I have a particular fondness for DC Silver Age Comics, and I think that part of my affection for that era of DC comics is related to the infamous “Go-Go Checks”. For those who don’t know, the GGC’s were a horizontal strip of black and white checkerboard, and were a feature of the cover of all DC comics published from early 1966 through mid 1967.  Apparently their purpose was to make the comics seem more hip, and align with the mod culture which was popular at the time. They were placed at the top of the cover so that they might be seen even if they were behind other books on the newsstand. This was probably the first, rather clumsy attempt to stand out and compete with the upstart Marvel, which was rapidly gaining market share from DC at the time. Apparently a lot of readers thought they were ugly, gimmicky, and detracted from the artwork. Likely for that reason, they only lasted for about a year and a half. 

Even though they were unpopular with most fans, years later I came to love the GGC’s. It was a few years after I started collecting, and the reason was that my best friend and comic book buddy Barry had come by a large collection of silver age comics, many of which were DC comics with the GGC’s. He came by them in a dream scenario. He told me: “One day my dad came home from work and told me he wanted me to meet someone. We got in the car and drove to a nondescript house. My dad introduced me to a friendly older man, and he told us to meet him in his garage. He pulled out 2 or 3 fairly large boxes, and they were full of silver age comics in great condition. Dad asked if I was interested in the books and I said yes. He asked which ones and I said all of them!! The guy ended up selling them to me for a nickel apiece! I said thank you so many times it was almost embarrassing.” 

My friend’s good fortune ended up being mine as well, because now I had access to a treasure trove of books I had never seen before. There was definitely something to DC’s GGC marketing, because I immediately gravitated to those books  — they were the ones I wanted to read. I don’t know exactly how many there were in that collection, but I would guess at least 70 or 80, and I read them all. That era of DC was full of cheesy, gimmicky stories that were very different than the Bronze Age Marvel and DC books that I had been reading at the time. Imaginary stories, lots of gorillas and monkeys on the covers, and contrived twist endings to the stories were staples in those books, and I loved it all. Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen was the one that had more of those features than almost any other, and it became a particular favorite of mine. I eventually started collecting silver age DC’s myself, although unklike the other comics I collected, I always looked for books in rough condition with a bargain price. The books with GGC’s on it were ones I sought above all others.

As you can probably tell from the sample covers above, the stories were silly and unsophisticated, but that was what I loved about them. I enjoyed them in the same way I enjoyed reruns of the Batman TV show with Adam West: I knew they were ridiculous but I felt like I was in on the joke. The more absurd the premise, the more I liked it. And if there was a GGC on the cover, you could count on finding a story that fit that bill. 

Jeff Mara