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36-445: According to then-DC publisher Jenette Kahn , comics' price-per-page value had been declining since the " Golden Age ". When superhero comics debuted in the late 1930s, they featured 64 pages of art for 10¢. As the decades passed, comparable publications like Time and Life raised their prices, while comics stayed at 10 cents and reduced their page-count. Finally in 1962, National Periodical Publications /DC raised its price to 12¢,

72-509: A "built-in audience". The pair convinced two Boston businessmen, Charlie Rheault and Steve Alpert, to assist them with the start-up costs, which they accomplished by arranging a $ 15,000 loan from a Boston bank. Rheault and Alpert knew a printer in Lowell, Massachusetts , Dale Bowman, who agreed to publish the magazine on credit for them. The first issue debuted in November 1970, contained 48 pages,

108-413: A 20% increase. Comparable magazines, in contrast, were by then 3.5-to-5 times their original price. By 1977, even though the typical price of a comic book was 35¢, it still lagged far behind its magazine competition, thus decreasing its appeal for newsvendors (which at that point — before the generalized 1980s shift to direct market distribution — was still the dominant retailing location for comics). Thus,

144-487: A Dollar Comic gave readers approximately the story pages of four 35¢ comic books for the price of three. From the retailer perspective, the Dollar Comic represented a greater profit than the standard 35¢ issues. And just to make sure nobody missed them, the books had a distinctive trade dress. The first two conversions to the format — House of Mystery and Superman Family — hit the stands shortly before Christmas in 1976 and

180-470: A bigger scale. Kahn recalls that it was Robinson's idea to print a series of books called Young Words and Pictures that would be entirely written and illustrated by kids for each other. Kahn reminded him that each time they had to publish a book, there were costs associated with promoting and marketing it. Instead, she proposed a magazine "with surprises to keep it fresh and with ongoing features", which children could look forward to, and then there would be

216-419: A bit jealous, because it has been struggling for five hard months with next to no recognition, while Kids gained national attention in only one month". Time went on to say that the first issue of Kids was "printed on good quality paper with plenty of color illustrations [and] was fresh, funny and full of juvenile reflections of an adult world". The Washington Post said the "real charm of this magazine

252-529: A copy of a summer issue, he reported that he was "intrigued to discover that the magazine is a genuine attempt to capture some of the imaginative flair and fantasy of childhood in a relatively uncontaminated form". Diehl went on to praise it even further, highlighting the "spontaneity of ideas and expressions", and that overall, the magazine was a "delightful fresh breeze in the stale world of TV animations and dull textbooks". The magazine's illustrators included twelve-year-old Ray Billingsley , who went on to create

288-399: A degree in art history, Kahn eventually founded three magazines for young people. The original publication, Kids , was entirely written by children for one another. Its subject matter included drug abuse, diversity, animal protection, and the environment. Kahn's second magazine was Dynamite , for Scholastic Inc. Kahn followed with Smash for Xerox Education Publications . Kahn

324-461: A going concern. To mark her new direction for the company, Kahn officially renamed National Periodical Publications to DC Comics, complete with a bold new company logo, nicknamed the DC Bullet, designed by Milton Glaser . Furthermore, she moved to centralize editorial from its individual fiefdoms to place the characters in a more interactive DC Multiverse with a more systematic approval process for

360-437: A weekly series of one-shot reprints of key issues priced at $ 1, beginning with Detective Comics #854 -- the first comic to feature a solo adventure of the modern Batwoman . Title is followed by scheduled or actual publication date: Jenette Kahn Jenette Kahn ( / k ɑː n / ; born May 16, 1947 ) is an American comic book editor and executive. She joined DC Comics in 1976 as publisher, and five years later

396-463: Is not its relevancy, but its spontaneity. It is a magazine with the unexpected on every page. If it were written by adults it would be called creative. Written by children, it is much closer to natural expression". Los Angeles Times book review editor Digby Diehl wrote that when he first heard about the magazine, he "distrustfully ignored it, having endured all too many cute manipulations of children from Soupy Sales to Art Linkletter ". After seeing

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432-796: The Clinton Administration , Secretary of State Madeleine Albright , the United Nations, and the Department of Defense for her work on land mines . The FBI honored Kahn for her efforts on gun control, as did former Governor Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who credited her with helping to pass stricter gun control legislation in his state. She was honored by the World Design Foundation for outstanding creative achievements. Kahn created The Wonder Woman Foundation in honor of Wonder Woman's 40th Anniversary. In its three years of existence,

468-452: The "DC Explosion" of new titles and formats which was followed in 1978 by a company downturn referred to as the " DC Implosion . Along with editor and executive vice president Paul Levitz and managing editor Dick Giordano , Kahn then revitalized the company through the remainder of the decade and the 1980s, including the introduction of " Dollar Comics " publications, as well as limited series to allow for more flexible arrangements for

504-666: The United States; and Betty Blayton of The Children's Art Carnival in Harlem. According to a note inserted into the magazine with the first issue, Kids evolved from several ideas: First, that children have something to say that is worth listen,ing to. Second, that kids are eager to learn from each other and should be provided a medium for the exchange of their feelings and their thoughts. Third, that few things inspire children to pursue their own creative projects as much as seeing and enjoying other children's work. Kahn and Robinson sold

540-435: The artistic staff to produce fewer and commercially sounder titles. To that end, Kahn sought to hire young staff to revitalize the content such as an unsuccessful attempt to recruit Marvel Comics mainstay artist, John Buscema , and a successful recruitment of major Marvel writer, Steve Englehart . Later in her administration, Kahn's recruitment goals became easier for the fact that Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter ,

576-760: The boards of Exit Art and Harlem Stage, and is an advisor to The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company . She is a founding member of The Committee of 200 , a nationwide forum of key women in business. Her first book, In Your Space , was published by Abbeville Press in 2002. Kahn received the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage. She received an Inkpot Award in July 2010. President Ronald Reagan honored Kahn for her work on drug awareness, and she has been honored by

612-411: The children choose content, including writing articles, creating illustrations and hand lettering for their publication. Members who sat on the advisory board for the publication included Dr. Robert Coles from Harvard University ; John Holt , author of How Children Fail ; Stephen M. Joseph , teacher and book editor; poet Kenneth Koch ; Jonathan Kozol , known for his books on public education in

648-498: The company to pursue a career as a film producer. Kahn is a partner in Double Nickel Entertainment, a film production company she co-founded with Adam Richman after leaving DC Comics. Double Nickel's first film was The Flock (2007) starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes and directed by Andrew Lau . Its second was Gran Torino (2008), starring Clint Eastwood , who also directed. In addition, Kahn serves on

684-459: The company's mainstream titles. One exception to this editorial stance was Kahn cancelling an issue of Swamp Thing where the title character interacts with Jesus, which led to the writer and artist Rick Veitch quitting, citing censorship concerns. She oversaw a diversification of the originally overwhelmingly male staff at DC, to the point where when she left, almost half the employees were women. Kahn left DC Comics in 2002 after 26 years with

720-524: The end of the year. Most Dollar Comics titles began as traditional format books and expanded to the Dollar Comic format. All-Out War and Time Warp were short lived series which were published entirely as Dollar Comics. Several anniversary issues such as Action Comics #500 and The Flash #300 were also in the format as were the DC annuals for 1982 and 1983. In 2019, DC revived the Dollar Comics line as

756-526: The first issue of Kids came out, the editors of a newspaper titled Hoot Owl , published in Arlington, Texas , were upset. They claimed that they were the first to have kids as editors, and that Kids was "not an original idea". They pointed to the similarity of each of their mottos, with Kids ' motto being "By children for each other", and Hoot Owl ' s motto being "By kids, for kids, about kids". Time magazine opined that " Hoot Owl appears to be

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792-496: The foundation contributed more than $ 350,000 in grants to women over 40 in various categories. Kids (1970s magazine) Kids was a children's magazine published in Cambridge, Massachusetts and later New York City from 1970 to 1975. Its aim was to create a magazine which was, as much as possible, created and edited by children themselves, with minimal adult supervision. The magazine folded in 1975, due to debt incurred by

828-443: The founding editors and publishers. The magazine's founding editors were Jenette Kahn and Jim Robinson, who were both Harvard University alumni. Robinson was a former fifth-grade teacher, and Kahn was a freelance art critic. Robinson used to bring a hand press to his classroom and let his students set and print their own stories and poems. Noticing that the kids were enthralled with publishing their own work, he decided to do it on

864-479: The idea for Dollar Comics was born. Writing for the Silver Bullet Comic Books website, John Wells detailed Dollar Comics' history: When Jenette Kahn took over as DC's publisher in 1976, the average comic book contained only 17 pages of story for 35¢. Nearly half of each issue was filled with advertising and editorial content. Kahn's initial response was 1977's line of Dollar Comics. In terms of content,

