ADVENTURE COMICS (1ST SERIES)

AS WITH ALL ISSUES/TITLES IN THIS GUIDE, VALUES SUGGESTED ARE FOR 'RAW' COPIES. THIRD-PARTY GRADED/SLABBED COPIES CAN FETCH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE ESPECIALLY IN HIGH GRADES.

Titled New Adventure Comics #1-31.

One of the longer-running titles in history, Adventure Comics, as it was known throughout most of its history, started life as New Comics. After 11 issues, it became New Adventure Comics, before finally settling on the name Adventure Comics with issue #32. It is somewhat unclear why the publisher started the publication as New Comics, because they were anything but. Truth is, most of the first 11 issues were a repackaging of comics that had already appeared in newspapers. As the title morphed over those first few years, the level of reprinted material dropped. Ironically, the "newest" comics were in Adventure Comics.

While the first few years of the title had much more in common with the so-called "British comic" than the American comic book, the style settled into something modern American audiences would recognize as the years progressed. After issue 40 in July of 1939, it became the home of the Sandman. Hourman joined in February of the following year, and the title would carry on with these two in the lead for many issues in the 1940s. Later, Superboy, and then the Legion of Superheroes, would usurp these "older" heroes, but the title would remain at least semi-anthological for its entire run. Though the title tended to enjoy long periods of association with certain characters, it's certainly in the running for longest-running anthological series.

The first officially UK distributed issue of Adventure Comics in the UK was #266 cover-dated Nov 1959. Every issue prior to that is an American cents copy therefore. The British variant copies are exactly the same in every respect apart from a 9d (ninepence) cover stamp that rose to 10d (tenpence) from #323 cover dated Aug 1964 (this date is true across all DC titles). It's the same paper stock printed at exactly the same time. The only other difference is some distributor information inside on a single line.

The British-priced variants are considerably rarer than their US cents counterparts as it is thought that only 2-3% of the print run was put aside for export to the UK and whatever was left over was sent to South Africa and Australasia.

True Near Mint copies of early UK distributed Adventure Comics are very rare indeed! In fact that statement can be applied across the entire output of DC comics when they were first distributed in the United Kingdom. Check how few copies if any have been registered on the CGC Census! My Near Mint UK variant Adventure Comics #300 is probably the best known copy of UK issues therefore.

This long-running title re-started with new Legion stories begining with issue #0 in Apr 2009 and the numbering carried on as #1 with a shaded #504 in the background to denote the title's longevity. The shaded numbering lasted until #12 and then the title reverted back to its original numering from #516, only to cease at #529 when DC Comics did their '52' relaunch.