April 23, 2010
Today Mr. BTR presents a compilation of some cool old newspaper comics that you may not know ever existed. I honestly feel that if some of these were still running today there’d be more interest in buying the newspaper.
SUPERMAN
Superman began in 1939 and ran until 1966. This is the first Sunday installment, a retelling of his now-iconic origin. And speaking of iconic, think Lex Luthor was always bald? Not so. He was depicted with red hair until he appeared hairless in this strip. Multi-dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk debuted here, and another iconic image- Superman changing clothes in a phone booth- started here too.
THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES
This version ran in 1978 and 1979 until the focus changed to primarily feature Superman and ran until 1985. It showcased a great roster of DC heroes, including the Flash, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Aquaman, and Black Lightening. Paul Levitz, current DC Comics executive and known for his run on Legion of Super Heroes, was one of the writers.
STAR WARS
The Star Wars strip has been collected in a few places over the years but is still not very well-known. This is considered a part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, meaning that it is non-canonical and doesn’t necessarily follow the continuity established in the movies. Like the Star Wars comic books, they follow their own storylines that are based on the movies but are never referenced outside of the strip.
STAR TREK
Being a big classic Trek fan I was shocked to find this. I’ve got most of the comic books but I never knew this newspaper version existed. I didn’t become a Trek fan until Star Trek II so this must have gone under my radar. It ran from 1979 to 1983, just after Wrath of Khan premiered so it was out of publication right when I would have loved to read it.
DARK SHADOWS
I was a baby when Dark Shadows first ran on TV but I’ve become a huge fan watching it on DVD. (BTW- out of 1,225 episodes I’m up to 1,045.) This ran for one year, from March 1971 to March 1972. The TV series ended in April of 1971 so this was the only daily Dark Shadows left for fans to enjoy, though the Gold Key-published comic book ran on an irregular schedule until 1976.
DALLAS
Another surprise here. I never watched the show but I am sure I should have come across this somewhere. As you can tell from the Sunday strip above, JR was causing trouble here too. It ran from 1981 to 1984.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
Wow, we agree, for a change! O___O Except for Dark Shadows that is totally unknown to me and Dallas that sucks big time, the rest would definitely be the only truly good news one could find in a newspaper 🙂
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Other than Dallas, they all have huge followings today and if done well would make for a great comics section. As for Dark Shadows, you’ll find a ton online and Johnny Depp is going to play the vampire in an upcoming film.
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Neat to see a Dark Shadows comic, I didn’t know there was such a beast, in any format.
I have a Star Wars graphic novel, from just before the release of The Empire Strikes Back, which was based on the script more than the final film. Yoda looks quite different, and there’s a side-plot about a monster attack during the Imperial assault.
Great round up.
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Absolutely awesome!
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