Dollar Comics


Dollar Comics was a line of DC Comics comic book publications issued from 1977 to 1983 and revived in 2019. The 1977-1983 line included the titles The Superman Family, House of Mystery, G.I. Combat, World's Finest Comics, Batman Family, and Adventure Comics; as well as the series of specials with the umbrella title of DC Special Series. The 1977-1983 Dollar Comics were notable for costing $1, having 64 pages, and being advertising-free. The 2019 revival consists of full-issue one-shot reprints of key DC issues.

History

1977-1983

According to then-DC publisher Jenette Kahn, comics' price-per-page value had been declining since the "Golden Age." When superhero comics debuted in the late 1930s, they featured 64 pages of art for 10¢. As the decades passed, comparable publications liked Time and Life raised their prices, while comics stayed at 10 cents and reduced their page-count. Finally in 1962, National Periodical Publications/DC raised its price to 12¢, a 20% increase. By 1977, even though the typical price of a comic book was 35¢, it still lagged far behind its magazine competition, thus decreasing its appeal for newsvendors. Thus, the idea for Dollar Comics was born.
Writing for the Silver Bullet Comic Books website, John Wells detailed Dollar Comics' history:
Most Dollar Comics titles began as traditional format books and expanded to the Dollar Comic format. All-Out War and Time Warp were short lived series which were published entirely as Dollar Comics. Several anniversary issues such as Action Comics #500 and The Flash #300 were also in the format as were the DC annuals for 1982 and 1983.

1977-1983 Dollar Comics titles

In 2019, DC revived the Dollar Comics line as a weekly series of one-shot reprints of key issues priced at $1, beginning with Detective Comics #854 -- the first comic to feature a solo adventure of the modern Batwoman.

2019 revival issues

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