From the July 2007 CGC eNewsletter. Click here to subscribe.

Unless you have unlimited wealth and contacts with comic book dealers throughout the country, one of the most difficult challenges you could accept would be to collect a complete set of all 106 issues covering the 16 short-run titles DC published in 1948-58.

In fact, even if you have money to burn, you’ll find yourself challenged to the limit to accomplish this feat. It took me more than a dozen years of serious searching, and I know of only a handful of collectors with all of the DC short-run series.

By “short-run series,” we’re talking 12 or fewer issues. We’re also excluding the funny animal continuations of long-running titles, such as Nutsy Squirrel # 61-72, which is a continuation of Funny Folks. I’m also excluding DC’s 1939 Movie Comics # 1-6 and items such as the 1953 Superman and Batman 3-D one-shots.

Instead, we’re talking about titles that DC ostensibly began not as mini-series — a concept unknown until the late 1970s — but as legitimate commercial ventures. DC did not often fail; the vast majority of its titles enjoyed at least moderately successful runs.

The titles on most collectors’ wish listsmay be Danger Trail # 1-5 (gorgeous Alex Toth art and great spy stories) and Phantom Stranger # 1-6 (with highly cool early Carmine Infantino work). These are pricey! The best that most collectors can do is to find fair to very good copies because otherwise we’re talking pretty big bucks.

Probably the least sought-after title is It’s Game Time # 1-4 from 1955-56, for DC completists only. This title also might be the most difficult to acquire especially in complete condition. These kiddie books were abused!

Let’s talk about the licensed books next. These run the gamut of show business, from Jackie Gleason # 1-12 and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet # 1-5, to The Adventures of Alan Ladd # 1-9 and Feature Films # 1-4, and one of DC’s few television spin-offs, The New Adventures of Charlie Chan # 1-6. Charlie Chan ran into 1959 with its final two issues, but I’m including it on this list.

Jackie Gleason is an extremely difficult set to complete, with competition from “cross-over” film and TV collectors (you might be amazed how well some comic books sell at antique shows compared to much slower sales at comic book conventions). I’m not sure any of these short-run DC’s deserve a “Gerber 8” — as some of them are rated in the Photo-Journal Guide — but the vast majority of all 106 issues we’re covering here could be called uncommon at best, and quite a few are legitimately scarce. The later Jackie Gleason issues are in this category; they are very tough to find. I’ve only seen three or four issues of some of them, but I’m in no position to categorically state that # 12 is a “Gerber 8.” It seems likely though that the later issues are scarcer since the TV show only had a one-season original run and was not re-run as endlessly as other shows.

One of the companion titles of The Phantom Stranger was Sensation Mystery # 110-116, which is actually ten issues, not seven.  Sensation Comics # 107-109 were in the same weird mystery and fantasy format after Wonder Woman was dropped following # 106 at the end of 1951. But I’d say issues of Sensation Mystery are actually more available than most on this list, although they are significantly tougher to find than issues of Strange Adventures or House of Mystery from the same 1952-53 period.

Another very tough series is Miss Melody Lane # 1-3 from 1950. This is a companion to Miss Beverly Hills # 1-9, most of which are substantially easier to locate. You can go to a lot of major comic conventions and not see a single issue of Miss Melody Lane. I love these humorous books based on film and Broadway, but they are probably among the least popular of the 16 titles we’re covering. Some dealers have been known to lump them in “romance” or “teen humor” boxes, when they don’t really belong in either category.

Not so way out West, the mid-1950s epics Frontier Fighters # 1-8 and Legends of Daniel Boone # 1-8 lasted only as long as the Disney-inspired Davy Crockett craze. Nonetheless, these are highly cool books and fitting companions to the likes of the wonderful Tomahawk. If you’ve never tried Tomahawk, read a few from the 1950s and early 1960s, before the series got out of hand. Some of the best of all DC stories were in Tomahawk before the likes of dinosaurs made the 18th century scene.

Also in a historical vein, Robin Hood Tales # 7-14 are fluffy but wonderful Andru and Esposito efforts. DC did only eight issues; Quality produced # 1-6. DC picked up this title because of the immense popularity of the syndicated Robin Hood television show with the handsome Richard Greene, the best of all Robin Hoods after Errol Flynn.

Likewise, Congo Bill # 1-7 in 1954-55 are highly collectible because Nick Cardy did most or all of the art. The stories, though, aren’t any better than those in Action Comics of the same period, and I always thought Congo Bill was just an excuse for DC to use the ever-popular gorillas in the stories (and, ultimately, to turn Congo Bill into Congorilla).

Quick — which title haven’t we covered yet? You get Michelle’s Brownie Points (worth precisely nothing but laughs) if you say Romance Trail # 1-6 from 1949-50. DC, of course, was just responding to the short-lived western romance craze in comics. Western romance was a huge pulp seller, but for some reason the theme didn’t work in comics. Some of these issues have intriguing early work by the noted portrait painter Everett Raymond Kinstler, who was so beautifully covered and illustrated in Jim Vadeboncoeur’s 2005 collaboration with the artist. If you don’t have Everett Raymond Kinstler, buy it from Bud Plant Comic Art. You will not regret it. It’s simply the best book ever done on an artist who worked in comic books.

So there you have it — DC’s short list. Several of these titles deserved a much better fate. By the way, I consider all three issues of Miss Melody Lane to be as scarce as or scarcer than any of the 106 issues, including Danger Trail # 3. When The Standard Catalog # 4 was published a couple of years ago, only one copy of those three issues had been graded. In contrast, there were nine graded copies of Danger Trail # 3 — and, no doubt, counting!

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.