Multiversity’s history column returns with more trivia from the archives. This time the items are themed around December. Settle in to learn about an arrest for selling EC comics, a minor innovation by Marvel, a radical(ish) move by DC, and a charitable effort to improve the world with comics.
The early 1950s were a rough time for comics. They were a cultural scapegoat, blamed for everything from bad school grades to suicides. Several localities tried to ban comics in various ways for their offensive content.
As a specific example, look to EC’s “Panic” #1 that was released in December 1953 with a March 1954 cover date. It was an imitation of “MAD” containing a variety of bland spoofs, including one of “The Night Before Christmas” that got the book banned in Massachusetts for desecrating Christmas. In an effort to appear proactive, some New York policemen went into the EC offices on December 29th and asked receptionist Shirley Norris if they could buy a copy. The police ended up arresting Norris and EC business manager Lyle Stuart for selling indecent literature.
When taken before a judge in January, the arresting officer pointed to a panel with a woman wearing a short dress that revealed a bit of her slip. The judge, unimpressed, asked if the cop had ever seen the lingerie ads in the subway. The judge then threatened to have the police attorney himself arrested if he brought in any more cases that flimsy.
Even with the charges dismissed, gossip columnist Walter Winchell ran an article discussing the arrest and claiming any distributor could be arrested. Many retailers returned the issue out of fear, prompting Stuart to sue Winchell for libel. Stuart won a $21,500 settlement.
Inside Marvel comics cover dated December 1964, readers found something new – a checklist of other titles being released that month. (Image above is from June 1966, the earliest Marvel in my collection.) As obvious and potentially unnecessary as this may strike modern readers, it was both a revelation and a useful tool in those Stone Age days before the direct market.
In the sixties, readers never knew when the next issue would be out, or where. With distributors making the decisions about which books were delivered to which stores and retailers who saw comics as interchangeable, fans sometimes had to visit several newsstands and drugstores in search of a new issue. Worse still, titles were occasionally canceled without warning, leaving fans searching fruitlessly for an issue that was never coming. A checklist didn’t guarantee the readers would find everything, but at least they’d know what was out there to be found.
Often times in this column, I make a distinction between a cover date and a sale date (like for “Panic” #1, above). In the days of newsstand distribution, the date on a magazine cover was to let dealers know when to remove the magazine from the rack. A comic with a cover date of March should be sold by March, not put on sale in March. In the early 20th century, it was standard to have a monthly periodical on the stands one month before the cover date. In an effort to be clever and reduce their unsold volume, some publishers would use cover dates two, three, even four months later than their sale date.
In the direct market where unsold comics are put in back issue bins instead of returned to the publisher, cover dates aren’t nearly as important. As the newsstand became less important to the comic industry through the 1980s, the cover date system began to seem anachronistic. Like using all capital letters or a regular panel grid, it was institutionalized and kept around because that’s how it was done.
Then, in the summer of 1988, DC decided to buck the system. In May, they announced they were doing away with the confusing cover date system. In November 1988, they shipped their comics with January 1989 on the cover. In December and January, they shipped comics without any date, followed in February with newly released comics having “February” on the cover. Isn’t that so much simpler?
