Advertising the launch of Newton Comics in the Sunday Observer

In June 1975 Maxwell Newton's tabloid rag the Sunday Observer heralded the new line of Australian Marvel Comics published by Newton Comics. For the duration of the month a number of advertisements related to Newton Comics titles would be prominently featured, however the first hint of this was in an advertorial in the 25 May 1975 edition:

It advertises the Sunday Observer Planet of the Apes Special supplement, referred to as a "bonus color (sic) magazine" which appeared the following week on 1 June 1975 and was referenced on the front page:

Here's a close-up:

At this stage there was no direct reference to the comic books. The advertising was leveraging the popularity of the Planet of the Apes tv series. However, the imagery in the advertisements was related to the forthcoming comics, and the supplement itself advertised the launch of the comic book series. The second supplement is also advertised as forthcoming.

Planet of the Apes #1 was published the following week on 7 June 1975, and the next day the Sunday Observer published this full colour advertisement:

It is clear from the text in this advertisement and the pre-launch notice that the intention and hope was for the comic book series to piggyback onto the success of the franchise in other media.

The franchise was also present in the newspaper in advertisements for the Planet of the Apes Survival Kit. A familiar ad to Newton Comics readers, this advertisement appeared the following week in the 8 June 1975 edition:

Apart from being Payable to Newton Comics, there is no other mention of the comics book series. The kit was advertised in at least the next three editions of the newspaper in a smaller advertisement:

Given the widespread advertising for the kit - and by wider I mean advertised beyond the comic books themselves to, you know, civilians - it's a surprise these kits haven't turned up in the interim in collector's circles. One would expect to see writing pads or note pads or stickers show up as individual pieces if not as a kit per se.

Given the profile of the Planet of the Apes franchise, and the comics in particular in the Sunday Observer, perhaps it's understandable that many consider Planet of the Apes to have been the flagship title in the Newton stable. However, strictly speaking, the first comic book title launched by Newton Comics was The Amazing Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man #1 was published one week earlier than Planet of the Apes #1, and was afforded a considerable share of publicity muscle via the Sunday Observer. For example, the following advertisement appeared in the 1 June 1975 edition:

The Comics Are Back! headline presumably refers to the comics supplement which appeared in the newspaper before the comics were launched. These strips included Marvel properties such as The Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Conan the Barbarian and Spider-Man. Here's a few sample pages from the 16 March 1975 supplement:

Indeed, the Spiderman (sic) series was advertised in the comics supplement as forthcoming "the following weekend" in the 25 May 1975 edition:

It would appear that as far as Newton was concerned there was a degree of brand recognition, if not direct synergy between the comics supplement and the comic books themselves. Other titles would also be afforded full page advertisements in subsequent editions of the newspaper.

The Amazing Spider-Man series was advertised with the cover to the first issue again on 22 June 1975:

This advertisement was modified a week later to advertise The Amazing Spider-Man #2:

They may have misspelt him as Spiderman but the series was certainly given column inches in the newspaper.

So, we learn a few things from the Sunday Observer about the launch of Newton Comics and, key for me, given my interest in publication dates, is that The Amazing Spider-Man #1 was published 31 May 1975, and that it was published a week before Planet of the Apes #1. 

Other titles were also advertised in June 1975, which I will cover in future blogs.

Update 5/2.2019: Thanks to Robert Thomas, I present a scanned image of a sticker from the Planet of the Apes Survival Kit:

The Newton Comics supplement in the Sunday Observer: 30 March 1975-18 May 1975

As mentioned previously, the collection of the Sunday Observer Comics supplement in the State Library of Victoria is incomplete, but I have taken photos of the available supplements, specifically the Marvel pages. I have previously uploaded my pics of the supplements from 2 March 1975, 9 March 1975 and 16 March 1975. Here are the rest:

30 March 1975:

6 April 1975:

13 April 1976:

20 April 1975:

4 May 1975:

18 May 1975:

This is the final Comics supplement to feature the Marvel properties before the launch of the comics a couple of weeks later.

The copies missing from the State Library of Victoria collection are from 23 March 1975, 27 April 1975 and 11 May 1975.

Luckily I can chime in with my copy of the supplement from 27 April 1975:

Interesting to note this supplement contains an Ape Mask competition. As mentioned before, Planet of the Apes was not included in strip form in the supplement, which is odd given the franchise was such a popular and prominent piece of the Newton Comics pie, and  there is no advance notice of the comic book line to be launched shortly. Indeed the appearance of this ad is a rather ironic harbinger of things to come in mid-1976, when the Sunday Observer would advertise Marvel-related merchandise to generate cash flow whilst the comics themselves had been suspended by the Receivers. 

The Newton Comics Supplement in the Sunday Observer

According to Wikipedia Australian television stations moved to colour in March 1975 with the slogan March First into Colour. 

The next day a colour revolution on a much smaller scale occurred in the grimy Sunday Observer tabloid.

Months before Newton Comics launched their line of comic books a notice in the Sunday Observer 23 February 1975 heralded the launch of Marvel Comics in strip form:

In early 1975 the Sunday Observer contained a supplement for kids titled Fun World which included the Fun World Comics section:

Fun World Comics featured humour and adventure strips as per the above sample from 5 January 1975. The New Color Funday headline promised an extensive revamping of the comics section with bold colours as well as the Marvel super heroes - although one might have wondered who in the hell the "Favorite Four" were...

The first instalment was scheduled for 2 March 1975 and as young readers eagerly turned the pages (past the tits and the diatribes against Gough Whitlam) this is what they saw:

This was certainly a vibrant, full scale refurbishment of the previous iteration of the comics section!

