Monday 4 April 2011

Steve Does Comics comes to a sticky end.

1970s DC super-hero stickers
Superman Action Comics #440, Nick Cardy
As I said in yesterday's post about the Marvel stickers I so desired as a youth, I have to admit that although I was more of a Marvelite than a DC fan, I was always more impressed by the DC stickers than the Marvel ones. Somehow the DC ones always seemed slicker and more stylish, although I have to say the Marvel stickers now seem brighter, more dynamic and more varied, to my adult eyeballs.

This particular ad comes from Action Comics #440 and I was especially taken with the Batman sticker - which I believe was taken from a Neal Adams' Batman/Joker story - as well as the Green Arrow and Gil Kane's Green Lantern.

The other thing that strikes me now, looking at that ad, is you only got 14 stickers for $2.50, whereas you got 18 Marvel stickers for the same money.

I don't know, somehow in the 1970s, Marvel always managed to steal a march on DC, even - it seems - when it came to sticky-back plastic.

4 comments:

R. W. Watkins said...

Oops! I think I posted my comment to the wrong blog entry! It would be more appropriate here. Oh, well; here it goes again:

I preferred the DC stickers, too. I never actually had any, but I had DC characters on my bedroom curtains and bedspread during my latter years in elementary school. I preferred those Marvel coins, with Spider-Man, Hulk, Conan and...? Who was on the other one? Captain America? Has anyone ever actually come across any of those?

Steve said...

I think I've seen the odd one for sale on eBay for some extortionate fee. Whether they've sold or not, I'm not sure.

Boston Bill said...

This is where we differ on our views (as kids). To me, DC were the comics you got when there were no Marvels left on the stand. I liked the DC heroes (who didn't know Batman and Superman?), but the style of the comics they were in always put me off. In those days, it always felt like DC was holding back. This attitude extended to all related products, stickers included (although I gladly would have had them provided I could still have the Marvel stickers).

And the fewer stickers had nothing to do with my preference. Some of those Marvels stickers were pretty small and were filled out with a circular background. I would have gladly given them all up for space for another BIG sticker, say the Human Torch!

Oh, and Dads across America must have loved the suggestion that you stick these things on the car!

furzan2007 said...

I had both sticker sheets of Marvel and DC and amazingly, I stuck most of them on my old toy chest which I managed to snag when my parents moved out of their house and downsized to a retirement village. A few got stuck on odd things like headboards of beds and mirrors. The Superman large sticker with him breaking the chains was sadly one of the ones sacrificed to the mirror. Oh well!