I came across this in my files a few years ago and thought, "I oughta scan this and post the scans on my blog so everyone can see them." I've finally gotten around to doing this.
At some point in the sixties — we'll discuss what point in a moment — if you sent a letter to the DC Comics featuring Superman, you sometimes got back a "thank you" postcard and you sometimes got back one of these green pieces of paper filled with answers to the most-asked questions they received. I'm about 98% certain that the page was written by Nelson Bridwell, who was the overworked, underpaid and often mistreated assistant to Mort Weisinger, editor of those particular DC Comics.
I'm going to guess DC sent out a ton of these. Someone else must have one or more of them…but the ones I received are the only ones I've ever seen anywhere. I got about two dozen of them in response to letters I sent in and I recall sometimes receiving two or three of them the same day…but I only seem to have this one copy in my files. Most of them came folded-in-thirds with a little round sticker keeping them closed and with the mailing address scrawled or typed on the outside.
This one though doesn't have my name and address on it. The others I received did but this one came in an envelope with a stamp on it. Why? My theory then was that it couldn't go third class mail since someone at the DC office wrote in the answers to some questions I had. And I'm pretty sure that's the handwriting of Nelson Bridwell.
So when was this printed and when did they stop sending these out? I'm guessing it was written in early-to-mid 1966. There's a plug in there for a forthcoming new Superman cartoon show debuting in the Fall of 1966. They couldn't have known that much earlier than then. (Before you ask about the Aurora model kits of Superman and Superboy mentioned in the mailer: The Superman model came out in 1963 and the Superboy model came out in 1965. And Zip Codes — which appear in the mailer but not everywhere — started in '63.)
Someone who knows more about the Legion of Super-Heroes than I do could probably figure out exactly when that team's membership roster matched the one listed in the mailer. How about it, Mark Waid?
The scribbled note talks about DC changing the size of their original artwork and they did that around the middle of 1967. So that may give us a hint as to when this particular one was sent. DC went through so many changes beginning around then that this mailer would have been pretty obsolete soon after that. (And notice what I asked. Even in '67 when I was 15 years old, I was more interested in how the comics were done than I was in the characters or their adventures.)
Okay, so here's your chance to download scans of both sides of what came to me as one 8-1/2" by 11" page — and lemme warn you: I made these scans pretty large since the typeface on them was so tiny. Don't even try it if you're going to attempt to read it on your phone. You'll need a big monitor and you'll probably have to zoom in on the text. You can download the front of the page here and the back of the page here. And don't say I never gave you anything.
