DC Super Pacs - The Original Comic Books in a Bag

BATMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES &
SHAZAM

BACK TO BACK IN THE

APRIL 1973 B-4 DC SUPER PAC

BATMAN #248

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3

SHAZAM #2

In spite of the hugely successful comeback of the superhero genre in the early 1960s, the comic book industry had a problem: its traditional sales points were fading away. Small stores that had carried comic books were pushed out of business by larger stores and supermarkets, and newsagents started to view the low cover prices and therefore tiny profit margins comics had to offer as a nuisance. Comic book publishers desperately needed to open up new sales opportunities and and tap into a new customer base. One place these potential buyers could be found were supermarkets, chain stores and gas stations - but in order to be able to sell comic books at these locations, the product would have to be adjusted.

Handling individual issues clearly was no option for these outlets, but by looking at their logistics and display characteristics, DC Comics (who came up with the Comicpac concept in 1961) found that the answer to breaking into this promising new market was to simply package several comic books together in a transparent plastic bag.

This resulted in a higher price per unit on sale, which made the whole business of stocking them much more worthwhile for the seller. The simple packaging was also rather nifty because it clearly showed the items were new and untouched, while at the same time blending in with most other goods sold at supermarkets which were also conveniently packaged.

Supermarkets were even supplied with dedicated Comicpac racks, which enhanced the product appeal even more since the bags containing the comic books could be displayed on rack hooks in an orderly and neat fashion. It almost became an entirely different class of commodity, and offered parents (and their kids) the opportunity and convenience to pick up a few comics at the same time they were doing their general shopping.

"DC's focus [for the Comicpac] was on both the casual reader and the parents and grandparents who were looking for gifts." (Wells, 2012)

DC's "comicpacks" were a success, and other publishers quickly started to copy the concept.

"The DC [comic packs] program lasted well over a decade, with pretty high distribution numbers. The Western program was enormous - even well into the '70s they were taking very large numbers of DC titles for distribution (I recall 50,000+ copies offhand)." (Paul Levitz, in Evanier 2007)

By the early 1970s, DC relaunched their comic packs, calling them DC Super Pacs, and they continued to sell well, containing regular news stand editions.

This April 1973 (B-4) DC SUPER PAC contains Batman #248, Legion Of Super-Heroes #3, and Shazam #2. DC handled its multi-comic packs in a very structured and organised manner; a B-4 pack from a specific year would carry the same titles and issues no matter where or when it was sold (rare packaging errors aside). The digits (1-12) referred to the month and the letters (A through D) marked the four different packs per month. "B-4" therefore denotes the second April SUPER PAC, in this case from 1973, containing comic books with an April cover date (or April/May in the case of a bi-monthly title).

No titles had permanent slots in the SUPER PACS, although there was a high level of consistency with DC's flagship characters (the SUPER PACs of 1973 contained complete runs of Superman and Batman as well as the Batman team-up title Brave and the Bold). But since sales points could vary a lot with regard to their supplies and selection of SUPER PACs, the availability of specific titles was never guaranteed - something many comic book readers in the 1970s had to put up with, whether their comic books came packaged in a plastic bag or as single issues from a display or spinner rack. But since DC's editorial at large still very much embraced the "single issue, done in one" storyline principle during the early 1970s (rather unlike their major competitor Marvel), it often didn't even matter in which sequence you read your copies of Batman or Superman.

BATMAN #248

April 1973
(monthly, with the exception of Jan., March, July and Nov.)
On Sale: 13 February 1973

Editor - Julius Schwartz
Cover - Michael W. Kaluta (pencils & inks)

Batman: "Death-Knell for a Traitor!"
(13.5 pages)
Story - Denny O'Neil
Pencils - Bob Brown
Inks - Dick Giordano
Lettering - Ben Oda

Robin: "The Immortals of Usen Castle"
(9 pages)
Story - Elliott Maggin
Pencils - Irv Novick
Inks - Frank McLaughlin
Lettering - Milt Snappin

PLOT SUMMARY - Batman tracks down an ex-Navy man who turned traitor during World War II for a fabulous diamond; in the end the traitor falls to his death after reliving the memory of his ship being attacked by Japanese planes, and the diamond is lost in the depths of the ocean. Dick Grayson and Diane Lewis are giving some local youths a tour of a castle that is supposedly haunted, but when Diana and some of the children disappear, Dick changes to Robin and discovers the secret behind the "ghosts" in the castle.

Over the course of his long publication history, the Batman has seen many changes brought to his persona and his adventures. Some took place gradually, others can be pinpointed to specific issues - such as Detective Comics #395 (cover dated January 1970, on sale 22 November 1969). Written by Dennis O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams and now a classic in itself (reprinted in 2000 as one of DC's "Millennium Editions"), it is often considered to be Batman’s turning point as the Silver Age crossed into the Bronze Age and the Darknight Detective returned to his gothic roots.

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil
(1939 - 2020)

Other writers and artists were also taking Batman down that path at the time, but it was O'Neil's compelling concept that hit home with readers and Batman editor Julie Schwartz alike, and over the next few years, the best was yet to come - not the least because O'Neil had a clear-cut plan.

"The comics at the time had been trying to follow the example of the Adam West comedic TV show, and they weren’t doing a very good job of it (...) The books were being a bit shaky sales-wise, as hard as that is to believe, and Julie [Schwartz] wanted to continue to publish Batman. So he came to me and asked, “What have you got my boy?” What I thought I had, and what I told people I had, was that we were going back to what Bill Finger started with in 1939, and we added to that what the world had learned about telling stories since then." (O'Neil, in Handziuk 2019)

Detective Comics #395
(January 1970)

O'Neil was very methodical about his take on turning the Batman into a much grimmer, darker character.

"I went to the DC library and read some of the early stories. I tried to get a sense of what Kane and Finger were after." (O'Neil, in Pearson & Uricchio 1991)

Ultimately, this also resulted in underscoring the investigative side of the Batman's persona - effectively creating the Darknight Detective.

"There was very little consistency. Sometimes he was a detective, sometimes he was more a superhero. When I took over the franchise I said okay, this is the way we do it. Batman comics will be about superhero stuff with a lot of action, and Detective Comics is about the same character functioning as a detective." (O'Neil, in Handziuk 2019)

As a result, Batman and Detective Comics took two entirely different routes: whereas the latter title now only featured plain clothes thugs and evil-doers, Batman retained the costumed villains. One significant and very noticeable aspect both titles did share was a string of eye-catching (and sometimes outright iconic) covers.

"The Batman covers, whether they were [by Neal Adams] or the odd ones that Mike Kaluta did during that period, were set-pieces way above, I think, most of the rest." (Levitz, in O'Neil, Adams, Levitz & Evanier 2011)

Michael W. Kaluta (*1947)

Michael William Kaluta (sometimes credited as Mike Kaluta or MW Kaluta) pencilled and inked three Batman and eight Detective Comics covers between 1972 and 1974, all of which convey a unique feel for the iconic qualities of Gotham's Caped Crusader. His cover for Batman #248 (his first being for issue #242 and his third and last for issue #253) is a prime example of his ability to evoke and capture the atmosphere surrounding the Batman.

The story told by Denny O'Neil in Batman #248 - a "done in one" adventure that starts and concludes in the same issue, as per the standard formula still favoured by DC at the time - features Colonel Sulphur as the costumed villain (after first appearing in Batman #241). A decidedly derivative "international criminal" (this would be the last readers would see of him until he would resurface for four brief stints in World's Finest and Brave and the Bold in the early 1980s), he is essentially watching from the sidelines as Batman trails a former WW2 traitor in cahoots with the Colonel. The plot has a few interesting psychological themes, but it's thanks to the artwork of Bob Brown that Batman #248 comes off as a marvelous piece of early 1970s Batman lore.

Brown started his career in comic books in the 1940s, and did regular work for DC and Marvel in the early and mid-1970s, including almost 40 issues of Batman in Detective Comics between 1968 and 1973 - but only this one issue of Batman.

Like many other veteran contributors at DC Comics in the early 1970s, Brown increasingly found his work to be labelled as "old-fashioned" (Evanier, 2004) - but his artwork for Batman #248 clearly shows otherwise.

