It's time for Supergirl Sunday!
I could claim I've decided to label it that because it's a great new feature I've thought up but the truth is I'm only saying it because it alliterates and - to me - alliteration is averything.
To Supergirl, keeping her secret identity is everything - which does pose the question as to why, in this issue's first story, she agrees, as Linda Danvers, to star in a Supergirl movie? Won't everyone with a pair of eyes notice that, dressed up as Supergirl, Linda Danvers of Stanhope looks exactly like Supergirl of Stanhope?
Well yes they do but, showing that keen intellect possessed of everyone in Supergirl comics, no one seems to think anything of it.
What's happened is a new-fangled computer in Stanhope College has decreed the ideal career for Linda and her classmate Eve is "actress". Hearing of this, a big film director shows up to make her an offer she can't refuse.
The trouble is that, all through shooting, things go disastrously wrong, A rope snaps, sending Linda plummeting hundreds of feet into a ravine. A giant inflatable whale she's riding bursts, plunging her into shark-infested waters. A gun, that's supposed to fire blanks, fires a real bullet at her. By a whole bunch of unlikely bursts of ingenuity, Linda manages to get through all these mishaps without anyone thinking it odd that she can survive such things unscathed. It all turns out the "accidents" are the handiwork of the studio press agent who's trying to sabotage the film in order to get back at the director for marrying the woman who jilted him. And he would've gotten away with it if not for that pesky Supergirl.
The issue's second tale sees Supergirl go to an alien world, on a foreign exchange trip. What she doesn't know is the student she's supposed to have exchanged with has been kidnapped and replaced by a trouble-maker out to damage Linda Danvers' rep on Earth by leading a student riot back at Stanhope College. I don't think anyone'll be surprised that Supergirl quickly sorts it all out.
Of course, what we really read old Supergirl stories for is their sheer insanity. Sadly, the dementedness levels have been turned substantially down from those of Adventure Comics #390, meaning the only real moments of madness we get are the giant inflatable whale and the fact that the alien planet that Supergirl visits is modelled on Earth, with the town she stays in being an exact replica of Stanhope. But, overall, the comic's good clean fun and the first tale's beautifully drawn by an uncredited Kurt Schaffenberger.
Actually, the most interesting thing for me about this issue - Kurt Schaffenberger aside - is it's one of those months when they print the circulation figures. What strikes me is that, on average, 664,000 copies of Adventure Comics were being printed each month. And there was me assuming Supergirl books just barely limped along.
The other thing that strikes me is that, of those, "only" 354,000 copies were actually sold, with another 309,000 listed as being, "Office Use, Left-Over, Unaccounted," for or just plain, "Spoiled After Printing." Just where were nearly 3.7 million Supergirl comics disappearing to every year?
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