Welcome to the DC 100 Page Super Spectacular Site -
Home of the World's Greatest Super-Heroes!
 

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF DC'S 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS: 1971-2021

These books have been a favorite of our Webmaster since they first appeared on a spinner rack - "WEIRD MYSTERY" (No. 4) with the first Bernie Wrightson cover most comics enthusiasts had seen. This was back in the days when the Webmaster used to scout the comics at the local bus depot to find comics. The Webmaster's brother had purchased it and the next one he saw was entitled "WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES" (No. 6). In between these, he missed (as, apparently, most other boys at the time did) the "LOVE STORIES" (No. 5) issue. A great deal of our Webmaster's education on Golden Age stories and works came from these volumes as they were plentiful, affordable reprints that came out regularly for the real comic book fan. 

As with every image on Metropolisplus.com, each of the covers featured here have been scanned, stitched & restored to the highest quality we can manage. We hope seeing these covers bring as much joy to you as restoring them has for us.

BEGINNINGS - THE SPAWN OF E. NELSON BRIDWELL
HISTORICAL CONTEXT - DATING THE SUPER SPECTACULARS
CONTENTS - INSIDE THE SUPER SPECTACULARS
COLLECTING - RARITY OF DC 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS
ART - COVERING THE 100 PAGERS
TRADE DRESS - DRESSING THE 100 PAGERS
SEQUENCING - NUMBERING THE 100 PAGERS
A SIMPLER TIME


BEGINNINGS - THE SPAWN OF E. NELSON BRIDWELL

E. Nelson Bridwell was the editor of this wonderful series and his encyclopedic knowledge of comics gave him great insight as to what stories would be the best to reprint in these tomes. Our Webmaster's personal favorites were always the Super Hero issues - particularly since the wraparound covers were littered with characters (some of them new to me) and inside the back cover was a "key" to the characters with short histories included!

These comics are absolutely wonderful treasuries of great comics stories and provided a varied coverage of DC comics history, let alone treating the buyer to 100 Pages of stories and art (the only advertisements were house ads and those were only used to fill out the pages that only had panels for 1/2 or 3/4 of the page) for only 50¢.

E. Nelson Bridwell also compiled the first listing of every licensed character that DC (National Periodical Publications at that time) owned in 1971 - the first "Who's Who"! In "WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES" (No. 6) the full list appeared in the areas where 1/4 or 1/2 page advertisements would have run. This listing included the character's first appearance information with issue, date and secret identity (if they had one).
 

NOTE: In 1998, our Webmaster restored his very first 100-Pager (his very first restored image, period, actually). In consideration of the hundreds of hours spent toiling over the restorations done since then and the skills gathered in that time, we decided to come back to the very first project and use the Webmaster's best skills at a much higher resolution to see what might be achieved. Using scans from multiple copies and referencing a stat of the original art, this image has been updated to expand the edges to provide as much of the original canvas as possible. The clarity is, overall, superior to the first effort and gives a nice showcase for this favorite issue. We're also displaying the starting point, as well as leaving the old version for comparison - hope you'll all appreciate this effort. Thanks for taking the time to look!

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT - DATING THE SUPER SPECTACULARS

The first issue (No. 4 or, retroactively referred to as DC-4 by E. Nelson Bridwell - I'm going to use his version of numbering from here on out) of this then-quarterly series was printed somewhere around the late Winter to mid-Spring of 1971. The indicia dates the issue as May 1971. However, cover dates were typically 3 months after the delivery date. Sometimes even 4 months. Best estimates for this first issue (there was no No. 1/DC-1, No. 2/DC-2 or No. 3/DC-3) of this series indicate that it arrived on stands somewhere between January to March of 1971.

The arrival stamp on our Webmaster's copy of DC-6 is dated July 27, 1971 (on Johnny Thunder's arm/shoulder) and the indicia date is November of 1971. The following issue, DC-7 (Superman #245), which is cover dated January, 1972, arrived October 16, 1971, according to another arrival stamp on one of the Webmaster's  copies of this issue. If one were to extrapolate equal distance between the first 4 issues, the arrival of DC-4 with a publication date of May 1971 and a newsstand arrival date early in January of 1971 would give DC-5 an appropriate mid-Spring arrival of April 1971 (3 months later), also leaving 3 months between DC-5 & DC-6 and another 3 months between DC-6 and DC-7. With DC-5 on the stands in April of 1971, this would comfortably space the issues in a quarterly fashion.

