The Buyer’s Guide #71
December 1, 1974
84 pages, 4 sections ? Cover by Alan “Jim” Hanley
Includes Beautiful Balloons #28 (actually, #26) by Don and Maggie Thompson
This issue reprinted several mainstream media articles about the new ?respectability? of comic books. ?Comic books go legitimate as sales soar,? shouted one headline from the Chicago Tribune. ?Archie and Jughead help little Johnny learn to read.? The ?soaring sales? referred to an estimate in the article that 3.5 readers read each of the 100 million comic books in circulation at any given time.
Canada?s first comic-book company in many years was announced, as Comely Comics launched Captain Canuck.
Alan “Jim” Hanley’s cover for #71 was his third, but by no means his last. He also drew many, many interior strips for TBG before his untimely death in 1980.
This was TBG‘s largest issue yet, eclipsing the previous issue by four pages.
Note for archivists: The generally meticulous Thompsons, who numbered every Beautiful Balloons column, skipped from #25 to #28 with this issue. Working backwards, they came back to hit #27 in issue #73 and #26 in #75.
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Commentary by John Jackson Miller.
Special thanks to Russ Maheras for additional commentary and cover scans!
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Covers are depicted for identification purposes. Characters depicted are © their respective owners.
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