Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Action Comics

One of my comic book buying indulgences is sampling facsimile editions of old comics.

These books do not just reprint stories but present the whole package as it originally appeared with ads and letter columns.  Other than the much higher price point, these books appear exactly has they did back in the day.

Normally these facsimiles are done to spotlight something of siginficance such as a first appearance by a character.  

So I imagine my surprise when I saw this facsimile book on the shelves at Acme Comics a couple of months ago.

The book in question is  Action Comics #454. I posted about buying this issue off the rack over 50 years ago.  

The lead story is "Superman's Energy Crisis!" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.   

The Toyman is running around on a crime spree rampage which shouldn't pose much of a problem for the Man of Steel.

Except...

The dude is tired.

Not like emotionally or spiritually tired, like "Man, I can't deal with the Toyman's shit" levels of tired.

No, he's physically exhausted and is forced to consume mass quantities of food to just try to stay awake

And that's just not cutting it! 

Man, I know how you feel, Supes!

But why are you feeling this way?

It seems there's some wonky shit going on at the center of the Earth that's eating up solar energy.

I still have a question: why of all comic books in their vast library did DC Comics deem Action Comics#454 worthy of a facsimile edition?   

Maybe the distinguishing feature for this book is the Atom back up,   "The Campus That Swallowed Itself!"

A sci-fi doo-dad causes Ivy University to be choked by out of control ivy.

Until the Atom saves the day.  

This slight trifle by Marty Pasko and Jose Delbo is not the motivating factor in producing this facsimile edition.

Why Action Comics#454? 

My search of the internet found a lot of people asking the same question but with no real definitive answers.   

The best guess I found was the facsmile was released on April 1st and the abusrdist cover by Bob Oksner was apropo for April Fool's Day.

Speaking of fools, I have spent YEARS referting to artist Bob Oksner as Bob Oskner.  I am only NOW after more than 50 years that I've been foolishly getting his name wrong.  

My apologies to Mr.Oksner.