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CONTENTS - INSIDE THE SUPER SPECTACULARS

Inside these beauties lies a vast treasure trove of great Golden Age and Silver Age stories. These were hand-picked by E. Nelson Bridwell from his almost encyclopedic knowledge of comics. Each cover character or team had a reprinting of several of their greatest stories and there were always guest-stars between the covers (and, usually, on the covers, as well). Many of the Quality Comics and lesser-known American Comics heroes were given some face time in these pages. Johnny Quick, Air Wave, the original Quicksilver (later known as Max Mercury) - the list goes on and on.

In addition, there were usually very interesting sidebar articles, such as the complete listing of all DC licensed characters mentioned above (DC-6) and the key to the cover, providing background data on all the heroes pictured on the outside of the book.

For a time devoid of the internet and with libraries concentrating on things other than the minutiae of comic book characters and their publishing history, these books were a great find for any comics enthusiast. Short of finding a copy of Steranko's History of the Comics, these books were a gold mine of great historical material.

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COLLECTING - RARITY OF DC 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS

This has been a source of... well, some minor debate. Having collected all of the 50¢ issues, working from around 1979 to the end of the 90s, our Webmaster can tell you that - for at least two decades (1975 - 1995) -  there were rarely any dealers who were interested in carrying these books, whether they had specialized in books that were pre-1975 or not.

Further, once the interest of others of a similar age to our Webmaster became apparent and the privately owned issues began to surface in the market, there were still only 2 or 3 dealers in the country who recognized early on how difficult it was to procure any of these issues in High Grade. Our Webmaster procured his from any number of sources prior to the advent of the Internet - comic conventions (big and small, frequent, annual or one-time events), advertisements in "Comics Buyers Guide", comics dealers all over the country (he's a million-mile flyer with American Airlines and has stopped in at comic stores in almost every city to which he's traveled), the Mile High Comics catalogue and other private dealers and collectors.

During the Webmaster's efforts in procuring all of these issues and throughout travels and investigations, he has found that, while some collectors have indicated that "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5) is likely the "rarest comic of the Bronze Age", we would posit that - while, by production numbers - that might well be accurate - the most valued of these comics, however, may be another DC 100 Page Super Spectacular:  ADVENTURE #416 (DC-10).  

Bear with us on this - "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5) is purported to have a low print run and it is surmised that few of those books survived after purchase. This is extremely likely and very difficult to argue with and is excellent reason for the estimated value of one of these books in complete condition. However, the actual collector interest in this book supports neither the prices demanded for the book, nor the idea that the book is more frequently sought-after than there are opportunities for procurement.

The low print run was due to the lack of demand at the time. The actual collector interest in the content is extremely low among the vast majority of collectors, as it has been for many other Bronze Age "Romance" comic books. There simply has not been a large market for DC-5, though DC was certainly attempting to obtain every corner of the market that Marvel did not attempt in the 1960's and 1970's. Currently, the actual market for the book is within the niche of those seeking to complete the 100 Pagers as a collection/run. We have grown over the past 25 years, but not to the extent that there are multiples of buyers for every existing issue of DC-5.

Contrast this with ADVENTURE #416  (DC-10, subtitled "World's Greatest Super-Females", pictured here). Now, here is another example of these wonderful covers, splashed with colorful super-heroes. Bob Oksner and Art Saaf never received enough praise for their wonderful renderings of Supergirl, the popularity of which finally helped launch her into her own magazine for the first time in her history. After Curt Swan and Jim Mooney, they became the definitive artists for Supergirl in the Bronze Age. Bob Oksner's cover celebrates the female side of the DC Universe... but, we digress:


Prior to obtaining it, each and every time our Webmaster had attempted to locate and purchase ADVENTURE #416 (DC-10), someone else had beaten him to it. On every occasion, the seller indicated that they'd wished that they had sold the book for much more than it went for because they'd had 10-15 other interested buyers for the book. This tells us that, although "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5) gets competing bids whenever it might show up at auction (be it eBay, Heritage Auctions, ComicLINK, DigAuctions, ComicConnect, HipComic, or what-have-you), the actual number of collectors that are interested in Adventure #416 (DC-10) is always much higher, particularly if it shows up in High Grade.

A further indicator of rarity is availability for sale - now, one must factor in that ADVENTURE #416 (DC-10) has not received as much hype as "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5). In general, the 100 Pagers have received equal hype in comparison to "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5), as the only instance in which this particular book is typically mentioned is in the same breath as the 100 Pagers as a primary subject. ADVENTURE #416 (DC-10) may be available for sale or auction on a level comparative to "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5). In runs of Adventure Comics being offered for sale, this issue is typically missing from even the most complete strings of this title when advertised for auction or in classifieds in comic collector magazines (such as Comic Buyer's Guide).

