The Superman Family #192 This Town for Plunder! / What Goes Up... Can't Come Down / Requiem in the Rain! / What Ever Happened to the Guardian? / My Father... Superman / The Hand of Death! / The Ordeal of Ak-Var

Issue Description

Wraparound cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.Splash page penciled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger."This Town for Plunder!" (Superboy) written by Tom DeFalco, penciled and inked by Joe Staton, colored by Gene D'Angelo and lettered by Shelly Leferman."What Goes Up... Can't Come Down" (Part 2)(Supergirl w/the Doom Patrol) written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Arvell Jones, inked by Romeo Tanghal, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Mike Stevens."Requiem in the Rain!" (Krypto) written by Bob Toomey, penciled and inked by Juan Ortiz, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Milt Snapinn."What Ever Happened to the Guardian?" (Jimmy Olsen) written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Milt Snapinn."My Father... Superman" (Superman) written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, inked by Tex Blaisdell, colored by Gene D'Angelo and lettered by Clem Robins."The Hand of Death!" (Lois Lane) written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Win Mortimer, inked by John Celardo, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Ben Oda."The Ordeal of Ak-Var" (Nightwing and Flamebird) written by Paul Kupperberg, penciled by Ken Landgraf, inked by Romeo Tanghal, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Shelly Leferman.

Notes:

This issue has no ads.In the story "This Town for Plunder!" the comics that are seen in the Kent store are Mystery in Space, Bob Hope, Young Love, Sugar and Spike, The Fox and the Crow and Dobie Gillis.In the story "Requiem in the Rain!" the billboard has "Aloha Bob and Juan" in reference to writer Bob Toomey and artist Juan Ortiz.

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.

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