Super Adventure Comics

Throughout the 1950s these comics (along with Superman, Batman and Superboy comics) were printed in Australia and imported into the UK. The covers, though printed in Australia, were unique to the UK solely by virtue of a different price. In 1950 these comics cost 6d in both the UK and Australia. By 1957 the Australian price had increased to One Shilling (via 8d and 9d) whilst the UK issues continued at 6d, hence the requirement of different covers. The back cover also carried local adverts too.

For much of the ten year run these DC reprints had black and white interiors. For 1956 and 1957 colour interiors were tried. The colouring was evidently carried out in Australia, often with hilarious results. I haven’t checked but I can’t ever recall Clark Kent wearing a bright yellow suit. Surely it was always blue !!
These comics often had covers uniquely drawn by Australian artists which adds some interest to them.

Incidentally, for many years after the monthly comic had disappeared from the UK’s newsagents an annual hardback Xmas Annual entitled “Super Adventure” was still published annually. Did I mention that there was only one each year ??

Nuff Said 14

Batman Gum Cards 2

It seems the artist responsible for many of the original 1966 painted Batman bubblegum cards, as well as the earlier Mars Attacks, Civil War, Flags of the World etc cards was the talented artist Norman Saunders (1907 – 1989). His son has produced a fascinating account of his life (with pictures of all the Batman cards) here.

A World of Comics

Marvel and DC comics from their earliest days have always licensed their material for reprinting in other countries. I have Marvel Comics in German and Spanish. K.G. Murray of Australia continued with their DC black and white reprints throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s.

I recently purchased a book about the history of Australian Comics. It only covers home-produced comics though and dismisses these K.G. Murray reprints in a few words.

Only a tenuous link to the above, but one area of comic history I know nothing about is Mexican Comics. I have an old issue of the “Alter Ego” Fanzine from the 1960s. This contains an article by Roy Thomas where he mentions Mexican Comics. One interesting fact was that in the 1960s they cost a mere 8 cents. I understand that Conan appeared in Mexican/South American comics years before Marvel used the character. I also read somewhere on the Interweb that when Quality stopped producing “Blackhawk” the Mexicans ended the reprints and carried on regardless with their own version. I’d love to know more!

Batman Gum Cards

Once the Batman TV Show began, so did Batmania.  A number of sets of Bubble Gum Cards appeared in 1966 and 1967. I collected them all and even sent off for the Albums to stick them in. Later Albums came with little pre-cut slots to lodge the cards in place which was far more sensible.

The first two series of cards were painted, probably by the same guy(s) who had painted the Civil War and Mars Attacks cards of a few years earlier. I like this Catwoman card. 

 

At about the same time as the cards a number of Colouring Books appeared. Somehow this one is still on my bookcase to this day.

Third Alarm for Batman

DC Comics were only officially imported into the UK from 1960 onwards. However throughout the 1950s it was possible to follow the adventures of Batman, Superman and others in the UK thanks to reprints published by K.G. Murray of Australia !!

Comics printed on the other side of the planet were officially imported into the UK. Soon variant covers were being printed in Australia specifically for the UK editions. This was perhaps because in the mid 1950s these comics cost 9d in Australia but only 6d in the UK. There may have been UK-specific advertising on the back cover. The main titles were Superman, Superboy, Batman and Superadventure which usually contained stories originally printed in World’s Finest Comics. Later K.G. Murray would produce numerous other titles such as My Greatest Adventure etc but they don’t seem to have reached the UK in any great numbers.

Here is the UK cover variant of the Australian Batman 74 from the summer of 1956. It reprints the USA Batman 96 which was cover dated December 1955 so they weren’t too far behind.

Note how the title of the main story has been moved on the reprint. I suppose it was in the way of the usual spot on the cover where they put the 6d (sixpence) price. They didn’t bother with the comic code stamp either. 

My own copy of K.G. Murray’s Batman 74 is very odd. At first I thought it had been left out in the sun and faded. But the colours yellow and blue seem ok. There just doesn’t ever seem to have been any red on the cover at all! And the number six in the 6d price seems to be in a slightly different position to the first scan.

Surely they wouldn’t have sold mis-prints ?? Perhaps in the austere post-war mid 1950s they did. 

One final point. The interior art of Batman 74 was black and white. Batman 75 onwards had colour interiors. However after a year or two K.G. Murray reverted to black and white interiors. These comics faded away from the UK market in the early 1960s once the US editions had established themselves. K.G. Murray continued producing reprints of DC, ACG, Charlton and others into the 1980s. It was only then that US comics officially began being imported directly into Australia and New Zealand.