DC Comics Reprints from the 1960s, 70s and 80s: 80 Page Giants Part I

Sunday, February 13, 2011

80 Page Giants Part I

For seven years, from August 1964 to October 1971, DC Comics published 89 "Giant" reprint comics. The first 15 are a separately numbered series while numbers 16 through 89 are part of various comic series. The first 56 are 80 pages, the last 33 64 pages.

The first 64 page Giant (G57) is Action Comics 373 published Mar-Apr 1969 with five Supergirl stories, all originally printed in Action Comics from 1959 to 1962.

Stories were often reprinted with alterations. There are three types:

editorial addition,
title and/or story modification,
deletion of panels.

There is a good example of a story with all three changes in this Giant - Supergirl's Farewell to Earth first published in Action Comics 258 (November 1959). The title page introduction is changed to connect it with other stories in the reprint. The last page has two panels removed, the remaining four panels altered and dialogue changed in one panel. The latter changes were made to allow for an ad.

Below is the Giant reprint and the original story as later reprinted in Supergirl Archives, Volume 1 (DC Comics, 2001).