COMIC BOOK RETROVIEW: DC Comics Licensed Titles In The '60s and '70s

I've seen some recent online posts that have me thinking about DC Comics' licensed titles. Nowadays, we mostly think of DC and Marvel comic books within the parameters of the characters each company owns. But it used to be common for both companies to pay a license to adapt some property from other media into a four-color newsstand funnybook. Dell and then Gold Key Comics were the kingpins of licensed titles, and Charlton Comics also had quite a few licenses, but DC and Marvel likewise produced their share of comics based on outside sources. 

in the '70s, Marvel did particularly well with their license of Conan the Barbarian, perhaps less so with Doc Savage. I would guess that DC's most popular licensed title in the '70s was Tarzan. I'd look to the eighty-issue run of The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis from 1957-1971 as a significantly long life on the spinner rack, especially if we add the preceding forty issues when it was The Adventures Of Dean Martin And Jerry Lewis (1952-1957). I gotta figure ol' Jerry outsold a lot of the individual Justice League of America members' books, and The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis outlasted Aquaman, The Atom, and Hawkman. (I was a fan, and I celebrated the DC Comics legacy of Jerry Lewis in a piece called "The Lovable Lunkhead Returns.")

I wanted to come up with a list of DC's licensed titles. I decided to limit the list to the 1960s and '70s--my first era of reading comics--so the list excludes older series like Mutt & Jeff (103 issues 1939-1958, before moving over to Dell), Jackie Gleason & The Honeymooners, and Mr. District Attorney, among many others. And it stops short of DC's 1980s and beyond licenses of Atari Force, Masters Of The Universe, the Phantom, Star Trek, and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt.

A few notes: This list excludes Rima The Jungle Girl, a public domain character DC adapted for her own series. I'm listing the 1973-75 Black Magic series (which reprinted '50s horror stories by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, originally published by Prize Comics) and the one-shot Sherlock Holmes because I presume DC licensed both, but I concede the possibility that the company could have acquired ownership of the former, and the latter could have been considered in the public domain (though I'm not sure that's true).

The list does include Shazam! Even though DC eventually bought the rights to the original Captain Marvel, Cap and his Marvel Family cohorts were initially licensed by DC from original publisher Fawcett Comics. DC didn't own the characters outright until decades after the Shazam! book was cancelled. 

Let's have a look at that list:

The Adventures Of Bob Hope

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis

Black Magic

Bomba The Jungle Boy

Captain Action

A Date With Judy

The Fox And The Crow

Hot Wheels

Justice Inc. [the pulp hero The Avenger]

Korak Son Of Tarzan

Larry Harmon's Laurel And Hardy

The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis

The Mighty Isis

The Shadow

Shazam! [the original Captain Marvel]

Sherlock Holmes

Sword Of Sorcery [Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser]

Tarzan

Tarzan Family

Tor

Welcome Back Kotter

Weird Worlds [first seven issues, with Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars and Pellucidar]

ALSO NOTEWORTHY:

Dick Tracy in Limited Collectors' Edition # C-40

G.I. Joe in Showcase # 53-54.

James Bond 007 in Showcase # 43

I feel like I missed something, so additions are certainly welcome. Some of these comics were really good; I was especially fond of Captain Action, Hot Wheels, Tarzan, and The Shadow, and I loved the Golden Age reprints in Shazam!, even if I didn't always dig the then-new material as much.

ADDENDA

The Avenger appeared in The Shadow # 11.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser appeared in Wonder Woman # 202, prior to the first issue of their own title Sword Of Sorcery.

Isis appeared in Shazam! # 25.

The Marvel Family and a number of other characters licensed from Fawcett Comics (Spy Smasher, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Mr. Scarlet and Pinky, and Ibis the Invincible) appeared in Justice League Of America # 135-137. An Ibis the Invincible reprint was used in Detective Comics # 441. In addition to several all-reprint Shazam! issues in the oversize series Limited Collectors' Edition, Captain Marvel and his sister Mary Marvel appeared in the "Superman Vs. Shazam" tabloid comic All-New Collectors' Edition # C-58. When the Shazam! comic was cancelled, Cap and the Marvel Family became a back-up strip in World's Finest Comics.

The Shadow appeared in Batman # 253 and 259.

ODDITIES

Some 1960s DC stories starring Bomba the Jungle Boy were reprinted in '70s issues of Tarzan. By this time, DC's Bomba license had expired, so the stories were edited to star the never-before-seen Simba the Jungle Boy instead.

DC had planned a series adapting Mattel's astronaut action figure Major Matt Mason, but the proposed series was cancelled before anything saw print. A completed Matt Mason adventure called "Earth Shall Not Die!" was printed in two parts in From Beyond The Unknown # 7-8, with the lead character renamed Commander Glenn Merritt.

So! Were there any other properties licensed to DC in the '60s and '70s? If so, you have license to let me know about them.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl