Hayfamzone Visits Newsarama!

Yes, you read that title correctly: Hayfamzone Visits Newsarama! What could it mean? Such mystery! Doesn't it evoke in you the same great expectations you had when you first heard the title Superman vs. Spider-Man? Or The Uncanny X-Men And The New Teen Titans? Well, don't get your hopes up too high because today's blogging tidbit might just a few notches below those two epics on the momentousness scale. I'll spill the details shortly, but first let's rewind the old dial just about thirty years.

In November of 1976, DC Comics inaugurated a toll-free phone number for fans to call. It may have been called the Direct Currents Hotline, but my memory is murky (and the only reason I'm stating the month and year with some confidence is because I found that information posted on a very interesting website entitled DC Timeline). Once a week a new recorded message was ready to be heard. Somebody different every week would read off the latest news scoops, but my memory is REALLY blurry. I'm fairly sure I remember that Julius Schwartz and Paul Levitz and Joe Orlando all took a turn, but if anyone kept a list of the message-readers I hope you will please share that list! I believe the Hotline lasted at least three months, and DC discontinued it because it was getting too many calls. The Hotline was replaced by a monthly fold-out pamphlet mailing that lasted about a year.

What's with all the thirty-year-old blah-blah, you chirp? Just a little lesson, grasshopper, about how difficult it was to gather information in the pre-internet age. Things are so much easier now!
Newsarama is a great resource for comics fans, and I am pleased to maintain it as a permanent link right here on this page. I don't even mind telling you that I keep www.newsarama.com as the home page on my office computer.

Well, those who register on the Newsarama website are able to post responses to the online articles that appear there. Usually I just read the artcles and move on but this week, for only the second time ever, I posted a response! It had to do with an article about DC Comics 52 and you can read that article if you click here. My response is #73 in the list and you can get to it by scrolling down this page.

So that was my little visit to Newsarama this week.