Dollar Comics

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Dollar Comics was a line of DC Comics comic book publications issued from 1977 to 1983 and revived in 2019. The 1977-1983 line included the titles The Superman Family, House of Mystery, G.I. Combat, World's Finest Comics, Batman Family, and Adventure Comics; as well as the series of specials with the umbrella title of DC Special Series. The 1977-1983 Dollar Comics were notable for costing $1, having 64 pages, and being advertising-free. The 2019 revival consists of full-issue one-shot reprints of key DC issues.

History

1977-1983

According to then-DC publisher

National Periodical Publications/DC raised its price to 12¢, a 20% increase.[1] Comparable magazines, in contrast, were by then 3.5-to-5 times their original price. By 1977, even though the typical price of a comic book was 35¢, it still lagged far behind its magazine competition, thus decreasing its appeal for newsvendors[1] (which at that point — before the generalized 1980s shift to direct market
distribution — was still the dominant retailing location for comics). Thus, the idea for Dollar Comics was born.

Writing for the Silver Bullet Comic Books website, John Wells detailed Dollar Comics' history:

When Jenette Kahn took over as DC's publisher in 1976, the average comic book contained only 17 pages of story for 35¢. Nearly half of each issue was filled with advertising and editorial content. Kahn's initial response was 1977's line of Dollar Comics. In terms of content, a Dollar Comic gave readers approximately the story pages of four 35¢ comic books for the price of three. From the retailer perspective, the Dollar Comic represented a greater profit than the standard 35¢ issues.

implosion almost immediately and, within a year, the ads were back, and the page count had shrunk. In 1980, DC made its second attempt at a line expansion and this time it clicked. The Dollar Comics were ad-free again by the end of the year.[2]

Most Dollar Comics titles began as traditional format books and expanded to the Dollar Comic format. All-Out War and Time Warp were short lived series which were published entirely as Dollar Comics. Several anniversary issues such as Action Comics #500 and The Flash #300 were also in the format as were the DC annuals for 1982 and 1983.

1977-1983 Dollar Comics titles

[2]

2019-

In 2019, DC revived the Dollar Comics line as a weekly series of one-shot reprints of key issues priced at $1, beginning with Detective Comics #854 -- the first comic to feature a solo adventure of the modern Batwoman.[3]

2019 revival issues

Title is followed by scheduled or actual publication date:

  • Dollar Comics: Detective Comics #854 (September 4, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics:
    Batman
    #608     (September 11, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Harley Quinn (Volume 2) #1 (September 18, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (September 25, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: The Joker #1 (October 2, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Watchmen #1 (October 9, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #497 (October 16, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Swamp Thing #1 (October 23, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Superman (Volume 2) #75 (October 30, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Flashpoint (Volume 2) #1 (November 6, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Blackest Night #1 (November 13, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Luthor #1 (November 20, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Infinite Crisis #1 (November 27, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics:
    Birds of Prey
    #1     (December 4, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 (December 11, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics:
    The Flash (Volume 2)
    #164     (December 11, 2019)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #613 (January 1, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: The Brave and the Bold #197 (January 8, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: The Batman Adventures #12 (January 15, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman/The Huntress: Cry for Blood #1 (January 22, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Detective Comics #554 (January 29, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #386 (February 5, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 (February 5, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #567 (February 12, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Green Lantern: Rebirth #1 (February 12, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: The Flash: Rebirth #1 (February 19, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: The New Teen titans #2 (February 19, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Amethyst #1 (February 26, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Flash #1 (February 26, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: JLA: Year One #1 (March 4, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Swamp Thing #57 (March 4, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #428 (March 11, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Robin #1 (March 11, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Justice League (1987) #1 (March 18, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: JLA #1 (March 18, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Justice League (2011) #1 (March 25, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Justice League of America #1 (March 25, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman (2013) #13 (April 1, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Green Lantern #1 (April 1, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #663 (April 8, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Catwoman (2002) #1 (April 8, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Catwoman (2011) #1 (April 15, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Checkmate #1 (April 22, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Detective Comics #826 (April 29, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Batman #450 (April 29, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #1 (May 6, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: DARK NIGHTS: METAL #1 (May 13, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: MANHUNTER #1 (May 13, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Green Lantern #29 (May 20, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Wonder Woman #212 (May 20, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Wonder Woman #206 (May 27, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (1989) (June 10, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 (June 27, 2020)
  • Dollar Comics: Sandman #23 (Nov 17, 2020)

References

  1. ^ a b c Kahn, Jenette. "And Now... Still Another Message of Untold Importance from our Prolific Publisher!!" Superman #310 (April 1977).
  2. ^ a b Wells, John. "It's BobRo the Answer Man: Everything Manhunter, Part Two," Silver Bullet Comic Books (August 5, 2002). Archived August 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Accessed March 6, 2009.
  3. ^ Arrant, Chris. "DC's Dollar Comics Format Returns After 30+ Years", Newsarama (June 14, 2019). Accessed September 2, 2019.
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