Adventure Comics # 488, December, 1981

Another good cover and the best costumes yet for this issue's characters. No Heck this time. Two ads for the new Saturday morning kids line-ups. The price increased by a full dime a couple of issues back but with this issue we get a bit of a page increase as well.

Adventure Comics # 487, November, 1981

A cool split cover by Andru/Esposito and Infantino back with his best yet interior art. Comics historian and then columnist Cat Yronwode is credited with one of the interior fashions.

Adventure Comics # 486, October, 1981

Don Heck's best work on this title yet almost disguises the fact that signature artist Infantino is nowhere to be seen this ish! 

This two page origin LOOKS like Infantino but GCD credits Romeo Tanghal. 

Really different art here form a young Trevor Von Eeden (many years later a FB friend to me) and Larry Mahlstedt.

 

Adventure Comics # 485, September, 1981

Another Perez cover, this one a tad too busy perhaps. Some excellent late Infantino art throughout this booklength story for a change.

 

Adventure Comics # 484, August, 1981

George Perez, just about the hottest mainstream comic book artist around in 1981, provides this issue's cover. The big news, though, was the letters page announcement of the upcoming TV series version of DIAL H FOR HERO...which never happened.

 

Adventure Comics # 483, July, 1981

Okay, "Wildebeest" isn't

 the most awesome name ever but this Andru/Giordano cover IS pretty awesome. Insides flip the artists of the previous issue with Heck opening and Infantino in back. Both turn in what I think is their best work yet on this title.

Future 'Mazing Man creator Stephen DeStefano created Zeep, a sponge hero. Oddly, I think Stephen worked on Spongebob in more recent years. Listed as only 14 here, it was just about a year later when his one page fillers started turning up in HOUSE OF MYSTERY!

Hey, look who's back...if only for a Hostess ad!

 

Adventure Comics # 482, June, 1981

Don heck is added as artist on one of the stories and, frankly, I think he does a better job than Infantino although Carmine is much the better artist. The highlight of this ish for me though, is the unique Batman subscription ad! 

 

Adventure Comics # 481, May, 1981

Here we see Volcano with his Kid Flash costume, and Stellar! The inks and thus the artwork seem better this issue. 

I always loved seeing a Curt Swan-drawn Batman.

A rather original take on a subscription ad.

The letters page--such as it is, crowded with promos and the Statement, reminds me of something major I had forgotten! The new Dial H series had originally appeared as an added attraction in the mag of our old friends, THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES. A month before their ADVENTURE debut, fans met Vicki and Chris in a comic within  a comic in LSH # 272. 

Here's the cover announcing the Dial H debut.

And here's the "cover" of that debut itself!