BATMAN #238
January, 1972
BATMAN #238 exemplifies what made the DC 100-Page Super-Spectaculars truly the best buy in comics. It contained a pair of Batman classics from the 50s (one with art by the renowned Dick Sprang), the first Doom Patrol story, a Jack Cole-penned Plastic Man adventure, a short Sargon the Sorcerer story by Joe Kubert, a never-before-published Golden Age Atom yarn, a Ramona Fradon-illustrated Aquaman tale, and a Legion of Super-Heroes epic featuring the Heroes of Lallor. That’s a lot of diverse entertainment that editor E. Nelson Bridwell had strung together from DC’s massive archive.
I first saw the Neal Adams cover to this monster pictured in the POW! ZAP! WHAM! COMIC BOOK TRIVIA QUIZ. I actually found a copy at Bush’s Hobbies in Lake Ronkonkoma (a short walk from where I live today, ironically enough) some many months later. Bush’s didn’t sell new comics–they were mostly a sports memorabilia shop–but they did have an extensive collection of affordably-priced back issues. While I couldn’t get down to the shop all that regularly (and I didn’t have all that much disposable income to begin with) Bush’s nonetheless gave me a reasonably local outlet from which to purchase older books. It’s still in business today, albeit in a different location, and with a much more shallow selection of comics.
2014 Note: Bush’s Hobbies is long gone today.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 