The new comics supplement carried four Marvel features: Conan the Barbarian, The Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange and - beginning the following week - The Amazing Spider-Man. 

This was a an 8-page supplement and the Marvel characters typically featured in half of the pages - the first three and the back page. The rest of the pages had the likes of The Phantom, Flash Gordon, The Wizard of Id, Mickey Mouse and others.

Here's the rest of the Marvel pages from the first instalment:

I took these photos from the bound copies of the Sunday Observer held in the State Library of Victoria. It is an incomplete collection but I have taken photos of the editions available and I will post them on the blog in due course.

The Marvel properties continued weekly in the supplement until 18 May 1975. The following week the forthcoming comics were advertised in the Sunday Observer and the comics section of the newspaper began to slowly revert back to its blander black and white iteration.

The Spider-Man strip did return to the newspaper in October 1975 and ran until January 1976, and in this period there was a greater synergy between the comics section in the newspaper and the comic books themselves - but I'll detail all of that in a separate post.

It occurs to me that the 'missing' strip is Planet of the Apes. As this was such a prominent title for the comic books its absence from the Comics supplement is surprising, as is the late inclusion of the Spider-Man strip. I note that an April 1975 instalment of the supplement includes an Ape Mask competition, so the Newton office was certainly conscious of Apemania at this stage. Methinks there's a little chapter of the story to be teased out here...

Newton Comics: Considering the August 1976 period

On the heels of the transfer ads in the Sunday Observer during the period May-July, the following advertisement appeared in the Sunday Observer 25 July 1976:

The three issues clumsily namechecked in this ad are:

Newton Four-In-One #1 

Newton Triple Action #1 

Newton Spectacular #1

These three issues have a uniform design. They are numbered, they are cover-dated August 1976, and they have the same black banner across the top of the cover pronouncing the Free King Size Superhero Poster and the Camera Contest. 

They also happen to include a Captain America Bulletin on the inside front cover:

We recall this making it's first appearance with some degree of fanfare back in December 1975. Like a tried and true political slogan it is reinvoked in August 1976 as Newton launches another campaign to establish a presence in the marketplace. The darker shading differentiates it from the bright yellow of the original Bulletin, and perhaps unconsciously symbolises a somewhat less optimistic relaunch than its sunny forebear.

Also cover-dated August 1976 are the following issues:

Planet of the Apes #17

Dracula #14

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #4

These three issues also belong to the set above - they have the same Poster and Camera Contest and the same Captain America Bulletin. However, they are also a conspicuous subset - the banner at the top of the cover begins at the top of the page and, more significantly, these issues are new instalments of previously suspended series.

The issues in the first subset are all advertised as On Sale Now. On first blush this suggests that all of these issues - or at the very least one of them - was published 24 July 1976, irrespective of the August cover date. However I suspect that these three were published over three successive weeks. I say this because the advertisement ran for three weeks until 8 August 1976. Assuming this is the case, then the publishing schedule for these three issues pans out like this:

24 July 1976: Newton Four-In-One #1

31 July 1976: Newton Triple Action #1

7 August 1976: Newton Spectacular #1

It's an assumption, but it is based on balancing the merits of the evidence to hand. It also has the benefit of precedence as it replicates the practice of the initial launch of Newton Comics in May-June 1975.

It also means the next three issues in the second subset neatly fill the schedule for the remaining three weeks in August 1976. The sequence can be juggled in any compatible configuration, but for argument's sake, if we place the two blue banner issues first, reflecting the order of each series' initial publication, the schedule looks like this:

14 August 1976: Planet of the Apes #17

21 August 1976: Dracula #14

28 August 1976: The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 14

Yes, there's even more guesswork re: the second subset, but in lieu of further data, I'm pencilling these dates with an asterisk into my database for my own reference.

All but one of these issues includes the same Bullpen Bulletin/Marvel Mailbag in which the new formats - 84-page and 100-page issues - are ratified as permanent. Some of these issues are cross-promoted in the in-house advertisements.

The Free King Size Super-Hero Posters in these issues were different to the posters in the 1975 issues. Rather than being stapled into the centre of the books, these posters were larger and folded, and inserted loose into the books. One of the posters used the same image as the advertisement above:

This poster is in my copy of Newton Spectacular #1. 

Another poster I believe was inserted into Newton comics in August 1976 is this one:

This photo was supplied to me by Robert Thomas. I have a copy of this poster, but it is eluding me for the moment. When I locate it I will update this image and also check for any markings which may indicate where it came from. I note the copy above has 7 written on the top. If this indicates a month, it may refer to a July 1976 issue as discussed earlier. 

Robert sent me a photo of yet another King Size poster:

It is possible, even likely this poster was also inserted in some August 1976 issues. 

However, this may be the Thor poster referred to by Ash Long in his notes to Robert Thomas: "Thor posters were inserted into 28,235 new (Captain America, Planet of the Apes) and recycled (Daredevil, Apes, Captain America, Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Kung Fu) in March 1976" And I note there is a 3 pencilled in at the top of the poster, which may refer to March. (I will address this particular episode relating to recycled Heritage Series issues in a separate post). I also note that Long's notes indicate that "[In] March 1976, Spiderman posters were added to Daredevil, Hulk, Captain America, Submariner, and Planet of the Apes comics (quantity 18,600)". It does appear that these large posters were used twice - in March 1976 and August 1976.

Being loose, such posters are now much scarcer than the stapled variety, and even scarcer than the swap cards. Indeed, based on Ash's notes, it appears many issues hit the stands without the advertised posters.