Dell Comics' SUPER HEROES # 1

I became a superhero fan because of the Batman TV series in 1966. I wasn't the only one; the public fervor surrounding that show's success inspired a boom in interest in caped crusaders and superdoers, and it brought in lots of new fans like li'l six-year-old me. To meet this fresh demand, publishers old and new scrambled to get superhero comic books onto spinner racks pronto.

Dell Comics had once been the biggest-selling comics publisher of all time. But that unmatched success was back in the 1940s and '50s, and it seemed long ago and far away from the vantage point of the mid '60s. By then, of course, comics sales were a fraction of what they'd been during the Golden Age--still a mass-market item, but nowhere near the popularity of their commercial heyday. Nonetheless, comics were still selling; Dell Comics, however, were not selling all that well. Further damaging Dell's former sales dominance was the loss of much of its lucrative line of licensed properties. The bulk of Dell's most successful output was created independently by Western Publishing; when Western split away to start its own Gold Key Comics imprint in 1962, Dell lost the rights to publish Walt Disney and Warner Brothers cartoon titles (among many others).

Dell was never really known for superheroes. With declining comics sales and no real hit titles, the call of Batmania couldn't be ignored. Dell needed superheroes. Even before Adam West and Burt Ward started boppin' bad guys on ABC-TV, Dell introduced a new hero title called Nukla in 1965. In '66, Dell tried superhero incarnations of Dracula, Werewolf, and Frankenstein. In 1967, Dell published Super Heroes # 1.

Super Heroes starred a superteam called The Fab Four. Er, not to be confused with The Beatles, of course, nor with Marvel Comics's self-billed "World's Greatest Comics Magazine" The Fantastic Four. The series ran four issues, is not fondly remembered (nor remembered at all), and it did nothing to reverse Dell's fading fortunes.

But I liked it. I was seven years old, and it had superheroes--what more could one ask? I believe I only saw the fourth and final issue when I was a kid, but it's a cherished memory that cold, hard reality can't dim.

The Fab Four is presumed to be in the public domain. The team reappeared recently in the first issue of Popular Comics, published by the new Dell-centric InDELLible Comics. Meanwhile, from 1967, here's The Fab Four's first appearance.

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