DC’s efforts to do something a la Marvel Age have been varied over the years. I’d say that the most successful–and best–was their 1990s version of Direct Currents, which was a pamphlet-sized monthly publication that had features on each of the “big” books out every month along with listings of each book that was coming out. I remember eating those up back in the day. But prior to those? Well, there was a one-issue DC Focus book that seemed to mostly exist to preview Millennium, a DC Preview book (I think that was what it was called) around 1989-1990, and DC Sampler.

This only ran for three issues–two in 1983 and one in 1984. All of the issues were free and had a few text pieces but for the most part was a full-length comic book of house ads. The first two issues are worth picking up because of the George Perez-drawn New Teen Titans ads and I’ve found those in back issue bins multiple times. This one, though? I didn’t know it even existed until I found it in the bins at my LCS for a decent price (it might have been a buck or two). So now I have a complete run (although I’m not sure that’s something to brag about).

The cover is by Fred Hembeck, who is mostly known for his humorous drawings over at Marvel, especially in Marvel Age, and shows comics fans at “Comics R Us” all dressed in DC character T-shirts and gawking at the books that were going to be advertised in the book. It’s a wraparound cover and on the back, Superman, The Flash, and Batman are entering the store with slightly worried looks–maybe they thought someone had gotten all the good books?

Inside, we have ads for the following:

• Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totelben
• Robotech Defenders
• Conqueror of the Barren Earth
• The Hunger Dogs graphic novel
• America vs. The Justice Society
• Green Lantern by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons, featuring Jon Stewart in the costume
• Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (advertised as a 24-issue series, not 26)
• Spanner’s Galaxy
• Crisis on Infinite Earths (advertised as DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths)
• Atari Force
• Batman and the Outsiders
• Superman: The Secret Years
• Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld
• Blue Devil
• World’s Finest
• Legion of Super Heroes and The New Teen Titans (an ad by Dan Jurgens and Romeo Tanghal that touts two adventures each month)
• DC Challenge
• Jonni Thunder

Of all of these, I’ve owned or read quite a few and know that some of them were pretty successful stories. Other stories and series, though, either don’t have the best reputation or are more or less forgotten comics, the type that you might have seen in house ads like these or you might find in a quarter bin. In fact, a number of these house ads were used throughout DC’s books in 1984 and 1985, so I spent much of my back issue collecting career coming across them.

What’s worth tracking down? Well, obviously the Titans and Legion books at this time were really strong as were Swamp Thing and Green Lantern. Crisis and Who’s Who were about to get started and would become landmark series for DC during the 1980s. I’ve also enjoyed what I have read of Blue Devil and Batman and the Outsiders. And I will give a thumbs up to Superman: The Secret Years, DC Challenge and Amethyst.

What’s skip-worthy? Conqueror of the Barren Earth wasn’t great. The last year or so of World’s Finest is pretty terrible in places.

What am I looking to find? I have almost a complete run of Atari Force (I’m missing one issue) and once I finish it, I’m really looking forward to reading it. The Hunger Dogs graphic novel has always intrigued me, although I have to admit that I have not read much of Kirby’s Fourth World saga. I’ve also always been curious about Robotech Defenders because I don’t think it has anything to do with the classic anime series (and comics published by Comico). It ran for all of two issues so if I can find it on the very cheap, I’m going to have to pick it up.

I wish that DC had kept this going through the rest of the decade because I love house ads, especially books that were random miniseries that didn’t get much traction beyond their original publication. Having all three of these comics is pretty cool.

Keep, Sell, Donate, or Trash?

Keep.