Throughout this issue Brown's images have a wonderfully dynamic flow to them (that car trying to hit the Batman is leaving the panel boundaries and coming straight at you), but his "silent" page 7 is a masterpiece. Very conservative in its panel composition, the visuals are not only stunning and telling the story without the need for words but also feature (Neal Adams inspired) iconic Batman vignettes. It just doesn't get any better - and yet neither Batman #248 specifically nor Bob Brown in general have left much of a mark in Batman's publication history.

Bob Brown (1915-1977)

Later in 1973, Brown left DC for Marvel, and that was that. He died four years later from leukemia.

Few Batman aficionados will be able to tell you that (together with writer Deny O'Neil) he created the Caped Crusader's first encounter with the League of Assassins (Detective Comics #405, November 1970) and co-created the character Talia, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and subsequently a recurring romantic interest for Batman (Detective Comics #411, May 1971).

"lt’s somewhat unfortunate that Adams’ undeniably dynamic work on Batman towers over his Bat-contemporaries. Fortunately, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, and Frank Robbins (as artist) have garnered due recognition over the years. Not so with Brown, however, which is a shame, because his pencil work on [Batman #248], inked by Dick Giordano, is outstanding." (Kingman, 2011)

Batman #248 only contains a cut-down letters page, due to the fact that one third of the page is taken up by the "Statement of ownership, management and circulation".

The postal services had required a published statement of ownership since the 19^th Century from all publications that were shipped Second Class, but as of 1960 publishers were also required to list their average circulation for the year. Most readers at the time gave these numbers only a cursory glance (if at all), but today they allow us an easy glimpse into print runs and sales of that era.

As far as Batman was concerned, the numbers were down compared with the average of the preceding 12 months: 404,000 copies printed (compared to the average 478,125), of which 185,283 copies in paid circulation (244,488). However, sales figures of Batman would recover and increase for 1973 and 1974, before going on a sliding trajectory which saw the number of issues sold on average dip below 100,000 in 1983/84.

As was typical for the early 1970s, the attrition rate in terms of distributed but unsold copies was terrible: totals of 201,414 (nearest to the filing date) or 185,283 (average of the preceding 12 months) meant that practically half of the print run never made DC any money - and the same applied to comic book publishers across the board.

The problem was caused by the traditional distribution model with returnability - which essentially meant that the loss incurred by unsold copies was on the publishers, not the distributors or sales points. Not surprisingly, it was a breeding ground for an attitude of "we couldn't care less" when it came to actually selling the product.

"A few retailers actually liked carrying comics, but most were indifferent (...) So, let’s say [the local distributor] actually delivered 5,000 copies [of 10,000 received at the warehouse] to the retailers - if they bothered to deal with unwrapping and sorting, if they had room on the trucks… Most likely, they’d only actually deliver comics to retailers who would complain if they didn’t get comics and places that sold enough comics to make the driver’s effort worthwhile." (Shooter, 2011)

Another huge problem were the fraudulent practices it attracted.

"We [at Marvel] actually found a company that was sending back more copies than we shipped them. We found out there was a printer in Upstate New York that was printing copies of our covers to sell back to us (...) At the time we had something like a 70 percent return rate" (Galton in Foerster, 2010)

It all became completely untenable by the time the 1970s rolled around and triggered the impetus for the creation of "comic packs" such as DC's Super Pacs and the direct market.

As the 1970s rolled around, Batman would either feature a 20+ pages single or two shorter stories involving the Caped Crusader, before the second story slot began featuring Robin as of Batman #227 (December 1970). As of issue #230 (March 1971) the cover logo even featured Robin's name before reverting back to the long-established logo as of Batman #241 (May 1972), but still featuring Robin ("the Teen Wonder") as backup (with the odd exception for an issue or two publishing a longer Batman story).

This arrangement would last until Batman switched to DC's "pages Super Spectacular" format as of issue #254 (January/February 1974), which then featured multiple reprints including Robin "the Boy Wonder" (incidentally, that format also precluded Batman being included in any Super-Pac from January 1974 to March 1975)

Elliott Maggin (*1950)

Irv Novick (1916-2004)

The Robin back-up story featured in Batman #248 was the third of only seven scripts penned by Elliott S. Maggin featuring the Teenage Wonder (appearing in Batman #244, #245, #248-250, #252 and #254). Known primarily for his work on Superman, his Robin plots feature interesting twists and involve deep and far-reaching topics - such as, in the case of "The Immortals of Usen Castle", that immortality may come at the price of suffering from eternal old age and growing dementia. In that respect, Maggin was often somewhat ahead of his time when it came to subject matters infused into comic book stories.


