An incredible first for DC next year as Action Comics reaches issue #1,000. I know that the Beano, Dandy and 2000AD, to name a few, reached that milestone years before, but they were/are all weeklies. In this day and age of passing interest, the fact that a title has reached 1,000 issues is quite some feat. And Detective Comics will soon reach that number too.

Join us for the 80th anniversary celebration of the most important comic book in American history: Action Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of Superman! Solicited this month is the hardcover book to accompany the comic. This is an early solicitation to get the numbers in and the book printed in time so it arrives a week after the March 2018 release of Action Comics #1000. It’s an extraordinary tale as stories from across the decades are revisited, featuring the debuts of not just the Man of Tomorrow, but also Supergirl, Brainiac, the Fortress of Solitude and more! See the work of generations of top writers and artists on the original superhero! Enjoy sparkling essays from literary wizards who have won Pulitzer Prizes and hit the bestseller lists, including Jules Feiffer, who relives his memories of when Action Comics #1 first hit newsstands. Plus, a historical essay by guest editor Paul Levitz, and all one thousand Action Comics covers presented on a special 30×39.75″ poster! And as a bonus, don’t miss a previously unpublished 1940s Superman tale believed to be written by Jerry Siegel with art by the Joe Shuster studio, salvaged fifty years ago and hidden away until now!

It was June 1938 when this new fantastical comic full of action and adventure hit the newsstands in America, before the second world war and even before Biff was born! They were simpler times maybe, but that need for something to stretch our imaginations, challenge our worldview and to satisfy an innate need to see good triumph over evil is still here today. It is why I, for one, still read comics and require my heroes to be strong in morals as well as in physical strength. The one true Captain America, Steve Rogers, is one of my beacons of virtue, alongside Superman, Daredevil, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. These guys have to be morally challenged, but always rise above self doubt and do the right thing. If I have had a particularly vexing day or the world news dismays me, I need that dip into a world where I know good will triumph. Some of the darker, amoral stories just do not give that lift. This is why I was disheartened when, in one of the more recent Superman movies, Superman broke General Zod’s neck. This was just wrong. In my opinion, it is not how my Superman would deal with the situation. He would have found the right way to contain and defeat Zod. Maybe we should all strive to find that ‘right’ way in our varied lives.

Action Comics #1000 for me will be a celebration of not only the milestone, but also of good over evil, achieved in the right manner. Siegel and Schuster and all the other great creators who followed, I salute you.

Merry Xmas,
Biff

Mission for the month:

Libraries always need books, more books than they can afford to buy. If you have any excess books, give the local Library a Christmas present.