Superman #252 - DC Super Spectacular

In the early 1970's, DC printed 100 page versions of a lot of it's titles and labeled them as "Super Spectacular" issues.  These issues are fairly collectible today and are often hard to find in decent shape due to the square binding. They started publication in the summer of 1971 with issue number 4 and went to issue number 22.  The books contained all reprints from earlier DC issues.

The other day a friend of mine gave me this comic as payback for a bottle of wine I had bought for him.  This particular issue is interesting for the Neal Adams wrap around cover.  A close inspection of the cover will show that Hawkman and Hawkgirl are on the cover twice, but DC aficionados will tell you that these are Earth 1 and Earth 2 representations of these characters...keep your lore straight!  And their is a funky looking flying doctor guy at the top "right" of the wrap around cover...not being a DC expert, I had to do do a little research on this one.  Thanks to "Giant Size Geek" for pointing out that there is a key to who all the character's are in the back of the magazine itself.  He reprints it on his blog.  (Turns out the funky looking doctor guy is "Mr. Keeper", by the way!)

     

Neal Adams was know for great work on Batman, Superman and Green Arrow.  This cover is a great example of that work...but do check out his Batman and Brave and the Bold covers.  They are some of the best work to come out of the 1960's and 1970's, in my humble opinion.

So...not a bad trade for a decent Beauregard Pinot Noir from Santa Cruz County.  Not a bad trade at all!

Until next time...