Paired with Maggin for the artwork was classic Bronze Age artist Irv Novick (inked by Frank McLaughlin), delivering his reliably dynamic pencils - and another (almost) "silent" page, with plenty of action over a total of six panels but only one speech balloon, one thought balloon, and two "sound effects"...

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3

April/May 1973
(bi-monthly)
On Sale: 13 February 1973

Editor - Jeff Rovin
Cover - Curt Swan (pencils) & George Klein (inks)

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: "Computo the Conqueror!" (16 pages)
Story - Jerry Siegel
Pencils - Curt Swan
Inks - George Klein
reprinted from Adventure Comics #340 (January 1966)

TOMMY TOMORROW: "The Trial of Tommy Tomorrow" (6 pages)
Story - Otto Binder
Pencils & Inks - Jim Mooney
reprinted from Action Comics #240 (May 1958)

PLOT SUMMARIES - Brainiac 5's latest creation turns on its master and the rest of the Legion; Tommy Tomorrow is put on trial for murder.

Comic book sales had been in a steady decline since the 1950s (when top-selling issues still enjoyed print runs of around or above 1 million copies), but by the time the 1970s rolled around the dropping sales figures meant that the only way to make more money was to make sure you got a bigger slice of the (shrinking) market - and one way to achieve that was to put out more titles. And since the space at the sales point was not going to increase, you could at the same time push the competition off the shelves.

Marvel was the comic book industry's number one, but until mid-1972 DC still published more titles - until Marvel launched the "war of the shelves" through a proliferation of titles.

"[Marvel] did flood the market, but remember, this was that period (...) where Marvel suddenly decided to put out a whole bunch of books (...) trying to get market share (...) lots of stuff came out in the '70s because of this approach." (Roy Thomas, in Cooke 2001)

DC realized what was happening, and Carmine Infantino, DC's publisher since 1971, tried to stem the tide in 1973 by emulating Marvel and putting out a few new (Shazam, Prez, Plop) as well as some reprint titles in order to boost DC's output and keep from getting pushed off of those shelves. Unfortunately, the success of both offerings was somewhat underwhelming, and most of the reprint titles only saw a handful of issues before being cancelled.

But there was a logic to the failure of the DC reprint titles launched in 1973 - the Silver Age material they featured simply wasn't hitting home with current readers any more - and Infantino knew it.

"The DC books were very sterile-looking in those days." (Infantino & Spurlock, 2001)

However, in terms of overall sales figures, however, DC didn't fare that badly. In 1973, Marvel roughly sold a total of 6.5 million comic books, with DC at 5.5 million copies. But the comic book industry as a whole was struggling and in a downward spiral; by 1975 Marvel lost $2 million a year (Daniels, 1991), whilst DC's business returns were in the red for $1 million. Although doing only half as badly as Marvel, Infantino was fired by the Warner Brothers top brass (Howe, 2012).

Carmine Infantino
(1925 - 2013)

Legion of Super-Heroes was the very first of the 1973 reprint titles, launched with a February cover date. Initially supplied with new covers by Nick Cardy for the first two issues

Its main feature - no surprise, given its title - was material starring the Legion of Super-Heroes which had previously been published between 1964 and 1966 in Adventure Comics (with stories from Action Comics dating from 1957/58 added for the final two issues). Legion of Super-Heroes switched from monthly to bi-monthly publication after two issues, before ceasing publication all together after a mere four issues.

Although these were mostly newer stories from less than ten years ago (and therefore pretty much what Marvel was repackaging in its superhero reprint titles), the problem was that this 1960s material featured stories and artwork with heroes (e.g. Matter-Eater Lad) and villains (e.g. Computo the Conqueror) that had more of a 1950s feel to them. That is presumably what the majority of comic book readers in 1973 felt too, given the extraordinary short life-span of this title.

