Adventure Comics # 299, August, 1962

Another silly, whiny Superbaby tale here--only this one's technically just an Imaginary Story. BUt then again, as Alan Moore famously observed, aren't they all?

Well, as promised, there's the answer on the question as to whether the Legion of Super-Heroes should get their own series. And that answer is yes, starting next month. As noted last time, this means they had to have the earliest stories already in the works.

 So we go out with one last blast of bizarro bizarreness, this one with a title at least that parodies the then popular TV series, CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? After this, fans seemed Bizarro'd out and the characters, even Bizarro # 1, rarely appeared again in new stories until the revamps started. And by then he was a very different animal.

Adventure Comics # 298, July, 1962

Wow. Talk about politically incorrect. An awful lot of kids reading this were probably overweight and this story making fun of same could have been very traumatic for some. Yeesh!

Here we just had the Editors saying that the TALES OF THE BIZARRO WORLD series had increased sales higher than ever and now this letters page goes on at length about whether a TALES OF THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES series should perhaps take its place! Supposedly the result would be announced next issue. The problem with that is that, in hindsight, we know the LSH take up residence only two issues from now so that first story pretty much had to have been done by this point. 

Adventure Comics # 297, June 1962

Even after introducing a "real"Supergirl, they're still making other females super as witness not only Lama in this issue (again) but also the ad for Superman meeting a Super Woman who looks exactly like his cousin Supergirl as a grown-up (creepy!).

The Atom now had his own book!

Adventure Comics # 296, May, 1962

This issue's letters page points out in no uncertain terms that the Bizarro series has led to ADVENTURE's all-time highest sales. Hard to believe taking into account the wartime popularity of comic books but there it is. A reader thinks they've already appeared too much and the editor likens the series to MAD magazine.

Adventure Comics # 295, April, 1962

As a kid, probably around 1969, this issue was the earliest ADVENTURE that I ever came across in the nickel boxes. The biggest thing about it is on the letters page where the editors respond to a suggestion by suggesting one of their own--a new ADVENTURE series to be called, TALES OF THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES.