DC Comics insert previews were 16-page comic book stories inserted into issues of existing DC Comics series to promote new series usually debuting the next month. Running from 1980 to 1985, they consisted of a front cover, 14 pages of story, and a back cover that depicted the cover of the actual first issue. The addition of the insert did not entail an increase in the price of the comic book, and the cover copy called the insert "a special free 16-page comic!" [1]
The insert previews began with The New Teen Titans in DC Comics Presents #26 (Oct. 1980). This reboot of an existing property by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez introduced several new characters [2] and would become a sales success for DC. [3] Wolfman would additionally write previews for a reboot of the "Dial 'H' for Hero" feature [4] and for Night Force [5] a supernatural series drawn by Gene Colan, his former collaborator on The Tomb of Dracula . DC highlighted the work of Roy Thomas, newly arrived at the company from Marvel Comics, by featuring several of his series in the format. These included All-Star Squadron , a revival of the Justice Society of America; [6] [7] Arak, Son of Thunder , a new Native American character; [8] [9] a revitalization of Wonder Woman including an update of the character's costume; [10] and Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! a combination of the talking animal and superhero genres. [11] When the long running The Brave and the Bold series came to its conclusion, the final issue featured a preview of a new Batman series, Batman and the Outsiders by writer Mike W. Barr and artist Jim Aparo, [12] which would be described by DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz as being "a team series more fashionable to 1980s audiences". [13] New talent such as the writing team of Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn was represented in the previews with Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld [14] and Blue Devil . [15] [16] Licensed properties were featured as well. A Masters of the Universe preview featured in several comic books cover dated November 1982 led to a miniseries the following month. [17] The Atari Force preview in January 1983 served as a prequel to the ongoing series launched a year later. [18] M.A.S.K. was a cartoon series and a Kenner Products toyline adapted into comic books in a September 1985 preview which led to a miniseries the following December. [19]
| Issue (cover date) | Insert preview | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980) | The New Teen Titans | Marv Wolfman | George Pérez and Dick Giordano | [20] |
| The Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #272 (February 1981) | "Dial 'H' for Hero" [Note 1] | Carmine Infantino , Frank Chiaramonte, and Dennis Jensen | [21] | |
| Justice League of America #193 (August 1981) | All-Star Squadron | Roy Thomas | Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway | [22] |
| The Warlord #48 (August 1981) | Arak, Son of Thunder | Ernie Colón and Tony DeZuniga | [23] | |
| DC Comics Presents #41 (January 1982) | Wonder Woman | Gene Colan and Romeo Tanghal | [24] | |
| The New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982) | Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! | Scott Shaw , Ross Andru, and Bob Smith | [25] | |
| The New Teen Titans #21 (July 1982) | Night Force | Marv Wolfman | Gene Colan and Bob Smith | [26] |
| Action Comics #537 All-Star Squadron #15 Arak, Son of Thunder #15 Batman #353 Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #9 The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1 DC Comics Presents #51 Detective Comics #520 The Fury of Firestorm #6 Justice League of America #208 The Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #293 The New Adventures of Superboy #35 The New Teen Titans #25 Superman #377 The Warlord #63 Wonder Woman #297 (all November 1982) | Masters of the Universe [Note 2] | Paul Kupperberg | Curt Swan and Dave Hunt | [27] |
| DC Comics Presents #53 The New Teen Titans #27 (both January 1983) | Atari Force [Note 2] | Gerry Conway | Ross Andru and Dick Giordano | [28] |
| The Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #298 (April 1983) | Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld | Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn | Ernie Colón | [29] |
| The Brave and the Bold #200 (July 1983) | Batman and the Outsiders | Mike W. Barr | Jim Aparo | [30] |
| The Fury of Firestorm #24 (June 1984) | Blue Devil | Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn | Paris Cullins and Pablo Marcos | [16] [31] |
| Batman and the Outsiders #15 Blue Devil #6 Superman #401 Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #317 Tales of the Teen Titans #48 World's Finest Comics #309 (all November 1984) | Flash Force 2000 [Note 3] | Robert Loren Fleming | Denys Cowan and Sal Trapani | [32] |
| Batman #387 Batman and the Outsiders #27 Blue Devil #16 Green Lantern #192 Justice League of America #242 Superman #411 Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #327 World's Finest Comics #319 (all September 1985) | M.A.S.K. [Note 2] | Michael Fleisher | Mike Chen and Joe Delbeato | [33] |
The following insert preview stories have been reprinted in collected editions:
The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC's premier superheroes in the Justice League. The original team later becomes known as the Titans when the members age out of their teenage years, while the Teen Titans name is continued by subsequent generations of young heroes. First appearing in 1964 in The Brave and the Bold #54, the team was formed by Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad (Garth) before adopting the name Teen Titans in issue 60 with the addition of Wonder Girl to their ranks.
George Pérez was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling Fantastic Four and The Avengers for Marvel Comics. In the 1980s he penciled The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics' top-selling series. He penciled DC's landmark limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by relaunching Wonder Woman as both writer and penciller for the rebooted series. In the meantime, he worked on other comics published by Marvel, DC, and other companies into the 2010s. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his facility with complex crowd scenes.
Marvin Arthur Wolfman is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's The Tomb of Dracula, for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's The New Teen Titans and the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series with George Pérez.
Leonard Norman Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men. Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.
Keith Pollard is an American comic book artist. Originally from the Detroit area, Pollard is best known for his simultaneous work on the Marvel Comics titles The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Thor in the late 1970s–early 1980s.
The Brave and the Bold is a comic book series published by DC Comics as an ongoing series from 1955 to 1983. It was followed by a reprint miniseries in 1988, two original miniseries in 1991 and 1999, and was revived as an ongoing anthology title in 2007 and 2023. The focus of the series has varied over time, but it most commonly features team-ups of characters from across the DC Universe.
James N. Aparo was an American comic book artist, best known for his DC Comics work from the late 1960s through the 1990s, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman, and the Spectre, along with famous stories such as "A Death in the Family" and "KnightFall".
Eugene Jules Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series. He co-created the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics; Carol Danvers, who would become Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel; and the non-costumed, supernatural vampire hunter Blade.
Night Force is the name of three comic book series published by American company DC Comics. The first series, written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Gene Colan, debuted in a special insert in The New Teen Titans #21. The second series began in 1996 was one of four books that made up DC's Weirdoverse group of titles. The third series began in 2012 as a seven-issue miniseries. It was again written by Marv Wolfman, this time with artist Tom Mandrake.
DC Comics Presents is a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1978 to 1986 which ran for 97 issues and four Annuals. It featured team-ups between Superman and a wide variety of other characters in the DC Universe. A recurring back-up feature "Whatever Happened to...?" had stories revealing the status of various minor and little-used characters.
Thomas Grummett is a Canadian comic book artist and penciller. He is best known for his work as penciller on titles such as The New Titans, The Adventures of Superman, Superboy, Power Company, Robin, New Thunderbolts and Heroes.
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, mystery novels, and science fiction novels. Barr has written for every one of the first four incarnations of Star Trek: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, in either comic book or other media.
Dan Mishkin is an American comic book writer, and co-creator of the DC Comics characters Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and Blue Devil.
John Costanza is an American comic book artist and letterer. He has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was the letterer during Alan Moore's acclaimed run on Swamp Thing. The bulk of Costanza's art assignments have been for anthropomorphic animal comics and children-oriented material.
Notable events of 1982 in comics.
The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans is a crossover comic book published by Marvel Comics which features two teams of superheroes, Marvel's the X-Men and DC Comics' the New Teen Titans.
Robert Allen Smith, better known as Bob Smith, is an American comic book artist, notable as an inker with DC Comics and Archie Comics.
Gary Cohn is an American comic book writer, and co-creator of the DC Comics characters Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and Blue Devil.
The Best of DC is a digest size comics anthology published by DC Comics from September–October 1979 to April 1986. The series ran for 71 issues and while it primarily featured reprints of older comic books, it occasionally published new stories or inventory material.
[The New Teen Titans] went on to become DC's most popular comic team of its day. Not only the springboard for the following month's The New Teen Titans #1, the preview's momentous story also featured the first appearance of future DC mainstays Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven.
[Marv Wolfman and George Pérez] created a title that would be DC's sales leader throughout the 1980s.
All-Star Squadron, DC's new World War II-era superhero series debuts in May in a 16-page preview insert in Justice League of America #193.
Arak, Son of Thunder, described as an 'Indian/Viking', makes his debut in a preview insert in Warlord #48, on sale in May.
As it happened, May of '81 was virtually 'Roy Thomas Month' at DC Comics.
The hotly-debated new Wonder Woman uniform will be bestowed on the Amazon Princess in her first adventure written and drawn by her new creative team: Roy Thomas and Gene Colan...This story will appear as an insert in DC Comics Presents #41.