Notes Introductory Note about the Chronological Structure of American Comic Book Chronicles head as most Direct Market-exclusive publishers chose not to put cover dates on their comic books while some put cover dates that matched the issue’s release date.
The monthly date that appears on a comic book cover doesn’t usually indicate the exact month the comic book arrived at the newsstand or at the comic book store. Since their inception, American periodical publishers—including but not limited to comic book publishers—postdated their issues in order to let vendors know when they should remove unsold copies from their stores. In the 1930s, the discrepancy between a comic book’s cover date and the actual month it reached the newsstand was one month. For instance, Action Comics #1 is cover dated June 1938 but actually went on sale in May 1938. Starting in 1940, comic book publishers hoped to increase each issue’s shelf life by widening the discrepancy between cover date and release date to two months. In 1973, the discrepancy was widened again to three months. The expansion of the Direct Market in the 1980s though turned the cover date system on its
This all creates a perplexing challenge for comic book historians as they consider whether to chronologize comic book history via cover date or release date. The predominant comic book history tradition has been to chronologize via cover date, and American Comic Book Chronicles is following that tradition. This means though that some comic books that were released in the final months of one year won’t be dealt with until the chapter about the following year. Each chapter, however, will include a yearly timeline that uses a comic book’s release date to position it appropriately among other significant historical, cultural and political events of that year. By Keith Dallas
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A new generation of 1960s comic book fans was simultaneously enthralled by the new superheroes of their generation and their mysterious predecessors of the 1940s. 1963’s Justice League of America #21 and 22 satisfied that craving by uniting the JLA with the long-lost Justice Society in an award-winning two-part story by writer Gardner Fox and artists Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs. Justice League of America, Justice Society of America TM and © DC Comics.
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