Let's add to this that the print runs of Adventure Comics were, in general, on the decline, as evidenced by its continual re-invention and introduction of different features after Supergirl, plus its eventual elimination from DC's comics run - even though it was DC's longest-running title at the time.

Taking all this into consideration, the actual demand for ADVENTURE #416 (DC-10) and its lack of availability should place it at either an equal or even slightly higher bracket of scarceness than "LOVE STORIES" (DC-5).

Another tough find - although, not nearly as difficult as these other two - is Superboy #185 (DC-12). Even though Superboy sold well, it wasn't until the advent of Dave Cockrum's art on the Legion in that title that it really picked up considerable steam in sales in the early 1970s. As such, this book missed a lot of newsstands and spinner racks in its day. Featuring the "WORLD'S GREATEST YOUNG HEROES", Nick Cardy does the honors for this one with Superboy, the Teen Titans, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Kid Eternity, Star-Spangled Kid and Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys:

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ART - COVERING THE 100 PAGERS

As mentioned previously, "WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES" (DC-6) sports the Webmaster's favorite cover of all time. Next most favorites also sport Neal Adams wrap-around covers BATMAN #238 (DC-8, subtitled "World's Greatest Super-Heroes") and SUPERMAN #252 (DC-13, subtitled "World's Greatest Flying Heroes"). All three of these covers are what we consider to be the greatest collection of Super Hero renderings ever, and - in our opinion - they still stand as the best pencil and ink versions (discerning them from the paintings of Alex Ross, whose work on the pantheon of DC heroes strikes a similar chord - if not influenced intentionally by Adams' work, certainly one would not rule out subliminal influences). Neal Adams' own influence for the cover of DC-6 was All-Star Comics #16 (as noted by Roy Thomas in the All-Star Companion from TwoMorrows Press). That said, Batman was overdue for this excellent wraparound celebration:

Flash #214 (DC-11) by Nick Cardy. We should mention that he was DC's designated cover design artist in the early-to-mid 1970s and a commercial artist of considerable renown (see his movie posters, like for Neil Simon's California Suite). We've featured his art on other pages on MetropolisPlus.com, as well. This issue introduced to the DC pantheon the Quality Comics character, Quicksilver, who would later become "Max Mercury". And although it appears they've identified the characters on the cover with name plates, they missed several. They could have called this issue:

One of the Webmaster's very favorite covers was another Neal Adams treat - The World's Greatest Flying Heroes - featured on the cover of DC-13 (Superman #252):

After Superman #252 (DC-13), which hit the stands in April of 1972, there was an eight-month break - no 100 Pagers to be found until December of 1972 (cover dated February 1973). When they re-emerged, they had a price bubble which exclaimed "Biggest Bargain in Comics! Only 50¢". This very next one featured Cardy covering Batman and friends and a return to the originally-intended DC-## numbering format (outside of any other series numbering - so, even though this is a Batman comic, it was not numbered within the Batman title series):

Sadly, this would be the last of the truly wrap-around covers. The remaining covers in the series would have a dedicated front cover and "DC's Cover Gallery" on the back cover. While retaining the "100 Pages, No Ads/Cover-to-Cover Story and Art" promises, the wraparound cover art pieces were truly missed by fans. In these two examples, our webmaster has also restored the art for "DC's Cover Gallery" from scans of higher-grade examples of the subject books:

A further treat from these comics (excepting those times when - as in DC-11/Flash #214 and DC-14, above - the majority of the characters were labeled on the cover) was the key to the characters found inside the back cover with a short description of each character featured on the wrap-around renderings.

KEY TO DC-6
KEY TO DC-8
KEY TO DC-10
KEY TO DC-11 (Made it ourselves!)
KEY TO DC-12
KEY TO DC-13

 

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TRADE DRESS - DRESSING THE 100-PAGERS

"Trade Dress" is how we refer to the various trademarks, month and numbering, price indications, and other cover-related items on the front of the comic. For the beginning 10 issues of the Super Spectaculars, the mastheads of the books were identified thusly, depending on how much black was being used on the cover.

These first three represent the vast majority of the first swath of 100-Pagers. For comparison's sake, the color schemes have been kept to just a few colors where possible. Primarily, Red and White, with a smattering of blue for delineation.

This one represents how most mastheads looked:

This one is unusual, but only in that it was used for the third 100-Pager, DC-6 and never used again. The same could be said for DC-5, in that it is the only issue that did not have masthead trade dress (see above).

