Adventure Comics # 441, October, 1975

Here we are. After all this time, former ADVENTURE back-up character Aquaman becomes the regular cover feature for a while! As usual, the nifty retro-backup here--a selling point to myself and many others-- starring the 7 SOLDIERS OF VICTORY doesn't get any mention at all. 

The previous brief Aquaman run was written by his former writer Steve Skeates but former artist Aparo was busy doing Spectre. Now that that was out of the way, Jim returned to the Sea King but Skeates was nowhere to be found. 

The Star Spangled Kid's forties adventures always seemed to show him drawn awkwardly for some reason. Thus, artist Ernie Chan here continues that tradition!

By the way, I've just found out that the upcoming, May 2013 issue of Twomorrows BACK ISSUE magazine features an article on how this retro 7 Solders series came to be.

The coolest thing about this short-lived MANBAT series was getting to see Steve Ditko's version of Batman!

Adventure Comics # 440, August, 1975

With little or no warning, we come to the last of The Spectre's ADVENTURE run. When the controversial series is reprinted a decade later on Baxter paper, there's one more story, probably intended for the following issue. But apparently the sales results came in on the three Aquaman issues and it was decided to make the Sea King, one of the longest running back-up features years ago, into the star of ADVENTURE COMICS! Starting next issue.

Iron Mike Grell draws The Crimson Avenger and Wing in a vaguely Adamsesque style and with Wing undoubtedly less stereotyped than he would have been had the script been drawn back in the forties as intended.

Another letter form Rodi this month but also one from Jo Duffy who would soon enough become an important comics professional herself. 

Adventure Comics # 439, June, 1975

Aparo is back to solo art this ish but the highlight is the 7 Soldiers of Victory chapter that returns not only Green Arrow and Speedy to the pages of ADVENTURE after about two decades but also the great Lee Elias on their art chores! 

The Batman and Robin page below was actually from the inside front cover, part of a memorable Hostess campaign of the seventies that crossed all company boundaries. The scores and scores of strip ads for cupcakes and Twinkies featured silly writing but some goof art such as that by Dick Giordano seen here.

As seen by this ad, this was NOT the most creative period for DC.

Letters this time include one from the prolific Bob Rodi, still around today on Facebook where we have many mutual friends though we've never met. Note in the Statement of ownership below that ADVENTURE, although hardly the standard-bearer it once was, was still selling huge amounts of copies compared to what passes for a bestseller today. 

Adventure Comics # 438, April, 1975

Sales must not have been as good as hoped since DC chose here to break out one of their trademark gorilla covers. Supposedly they always increased sales.

To those of us who had become second generation Golden Age fans, the Seven Soldiers of Victory story that followed was such a treat! Supposedly an undrawn and unpublished script was found in DC's files and it was decided to get today's creators to draw each individual chapter, spotlighting, as in the old days, one of the heroes (or two in some cases). The intro, seen here, was by Dick Dillin and gave the whole thing a JLA feel as he was and had been the artist on that title for some years.

And so, for the first time in more than two decades, The Shining Knight returned to ADVENTURE! A young Howie Chaykin, already a bit of a fan favorite, chose to draw his chapter in homage to the by-then classic turns we reprinted long ago by Frank Frazetta!

Adventure Comics # 437, February, 1975

Ernie Chan (as Ernie Chua) helps out on the art this issue but it's still pretty good except for the ugly splash.

Aquaman's last appearance...for now. But he'll be back soon enough.

Words can't begin to describe how exciting the ad below was to a teenage comic book geek back in the day.