Newton Comics and the Super Comic Grab Bag

According to Ash Long's notes, he was hired to oversee and process the redistribution of excess returned stock into the marketplace during February and March 1976. This relates to the Heritage Series issues, and the insertion of posters into new issues at the time.

However, before the Heritage Series program was officially under way, Newton attempted to move the old stock via an advertisement in the Sunday Observer 25 January 1976:

This advertisement is very curious regarding both the timing and the contents.

We know the December 1975/January 1976 period was a traumatic period for the company as publication ceased, only to be resurrected at the urging of Marty Daugherty. I suggested in my previous post that the Heritage Series program might have been one of Daugherty's strategies to convince Newton to keep the program rolling. This advertisement suggests that the Heritage Series program was formally initiated after this tactic which presumably did not yield the results expected. This advertisement ran for three consecutive weeks until 8 February 1976. Long's notes state "work started February 1976, and continued on a day or so a week, for six weeks." The Heritage Series labels were printed in the last week of February 1976.

The issues in the photo are also interesting. Most are from mid-1975 (The Incredible Hulk #2, Planet of the Apes #4, the Fantastic Four #4, Dracula #2), and a few are from the last quarter of 1975 (The Avengers #5, Doctor Strange #5, Conan the Barbarian #9, The Amazing Spider-Man #14).

The one that stands out to me is Daredevil #1. This had been announced in a December 1975 letter column as due to be published 10 January 1976, and John Corneille was promoting this issue as the "newest sensation" on the same day this advertisement was published. So was Daredevil #1 included in this offer? Or should we not take the issues in the photo too literally?

Consider also that of the issues in the pic, the four mid-1975 issues are all missing from Long's detailed notes regarding the particular issues processed by him and his staff.

Also of interest is the posters offered. Again, it may be a mistake to take it too literally, but I note the three posters pictured were part of the Nabisco range promoted in the comics c.March/April 1976. And maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me but a couple of them do appear to have a vertical crease...