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- Superman Family was a DC Comics comic book series which ran from 1974 to 1982 featuring primarily stories starring supporting characters in the Superman comics. The term is often used to refer to the extended cast of characters (especially super-powered ones) of comics books associated with Superman. The title was an amalgamation of the titles Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, along with the first series of Supergirl, therefore immediately becoming DC's flagship title with the highest sales for the remainder. The first issue, #164, took its numbering from Jimmy Olsen, which had reached issue #163 and thus had the most issues published (Lois Lane ended at #137, while the newly-launched Supergirl book had only made it to #10). Superman Family went through two distinct phases. In its inception the three leads Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Supergirl rotated new stories each issue with reprints for the other characters. Readers could tell who was going to get the new material by looking to the left of the main art frame on the cover. There, they'd see small images of Lois, Jimmy, and Supergirl. The top character was the one whose story was new. In 1976, Superman Family became the first DC Comics 80-page Dollar Comic, consisting of 64 pages of new stories. In 1977, beginning with issue #182, the "framing element" was removed from the covers, and the book rarely saw reprinted material again. It became a monthly series in 1980 starting with issue #207. Other featured series in addition to Lois Lane (#s 166,169,172,175,178,181-222), Supergirl (#s 165,168,171,174,177,180,182-222), and Jimmy Olsen (#s 164,167,170,173,176,179,182-222) included: "Superboy" (#182,191-196) — The adventures of the Earth-One Superman as a teenage super-hero. This series continued from Adventure Comics #458 and led to the feature leaving the title for its own in 1980, The New Adventures of Superboy. "The Private Life of Clark Kent" (#195-199, 201-215) — The adventures of Clark Kent in which he used his powers and skills without becoming Superman. This feature had moved over from Superman after issue #328 of that series. "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" (#195-199, 201-222) — The adventures of the Earth-Two Superman and his wife, Lois. This feature had moved from Superman after issue #329 of that series. "Krypto" (#182-192) — the adventures of Superman's dog "Nightwing and Flamebird" (#182-194) — the adventures of the second Nightwing and Flamebird team of heroes (Van-Zee and Ak-Var) in the Bottled City of Kandor. DC published several other ... Family titles concurrent with Superman Family. These included Batman Family (1975-78), Super-Team Family (1975-1978) and Tarzan Family (1975-76). As a rule, DC's ... Family titles contained mostly reprints, and featured a higher page count (and higher price) than DC's normal books. (Years later, Marvel Comics paid homage to DC's ... Family titles with their 2004-present Spider-Man Family. ) In 1982, with issue #222, Superman Family series was cancelled to make room for Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which briefly featured a Lois Lane back-up series. The Doom Patrol appeared alongside Supergirl in issues of both series.
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