This is how the vast majority of 100-Pagers' mastheads looked if they used primarily black in their color scheme. This format lasted from its inception through to DC-22.

When advertisements were added and the format became part of regular title numbering (either their runs or special issues), the price was shifted out of that large price balloon into the masthead for issues reaching comic racks from September 1973 through December 1973. This made it less prominent on the cover and the Comics Code Authority stamp was smaller than the old price and had the ability to be moved out of the way of the cover art, along with the issue number, month (which indicated the last month to display the book for sale, not the month it came out) and the Title ID #31604 (Title Identification Numbers were used 1971-1977 for newsstand distribution and subscriptions), which could all be moved to accommodate the art.

For books reaching comic racks in January of 1974, the price finally changed to 60¢, and there was not enough delineation for some comics buyers who were surprised at the cash register - one would barely notice the difference when it did happen.

The very next month (February 1974), the masthead changed, but "Super Spectacular" was then erased from the format's name. This was the only month that it looked this way.

For the last 10 months of 1974, a circle was added around the DC logo to bring it more in line with the current logo (designed by Michael Uslan) on other DC books. After that, the 100-Page Super Spectacular disappeared from the stands and another giant format took its place at a price point of 50¢ for 64 pages with advertisements.

Also, on the first bunch of DC-100 Pagers (DC-4 through DC-13), there was trade dress announcing what a deal you were getting, like the box indicating "100 Action Packed Pages of Story and Art from Cover to Cover":

Or, as mentioned previously, the new "price bubble" on the cover, this also delineates the next raft of 100-pagers from DC-14 through DC-22:

Every other piece of Trade Dress was typically related to the issue number, month, date, Title Identification Number (which was used from 1971 through 1977 for subscription and newsstand distribution purposes) or, perhaps, sometimes text or images related to the stories contained within. But there's been a lot of time spent on all of it for the sake of the art contained on this page.

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SEQUENCING - NUMBERING THE 100 PAGERS

Be aware that the numbering on these books is a bit finicky to keep up with, but if you can bend your mind around the listing, it becomes familiar after awhile. DC Comics has not been known for their transparency in their publishing and series numbering at any point in their history. Heck, even today, they can't even seem to manage a consistent Trade Paperback reprint schedule - or even to ensure that their current books make it into TPB format. That said, there is some archaic math behind the numbering and scheduling of this particular series. Initially, the series appears to have been intended to be quarterly - which had not happened on a DC title for quite some time at that stage. From DC-6 to DC-7, there was a gap of 3 months. Between DC-13 and DC-14, another gap of 8 months.

The first three books, DC-4, DC-5 and DC-6, were initially under their own numbering system (No. 4, No. 5 & No. 6, respectively). In each of these books, the title on the indicia inside indicates their actual title to be "DC 100 Page Super Spectacular", rather than "Weird Mystery" (DC-4), "Love Stories" (DC-5) and "World's Greatest Super Heroes" (DC-6) as indicated on the covers. We use the DC-## numbering format for these both because E. Nelson Bridwell himself numbered them thusly and for uniformity's sake, and this format was carried over into the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. NOW, DC-7 was also Superman #245 - this numbering continues through DC-13 (AKA Superman #252). THEN - after a few months' hiatus - they switched back to having solely the first numbering system from DC-14 through DC-22 with cover titles ranging from Superboy to Sgt. Rock and the indicia again covering their number as "100 Page Super Spectacular" (with the new price balloon shown above indicating the "Biggest Bargain in Comics" for DC-14 through DC-22). AND just when you thought you had the hang of it, they started putting ads in the books and included them as part of a regular series run. This regularity allowed the format to keep its price-point for another 4 months and also expanded the format from 1 to 3 books per month (4 titles that switched to the format entirely and one "wandering" 100-Page special each month, totaling 6 100-Pagers every two months through the end of 1973). With this particular change, we lost the original numbering system entirely. Then, with issues reaching comics racks in January of 1974, they changed the price to 60¢ (and, the following month, replaced the trade dress so there would be less confusion over the price change) and completely eliminated any reference to "Super Spectacular" on the spine or otherwise. At this point is when the format was expanded to 10 bi-monthly titles that were 100-Pagers every issue (5 titles a month - 10 total alternating every other month) in 1974 and ending the format entirely with the end of that year.

