Super Friends #8

Nov 1977 · DC · 0.35 USD

📊 ~6,153 copies sold its debut month

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“The Mind Killers!”

★ 1st appearance — Tuatara★ 1st appearance — Jack O'Lantern★ 1st appearance — Rising Sun

About this Issue

Super Friends #8 is the second chapter of the landmark three-issue arc (##7–9) that introduced the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, and their space monkey Gleek to comics — characters who had debuted on television just weeks earlier in The All-New Super Friends Hour and who permanently replaced Wendy Harris, Marvin White, and Wonder Dog as the franchise's teen sidekicks. Crucially, this issue delivers five additional first comic-book appearances of international superheroes — Rising Sun, Tuatara, Jack O'Lantern, Bushmaster, and Thunderlord — characters who would later be formally canonized in the DC Universe as the Global Guardians. Writer E. Nelson Bridwell used the three-part story to do something the animated series never could: give the Wonder Twins a fully fleshed-out origin and embed a diverse roster of country-specific heroes into DC continuity, a genuinely novel concept for mainstream superhero publishing in 1977. The arc's lasting contribution to DC lore — global heroism as a structural idea, not just a guest-star gimmick — makes this run one of the more creatively ambitious things to emerge from a licensed, kids-skewing tie-in title of the Bronze Age.

writer E. Nelson Bridwell · artist Ramona Fradon · inker Bob Smith · colorist Liz Berube · letterer Clem Robins · cover Ramona Fradon, Bob Smith

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $14

CGC 9.8 · 4 in census $160*

CGC 9.6 · 5 in census $46

CGC 9.4 · 1 in census $27

CGC 9.2 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 9.0 none in existence

CGC 8.5 none in existence

Show all 19 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 none in existence

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 · 2 in census $20

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 none in existence

CGC 4.0 none in existence

CGC 3.5 none in existence

CGC 3.0 none in existence

CGC 2.5 none in existence

CGC 2.0 none in existence

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

Raw — VF/NM $33 1 listing Raw — VF $45.5 1 listing Raw — FN+ $28 1 listing Raw — FN $25.98 1 listing Raw — VG $13.5 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $9.5–$54.25 7 listings

Raw / ungraded $9.5 Raw / ungraded $13 Raw / ungraded $15 Raw / ungraded $19.95 Newsstand $39.72 Raw / ungraded $45.49 Raw / ungraded $54.25

Verified matches for Super Friends #8 · eBay asking prices, seen 23 days ago

More listings for this title

SUPER FRIENDS (Vol 1, 1977) #8 DC Comics MID GRADE Global Guardians SUPERMAN $14.99

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History

The entire Super Friends series was written by E. Nelson Bridwell, DC's in-house editor and continuity expert, with pencils by Ramona Fradon and inks by Bob Smith, under the managing editorship of Joe Orlando and story editor Denny O'Neil. Issue #8 hit newsstands on August 17, 1977 — roughly five weeks after the Wonder Twins' comic debut in #7 (on sale July 12) and just days after their television premiere on September 10 — meaning the comics production calendar actually put Zan, Jayna, and Gleek into print before audiences saw them animated. Bridwell deliberately used the three-part Grax storyline to explain the generational handoff from Wendy and Marvin to the Wonder Twins, a narrative transition the TV series left entirely unaddressed. Starting with this issue, Super Friends also shifted to a true monthly schedule.

Trivia · 8 facts

Super Friends #8 (cover date November 1977; on sale August 17, 1977) is Part 2 of a three-issue story titled 'The Mind Killers,' continued from #7 and concluded in #9.
The issue contains the first comic-book appearances of five future Global Guardians: Rising Sun (Japan), Tuatara (New Zealand), Jack O'Lantern/Daniel Cormac (Ireland), Bushmaster (Venezuela), and Thunderlord (Taiwan).
Zan, Jayna, and Gleek appear in this issue as part of their debut arc, though their actual first comic appearance is Super Friends #7 (on sale July 12, 1977); #8 is their second comic appearance.
The story is written by E. Nelson Bridwell with pencils by Ramona Fradon and inks by Bob Smith — the same creative team responsible for the entire foundational run of the series.
The plot has the Wonder Twins coordinating from the JLA Satellite while paired Justice Leaguers race international heroes against a countdown to disarm five of Grax's twelve 'amnesia bombs' hidden across the globe.
The international heroes introduced across the full arc (##7–9) were not formally named the Global Guardians in this series; that designation came later in mainstream DC continuity, though this storyline is widely recognized as their unofficial first appearance.
The issue has been reprinted in Super Friends! (DC, 2001), Showcase Presents: Super Friends Vol. 1 (DC, 2014), and The Super Friends: Saturday Morning Comics Vol. 1 (DC, 2020).
Beginning with this issue, the Super Friends title transitioned to a monthly publication schedule.