When was it Published?

It is difficult to determine publication dates for Australian DC reprints as dates were rarely included on the cover or the indicia.

I have developed a set guidelines for dating Australian reprint comics, based on available information, estimates and a lot of assumptions:

• Changing logo and changing prices help to date comics to particular periods. This can then be matched with other known information and estimates. My estimates of these periods form the basis of the Guidelines for dating Australian reprint comics.
• The Mitchell Library in Sydney, NSW, Australia, has a large collection of Australian reprint comics dating from the early to mid-1960. These comics had dates stamped on the cover when they were received by the Library. The dates vary (for example, two consecutive issues can be stamped the same), but show a generally regular pattern of publication. I have standardised dates to develop monthly, bimonthly and quarterly schedules.

  Date codes: Some advertisements include a code to help the advertiser track the source of the coupon. The above code indicates a comic published February 1972. (back cover of Superman Supacomic 150, February 1972)

• "Date Codes" in some advertisements "hidden" in advertisements (see image at side) can be used to precisely date a comic. The codes are consistently in line with other dating information until about mid-1972 (the last valid code on Superman Supacomic is August 1972). Similar codes after that time can be months or years out of date, but at least show the earliest possible publication date.
• Original US publication dates set the earliest possible date for the reprint. However, there is little consistency in how long after US publication the story is reprinted. Up until the 1960s, issues included a wide mix of reprints across several decades—and the most recent story is not necessarily the lead/cover story! The Mitchell Library date stamps suggest some reprints appeared within three to six months of the originals.
• Continuity forced sequential reprints increasingly in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these continued stories seem to have been reprinted quickly after the original US publication where the Australian DC reprint was part of a regular series.
• Hand written or stamped months or full dates were put on some comics by newsagents. These can be either publication dates, but are generally restocking dates two to three months after publication. These dates only give an approximation.
• A copyright year in the indicia first appeared consistently during the 1980s. For series regularly published, they can indicate a publication schedule throughout the year.
• During the change to decimal currency in Australia, dual pricing was printed on covers. The Currency Act 1963 provided a transitional period of one-and-a-half to two years following "C-day", 14th February 1966. It appears that comics included dual pricing from August 1965 until May 1967. More specifically, for most series it appears that from August 1965 to January 1966, the 2/- was dominant; from February 1966 to July 1966, the 20c was dominant; from August 1966 to March 1967 the 2/- was again dominant; with the 20c dominant again in April 1967 to May 1967, before the 20 pricing took over entirely in Jun 1967. Some comics appear to vary from this pattern.
• An advertisement about the Trade Practices Act 1974 appeared in Planet Comics. This appears to have occurred over the six month period, February to July 1975.

Note on the number of pages:

• The advertised number of pages on earlier comics generally included the covers—comics had the front cover unnumbered, but the first story page was numbered "3". Later, the number of pages advertised on the cover excluded the covers (4 pages), and inside a "1" began to appear on the first story page.  The change in approach occurred just before the change to the second Planet Comics logo, around October 1975. (I've wondered if it has something to do with the Trade Practices Act misleading advertising provisions, as all comics included notification of this during 1975).