900-441: The job [of publisher] was rightfully his." In February 1981, she became president following the retirement of Harrison. She was the youngest person in the company to become president of a division, and the first woman. Furthermore, before Kahn began her new position, she was instrumental in dissuading the head of Warner Publishing Services from simply ending National 's publishing in favor of simple license maintenance, and kept it

936-749: The launch in 1993 of the Vertigo imprint and of Milestone Media , a minority-founded and ethnically diverse line of comic books that DC published for several years and from which Static Shock , the animated show on The WB television network, was developed. Kahn is credited with overseeing a successful period of reinvention for DC's classic characters, including the death and rebirth of Superman . Giordano commented that Kahn had no editorial restrictions on creators, as far as he could tell. Under Kahn's leadership, DC became known for pushing boundaries in subject matter by addressing issues of domestic violence, sexual orientation, gun violence, homelessness, racism, and AIDS in

972-461: The magazine after 16 issues, due to the debt they incurred while publishing it. Kahn went on to create a second magazine aimed at children titled Dynamite! from Scholastic Press , which had some similarities to Kids . When that periodical folded, she created a third magazine called Smash , a pop-culture magazine for kids published by Xerox Education . Eventually she became president and editor-in-chief of DC Comics and MAD Magazine . When

1008-581: The magazine. Kids ' first guest editors, 10-year-old Marc Alonso and 12-year-old Candace Lowe, were featured on the David Frost Show . In 1972, the Associated Press reported that the magazine had a circulation of 120,000 copies. That same year, LI Magazine , published by Newsday for the Long Island community, recruited editors from Kids to help them publish their magazine by letting

1044-504: The other two expanded titles — G.I. Combat and World's Finest Comics — debuted in January 1977. Sales on these — and several summer specials with the umbrella title of DC Special Series — paid off well enough to justify an expansion of the line in 1978. The Batman Family joined the fold in January and, at the dawn of the line-expanding DC Explosion in June, Adventure Comics came aboard. One of

1080-549: The perks of the Explosion was the complete elimination of advertising in the Dollar Comics and the addition of wraparound covers. They lost the quarter-inch height advantage, though. The DC Explosion, sadly, became an implosion almost immediately and, within a year, the ads were back, and the page count had shrunk. In 1980, DC made its second attempt at a line expansion and this time it clicked. The Dollar Comics were ad-free again by

1116-526: The property in the 1970s as he was under contract with his return to Marvel, Kahn's faith in the property was borne out in the 1980s when the toy company, Kenner Products , judged it ideal for their Super Powers Collection action figure adaptation of the DC characters. This enabled Kahn to invite the now available Kirby to not only return to his characters in the first two Super Powers limited series , but also design their action figures for Kenner, earning his first royalties for his work. Kahn initiated

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1152-425: The talent. Kahn supported creators' rights in an industry in which royalties and other traditional publishing rights were not the norm, thus giving the talent a stake in the commercial success of their work that the industry's traditional work-for-hire arrangements never encouraged. In 1989, she assumed the title of editor-in-chief while retaining the office of president but stepped down as publisher. Kahn oversaw

1188-431: Was 28 years old on February 2, 1976, when she became publisher of DC Comics , a division of Warner Bros. and home to over five thousand characters, including Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman . Sol Harrison served as the company's president. Kahn stated in a 2012 interview that "I can't really say that Sol and I had much of a working relationship. He, more than anybody, resented my being hired because he felt that

1224-463: Was devoid of any advertisements, and cost 50 cents. Its inaugural printing was 60,000 copies, and included poems, plays, stories, photographs, and drawings submitted by children, who were paid $ 6.00 if their work ended up being published. Their pictures were included as well. The magazine was published ten times per year, with one issue published in the summer. For each issue, two children were selected as editors who could veto any item published in

1260-587: Was promoted to president. In 1989, she stepped down as publisher and assumed the title of editor-in-chief while retaining the office of president. After 26 years with DC, she left the company in 2002. Jenette Kahn grew up in Boston. Her father was a rabbi . Her brother, Si Kahn , is a singer-songwriter and activist. She was an avid comics fan, a practice supported by her parents, with particular favorites being Batman , Superman , Little Lulu , Uncle Scrooge , and Archie . After graduating from Radcliffe College with

1296-463: Was proving alienating to much of his company's creative staff and they consequently proved receptive to Kahn's offers including major talents like Roy Thomas , Gene Colan , Marv Wolfman , and George Perez . In addition, Kahn, unlike her predecessors, was impressed by Jack Kirby 's seminal Fourth World titles, like The New Gods , and viewed their abrupt cancellation as a serious mistake. While Jack Kirby could not return to DC when Kahn revived

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