several titles were cancelled and some staff laid off.

Adventure survived this implosion (Detective Comics was almost cancelled!), but they changed format again to regular size and changed the characters to Starman and Plastic Man (467-478), while jacking the price up with 475 and including 8 extra pages of story starring Aquaman (475-478). Dial H for Hero starred in 479-490, then the series was cancelled (Feb 1982).

Seven months later, it was revived with the release of 13 issues that were digest sized reprints, and not all reprints came from old Adventure Comics stories (491-503). It was cancelled again.

Around this time, due to mediocre sales, DC and Marvel started distributing their comics through comic shops (direct sales) as opposed to the spinner racks in dime stores.

So my guess is poor sales cancelled the run in part due to the DC implosion, format changes, starring of minor characters, move to direct sales...anything else? Bottom line is money talks, no sales means cancellation.

 

[wardevil0]

We look back now and see Detective Comics and Action Comics as these iconic, tentpole series that have spanned the generations, etc etc, but it's less likely people felt the same way about it in the early 80s.  There was really no reason to maintain a long-running title just because it was long-running.  

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/14/2023 at 1:09 PM, wardevil0 said:

We look back now and see Detective Comics and Action Comics as these iconic, tentpole series that have spanned the generations, etc etc, but it's less likely people felt the same way about it in the early 80s.  There was really no reason to maintain a long-running title just because it was long-running.  

A lot of titles did run out of steam and become quite mediocre during that period, with a bounce back in quality in the mid-80s. Certainly true for the Batman titles.  Adventure did feel a bit like it had run its course back then, and was resurrected in the late 2000s primarily as a LOSH book.

 

[BA773]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:17 PM, Ken Aldred said:

A lot of titles did run out of steam and become quite mediocre during that period, with a bounce back in quality in the mid-80s. Certainly true for the Batman titles.  Adventure did feel a bit like it had run its course back then, and was resurrected in the late 2000s primarily as a LOSH book.

 

language barrier here, can you explain me the term of "LOSH book"? 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:17 AM, BA773 said:

LOSH

Legion of Super Heroes. 

[Dave2739]

For what it's worth, World's Finest also had a similarly long run, but then was cancelled around the time of Crisis On Infinite Earths. 

[shadroch]

Adventure was an orphan book that didn't have a rabbi, for those who understand the vernacular. Sales sucked for a lot of these titles. Still, Action was associated with Superman, and Detective was closely tied to Batman, where Adventure had hosted a constantly turning cast of characters.  After starring the Legion for most of the Sixties, it went through a rotating list of B characters and pricing experiments.  First, it was a dollar comic, and then a digest.  It lacked a long-time editor or character worth fighting for.  DC should have promoted the race to a landmark 500th issue, but no one at DC had much sense of history.  As mentioned, they planned to cancel Detective without realizing it was the title book for their company. Supes and Batman were the old guard and tolerated but not promoted until Frank Miller changed everything and made Batman cool.

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:17 PM, BA773 said:

language barrier here, can you explain me the term of "LOSH book"? 

Sorry for that.

It’s a bit of well-established boardie abbreviation. Shouldn’t have assumed.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Robot Man]

Adventure was always a bit of a second tier book. Highlights for me would be the early ‘40’s Sandman, the early ‘60’s Bizarro stories and early ‘70’s Spectre issues. Other than those, most kind of bore me. 

[shadroch]

On 12/14/2023 at 8:41 AM, Robot Man said:

Adventure was always a bit of a second tier book. Highlights for me would be the early ‘40’s Sandman, the early ‘60’s Bizarro stories and early ‘70’s Spectre issues. Other than those, most kind of bore me. 

Blasphemy!  Jim Shooter's Legion run was the best thing DC did in the 60s, until Deadman came along.

[VintageComics]

On 12/14/2023 at 7:21 AM, CAMPER49 said:

I can only give you my opinion on this. Maybe others can chime in here and correct me if I'm wrong.

Adventure Comics underwent several format/character changes in the 1970's...Supergirl to Spectre to Aquaman to Superboy.

In 1978, they changed the format to a Dollar Comic showcasing popular super-heroes (including the death of Earth II Batman) as part of the DC Explosion (#459-466).

Poor sales occurred during 1977/78, partly due to the recession, inflation, rising printing costs and blizzards(!), referred to as the infamous DC Implosion thus several titles were cancelled and some staff laid off.

Adventure survived this implosion (Detective Comics was almost cancelled!), but they changed format again to regular size and changed the characters to Starman and Plastic Man (467-478), while jacking the price up with 475 and including 8 extra pages of story starring Aquaman (475-478). Dial H for Hero starred in 479-490, then the series was cancelled (Feb 1982).

Seven months later, it was revived with the release of 13 issues that were digest sized reprints, and not all reprints came from old Adventure Comics stories (491-503). It was cancelled again.

Around this time, due to mediocre sales, DC and Marvel started distributing their comics through comic shops (direct sales) as opposed to the spinner racks in dime stores.

So my guess is poor sales cancelled the run in part due to the DC implosion, format changes, starring of minor characters, move to direct sales...anything else? Bottom line is money talks, no sales means cancellation.

 

Wouldn't a large part of it's lack of success also have to do with Adventure, like Showcase being a 'showcase' book with no dedicated character the way Detective (Batman) and Action (Superman) had?

Plus, as the Direct Market exploded, you had many relatively smaller characters get their own titles rather than try to feature them in a series like Adventure. 

I think all of these things, including the things you mentioned, worked against the title. 

I don't know if newer readers realize how popular Legion of Super-heroes was over several decades and how they've lost so much of that popularity. There were several decades (or eras) where they were considered one of the premiere titles in all of comics.

Edited December 14, 2023 by VintageComics

[OtherEric]

I think others have covered the basics pretty well:  Adventure simply didn't have a consistent feature like Action or Detective did after Supergirl took over the title with #381.  Prior to that, Superboy/ Superboy and the Legion had a 20+ year run, but after that the title never really had a stable feature.  Supergirl had a decent run, but beyond that the title was musical chairs.

I say this as somebody who has every issue of Adventure from #286 up and quite a few earlier, I love the book.  But I can't pretend it had a clear focus in the 70's, which made it vulnerable.

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/14/2023 at 3:41 PM, Robot Man said:

Adventure was always a bit of a second tier book. Highlights for me would be the early ‘40’s Sandman, the early ‘60’s Bizarro stories and early ‘70’s Spectre issues. Other than those, most kind of bore me. 

Yup.  Rather than comparing it to Action and Detective, another more equivalent comparison would be with More Fun Comics, a title which started out with strong GA characters, but which ran out of steam and was euthanised much more rapidly.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[shadroch]

I had almost an entire Legion run, plus the Spectre run, and a handful of pre-Legion books but really had no loyalty to Adventure. 

[shadroch]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:06 AM, OtherEric said:

I think others have covered the basics pretty well:  Adventure simply didn't have a consistent feature like Action or Detective did after Supergirl took over the title with #381.  Prior to that, Superboy/ Superboy and the Legion had a 20+ year run, but after that the title never really had a stable feature.  Supergirl had a decent run, but beyond that the title was musical chairs.

I say this as somebody who has every issue of Adventure from #286 up and quite a few earlier, I love the book.  But I can't pretend it had a clear focus in the 70's, which made it vulnerable.

 I'd never thought about the Legion chasing Superboy out of Adventure and then a decade later chasing him out of his own book.  No wonder he is so bitter in those Crisis books.