Only the two final issues of Legion of Super-Heroes were packaged into DC's SUPER-PACs of 1973 (B-4 and B-6).

SHAZAM #2

April 1973
(monthly, with the exception of Jan., March, July and Nov.)
On Sale: 15 February 1973

Editor - Julius Schwartz
Cover - C.C. Beck (pencils & inks) & Jack Adler (photograph & assemblage)

SHAZAM: "The Astonishing Arch Enemy" (10 pages)
Story - Denny O'Neil
Pencils, Inks, Lettering - C.C. Beck

SHAZAM: "The Nicest Guy in the World" (7 pages)
Story - Elliot Maggin
Pencils, Inks, Lettering - C.C. Beck

SHAZAM: "The Original Captain Marvel Fights Niatpac Levram!" (6 pages)
Story - Otto Binder
Pencils, Inks, Lettering - C.C. Beck
(reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #139, December 1952)

PLOT SUMMARIES - Mr. Mind destroys a museum to get his glasses back from it and then plans to destroy the United States but is stopped by Captain Marvel with the help of the Saint Louis Arch, which he uses as a tuning fork; Bank robbers give Sunny Sparkle their loot; Wizzo uses magic to animate Captain Marvel's mirror image in an attempt to become a master magician.

As editorial director Carmine Infantino was gearing up DC for a slew of reprint titles to hit the spinner racks in 1973 in order to try and push back Marvel's numerical and therefore visual and commercial dominance at comic book points of sale, it was obvious that DC also needed new titles if there was to be any chance of competing with their mighty rival.

Whiz Comics #2
(February 1940)

One such title launched in early 1973 was Shazam! - although "new" wasn't exactly accurate in this case, as DC decided to license the original Captain Marvel from Fawcett and bring him back after a publication hiatus of nearly 20 years - a move full of irony since it had been DC who had put an end to the character's adventures (and indeed Fawcett's entire line of superhero comics) in the courts by 1954, claiming - not without reason if you compared the covers of Action Comics #1 and Whiz Comics #2) - that Captain Marvel was ripping off Superman.

Unable to use the original title since Marvel had gained the copyright to the name back in 1967, DC went with the magic word that transforms adolescent radio news reporter Billy Batson into the "World's Mightiest Mortal". A "continual drumbeat" from fans for the character's return along with a built-in fanbase (Sacks, 2014) seemed too good an opportunity to be missed, and DC went all out in hyping up the retrun of Captain Marvel in Shazam (officially the title came with an exclamation mark).

Action Comics #1
(June 1938)

Assigned veteran editor Julius Schwartz added another coup to the launch by bringing on the original artist, Charles Clarence (C.C.) Beck, giving DC’s revival an added boost of credibility - and even more publicity (Smith, 2010). This move also settled other matters:

"The question we had at the time was whether we should do what they had before and see if it worked. They decided to go that route, and promoted the hell out of it!" (Elliot Maggin in Smith, 2010)

In essence, this meant an entirely retro take on both visuals and storylines, meaning simple and almost cartoony artwork along with just as quirky - and often over the top - plots.

Shazam #2 featured two original stories and one reprint, and even though the latter was from 1952, they were almost impossible to tell apart.

This combination spoke to older fans (who knew the original material) and very young readers, but held little appeal to most regular comic book readers.

"It was an anachronism (...) The audiences were in a process of getting older quicker. The more successful comic books were beginning to adapt to that, to cater to that college-age audience and older. And I think Captain Marvel got caught in the wrong age at the wrong time, and it was not working for the people who were buying comic books." (Michael Uslan in Smith, 2010)

Shazam sold well initially, but before long sales dropped precipitously (Sacks, 2014). Matters were further complicated by C.C. Beck's interference in the creative process, leading to frustration amongst writers (who saw their script changed without notice) and ultimately also with editor Julius Schwartz.

