Issue Description

Cover by Nick Cardy."Death Bites with Fangs of Stone" "S.O.S. Comes in Colors" (part II)(Jimmy Olsen) written by Leo Dorfman, penciled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger."Brainiac's Blitz!" reprinted from Action Comics #339."The Super Star of Hollywood!" reprinted from Adventure Comics #272."The Gift-Wrapped Doom" (Jimmy Olsen) written by Leo Dorfman, penciled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger."The Death March!" reprinted from Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #76."The Three Wives of Superman!" reprinted from Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #51."How the Artists Draw the Superman Family" three page featuring Curt Swan drawing various headshots and poses of Jimmy Olsen, Ma and Pa Kent, Krypto and Lois Lane.

Notes:

First issue of the series, which continued from Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #163.

DC's 100 page Super Spectaculars were proving popular, so DC said goodbye to the "Supergirl," "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen," and "Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane" titles and housed the characters together in "The Superman Family." Continuing the numbering from where "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen" left off, the series featured classic reprints with new tales in the lead spot. The series 100 page format was short lived, and its characters would come and go, but "Superman Family" became a strong title, which lasted 8 years and 59 issues.

The Superman Family

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

The Superman Family was a DC Comics comic book series which ran from 1974 to 1982 featuring primarily stories starring the supporting characters in the Superman comics. The term is often used to refer to the extended cast of characters (especially super-powered ones) of comics books associated with Superman.

The title was an amalgamation of the titles Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and the first series of Supergirl, therefore immediately becoming DC's flagship title with the highest sales for the remainder. The first issue, #164, took its numbering from the Jimmy Olsen title, which had reached issue #163 and thus had the most issues published (the Lois Lane series ended at issue #137, while the newly-launched Supergirl volume 1 series had only made it to #10). The three leads rotated new stories in each issue with reprints as a backup feature for other the characters (Issues #164-181). The Superman Family started as a 100-page format from issues #164-169. The quantity of pages dropped to 64-pages with issue #170 and dropped to 48-pages with issue #178. In 1976 (#182), The Superman Family became the first DC Comics to feature the 80-page Dollar Comics format. The new 80-page format featured all new stories for all the characters. Later the page quantity dropped to 64-pages starting with issue #191 and finally to 48-pages starting with issue #205. The series briefly featured a "no ads" and a wraparound cover format from issues #191-196. The series was published on a bi-monthly schedule until 1981, when the series was published on a monthly schedule starting with issue #207.

Other featured series in addition to:

* Lois Lane (166,169,172,175,178,181-222)

* Supergirl (165,168,171,174,177,180,182-222)

* Jimmy Olsen (164,167,170,173,176,179,182-222)

* "Superboy" (182,191-198) — The adventures of the Earth-One Superman as a teenage super-hero. This series continued from Adventure Comics #458 and led to the feature leaving the title for its own in 1980, The New Adventures of Superboy.

* "The Private Life of Clark Kent" (195-197, 199-215) — The adventures of Clark Kent in which he used his powers and skills without becoming Superman. This feature had moved over from Superman after #328.

* "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" (195-196, 198-222) — The adventures of the Earth-Two Superman and his wife, Lois. This feature had moved from Superman after #329. #200 of this series also had a story that dealt with a married Lois and Clark, but as part of an issue-long Imaginary Story set on Earth-1 at the turn of the millennium.

* "Krypto" (182-192) — The adventures of Superman's dog.

* " Nightwing and Flamebird" (182-194) — The adventures of the second Nightwing and Flamebird team of heroes (Van-Zee and Ak-Var) in the Bottled City of Kandor.

* "The Misadventures of Superbaby" (216) — A one-shot story featuring Superbaby.

DC published several other "Family" titles concurrent with The Superman Family: Batman Family (1975-78), Super-Team Family (1975-1978) and Tarzan Family (1975-76). As a rule, DC's "Family" titles contained mostly reprints, and featured a higher page count (and higher price) than DC's normal books. (In 2004, Marvel Comics paid homage to DC's "Family" titles with Spider-Man Family.)

In 1982, with issue #222, The Superman Family series was cancelled to make room for the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which briefly featured a Lois Lane back-up series. The Doom Patrol appeared alongside Supergirl in issues of both series.

Please first Sign In before leaving a review.

Status: Not in Collection