A post on the official DC Comics instagram page inspired me to read Action Comics #1 for the first time. I’ve read the first Superman story before, of course, but had never gone through that historic first issue in its entirety. Low and behold, however, the Superman story is all that is available here on DCU! I checked Sensation #1 and Detective Comics #27, and they both suffer the same issue (we’re led to believe that DC27 was originally only SEVEN pages long!)
Backup features are one of the quintessential hallmarks of “golden age” comics, and I’m extremely disappointed to discover that this wonderful website seems to have tried to erase them.
How widespread is this? Have I been missing backup features in all of the “silver age” Flash comics I’ve read here? Does anyone know if I can find these stories (in particular the first appearance of Zatara) anywhere else on the site?
Great question!! I agree whole-heartedly with your desire to see the classic backup features.
DC Universe, here is a golden opportunity. We’d love to see these stories.
Oh wait! Is this a question of dated racism? I know comics of all sorts have a dark history of casual racism - this is why we never get a proper physical reprint of the original Monster Society of Evil stories from Captain Marvel. Might the backup stories in Detective have featured some content that would be viewed unfavorably by our modern eyes?
It’s important to note that these digital versions are the ones created for sale on Comixology. The early Superman and Batman stories exist in digital form largely because they were digitized as part of larger anthologies (e.g. Superman: The Golden Age Vol. 1).
That’s unfortunate. I was going to try my luck on Comixology next (I’ve gotten too many viruses from readcomiconline to risk trying to read these comics for free!). Thanks for the timely reply 
I’m pretty sure this is also the logic why we don’t have ads, letter columns, and house ads. Personally, I love all that old stuff, warts and all!
Old comic ads are a weird slice of Americana.
Old letter columns are a unique peek into DC Comics history.
And those old house ads put you right back into the mindset of a kid.
I’d love to see everything scanned.
For the record, at least in Detective Comics, the non-Batman features are actually available starting with #34.
I haven’t noticed any missing backup features outside the early Golden Age. It seems like just a quirk of the generally spotty Golden Age digitization.
One other thing: I don’t know how much control Dan has/exerts over these things, but he has recently expressed confusion over why someone would want to buy a facsimile of an old comic. So there’s that.
I, for one, would love the old letter columns to be included, if nothing else.
I just read Zatanna’s search & I’d been waiting forever for 2 issues to be put on here so it would be complete. Anyways, I checked on fandom & all the missing issues were on here as reprints. I never knew til this morning. Might be able to piece a few together that way? I was missing detective comics #355. It was reprinted in detective comics #336, & The Atom #19 was reprinted in detective comics #438. Might get lucky trying em that way?