There is one more addition to this series - a "missing" issue, as it were. Announced in DC-22 (a Flash issue), E. Nelson Bridwell indicated that the next issue in the series was to be a "Shazam!" issue (DC-23), featuring the Original Captain Marvel. However, for ages it seemed that there was a sudden change that shifted the format into regular comics' series and eliminated the "Super Spectacular" moniker for good. As such, the next Shazam 100-Pager was Shazam! #8, which included ads. Also that month appeared the regular issue change of Detective Comics and Young Love to a bi-monthly, 100-Page format (for, at least, the coming year). So, what happened to DC-23? Turns out, the trade dress from the last part of that series of Super Spectaculars appeared on a long-lost cover shared on Twitter by Writer/Artist Erik Larsen (of Image Comics fame) in a tweet he provided in June of 2019. The art he'd purchased appears to have been intended for DC-23, but another cover was completed by C.C. Beck - with the same story images and, of course, different trade dress - for Shazam! #8. Here is a cleaned-up version of the cover shared by Mr. Larsen as you can see, it appears that DC was already headed toward raising the price to 60¢, but the shift to include ads and increase the frequency of the format likely saved them enough money to push the price increase down the road another 4 months later, to begin with the comics appearing on racks in January of the new year (1974).

Here's the original, unpublished work (DC-23) next to the published issue of Shazam! #8:

UNPUBLISHED DC-23
(Color Version & Raw Original)
PUBLISHED BECK COVER - SHAZAM! #8

Okay, now that the overall numbering has been explained (as muddied as the waters may be) the following linked pages have been compiled to list all of the 100-Pagers published from early 1971 through the end of 1974 (cover dated 1975) - the first listing of originals gives you an idea of where numbering picked up and left off:

LISTING OF ORIGINAL 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS
LISTING OF SUBSEQUENT 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS
LISTING OF EVERY 100 PAGER!

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A SIMPLER TIME

In the early 1970's, our Webmaster would travel from his home in the western part of Ypsilanti, Michigan to mid-town, to the local Greyhound Bus Depot in order to find the latest comics. Local "Stop & Go" (think: "off-brand 7-11") convenience stores would sometimes carry comics, but, truly, there were only 3 retail sites in that entire mid-western town where one could see a significant number of the lines offered by DC, Marvel, Archie and Gold Key. They were the aforementioned Bus Depot on West Cross Street at Hamilton, the local "Tom's Party Store" two blocks away on the corner of Perrin and West Cross Street, and "Lucky Party Store" on Michigan Avenue another mile away. Our Webmaster would ride a bike a couple of miles to the first party store, hit the bus depot, then pedal another mile to the further party store before biking all of those comic books home. It was only somewhat more efficient time-wise than getting on the bus and spending a couple of hours going to the only comic shop in existence in all of Michigan's Washtenaw County (as far as we're aware) - and maybe the only one in three counties at that time - to gather the newest comics. It was only moderately less expensive, but 30¢ was another comic book and a candy bar at the time!

It's not surprising that someone's comic book collection would be missing myriad issues over time, and a 50¢ comic was unusual and not typically carried by most vendors of "funny books". When our Webmaster applied himself to collecting the entire run, he was surprised by how many of the original 50-centers he actually had owned and noted that the ones missing were either low print runs, due to their focus on the smaller female market or were part of other titles that he did not really read or collect.

Noting that Adventure #416 DC-10 had eluded his grasp for so very long (much longer than Love Stories DC-5 had) and that it is almost impossible to find in High Grade, we've arrived at the rarity conclusions above.

In recent years, DC has seen fit not only to provide reproductions of the original, classic series, but to attempt to recapture the tradition with a contemporary series of 100-Page Super Spectaculars. Sort of a "What if we'd done a Justice Society of America 100-Pager?", etc. One of the reproductions, in particular, failed to properly reproduce the most important cover of the bunch, as outlined in this excellent blog review of the reproductive process by "Robby Reed".

That's all for now. We sure hope you enjoyed this offering of information.  It took years of collecting to actually put together the Webmaster's entire collection and to be able to provide this information, and we're glad to be able to share it!

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Brian G. Philbin, Webmaster and the Web-Team of MetropolisPlus

Hope this was a fun trip for you!

Please take a moment to look at our other pages!

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WHEN DOES THE BRONZE AGE BEGIN? - UPDATED 08/2023
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THE AMAZING OUTFITS OF SUPERGIRL! - UPDATED 04/2023
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All characters mentioned within these pages and associated images are © and ™ of DC Comics, Inc. TARZAN is © and ™  of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. If you have any question, comments or other items of interest to this page or DC Comics or the Bronze Age or what-have-you, please feel free to E-Mail Brian G. Philbin. All items which are highlighted in blue text and underlined are links to the named item!

Text content is Copyright 1999 Brian G. Philbin

 

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