"The conflict between Beck and the other creators reached a boiling point when he refused to draw the scripts for [Shazam #10] (...) At Nelson Bridwell’s suggestion, Beck did his own story (...) Bridwell’s [subsequent] rewrites to the script didn’t sit well with Beck, and he washed his hands of the book." (Smith, 2010)

DC had enough, and Beck was out. As of issue #12 (May 1974), Shazam was reduced to a bi-monthly publication schedule, periodically only featured reprints, and was finally cancelled in May 1978 with issue #35. During all of that time, Beck was essentially at war with the contemporary creators and publishers of comic books, as can be seen from a list of "seven deadly sins of comics creators" which he had jotted down in the 1980s and were featured in Alter Ego (Vol. 3) 36 (Hamerlinck, 2000). Beck stipulates that comic book artwork should be visually simple ("Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were drawn in cartoon-comic style because they appeared in comic books")

C. C. Beck (1910-1989)

Beck advocated (and quite uncompromisingly so) that comics should stick to their roots, and voiced a clear distaste for artists who went beyond the conventionalities established in the 1930s and 1940s ("artists who show people bursting out of their panels and leaping off the pages are destroying the illusion that the reader is seeing an exciting story unfolding itself on the printed page"). He had a distinctly old school approach to comic books - and unfortunately for him, that just didn't sell anymore.

DC's (initial) drive to push Shazam any which way they could can also be felt in their SUPER-PACs of 1973 and 1974, where the title was included frequently, starting with Shazam #1.

There were many things that set DC apart from Marvel in the early 1970s, but one very salient aspect was DC's lack of any regular editorial feature across its titles through which editors would communicate with their readership (as Marvel and Stan Lee did with their famous Bullpen Bulletins); DC's interaction with its fans and readers was limited to the letters pages, whilst plugs for other titles were essentially restricted to in-house ads. If you picked up this April 1973 B4 SuperPac, you came across the following.

Left from Batman #248, center & right from Legion of Super-Heroes #3

FURTHER READING ON THE THOUGHT BALLOON

"Comic packs" not only sold well for more than two decades, they also offer some interesting insight into the comic book industry's history from the 1960s through to the 1990s. There's more on their general history here.

An overview and analysis of all the 1973 Super Pacs is available here.

You can read more about the 1973 "war of the shelves" between Marvel and DC here.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COOKE Jon B. (2001) "Son of Stan: Roy's Years of Horror", in Comic Book Artist #13

DANIELS Les (1991) Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, Harry N. Abrams

EVANIER Mark (2004) "On the Passing of Bob Haney", News From Me, published online 7 December 2004

EVANIER Mark (2007) "More on Comicpacs", News From Me, published online 2 May 2007

FOERSTER Jonathan (2010) "Marvel Comics' miracle man set up business' success", Naples Daily News, 30 May 2010

GREENFIELD Dan (2024) "13 Reasons Batman Artist Bob Brown Deserves More Credit", 13th Dimension, published online 5 March 2024

HAMERLINCK P.C. (2000) "The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators, by C.C. Beck", Alter Ego (vol. 3) #6, TwoMorrows Piublishing

HANDZIUK Alex (2019) "An Interview with Legendary Creator Denny O'Neil - The father of Modern Day Batman", cgmagonline.com, published online 16 March 2019

HOWE Sean (2012) Marvel Comics - The Untold Story, Harper Collins

INFANTINO Carmine, with J. David Spurlock (2001) The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino. An Autobiography, Vanguard

KINGMAN Jim (2011) "What Bob Brown did for Batman", Back Issue #50, TwoMorrows Publishing

O'NEIL Denny, Neal Adams, Paul Levitz & Mark Evanier (2011) "Pro2Pro: Dark Rebirth", Back Issue #50, TwoMorrows Publishing

PEARSON Roberta E. & William Uricchio (1991) "Notes from the Batcave: An Interview with Dennis O'Neil", in The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, Routledge

SACKS Jason (2014) American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s (1970-1979), TwoMorrows Publishing

SHOOTER Jim (2011) "Comic Book Distribution", jimshooter.com, published online 15 November 2011

SMITH Zack (2010) "An Oral History of Captain Marvel: The Shazam Years, pt1", newsarama.com, published online 31 December 2010 (accessed through Internet Archive)

WELLS John (2012) American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s (1960-1964), TwoMorrows Publishing

The illustrations presented here are copyright material. Their reproduction for the review and research purposes of this website is considered fair use as set out by the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. par. 107.

uploaded to the web 17 August 2025