Steve Topper
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posted May 06, 2003 12:27 AM
  
The following is an article written by John Wells aka Mikishawm on these message boards: quote:
What happened on June 22, 1978 may possibly be (one of) the most significant events of the year." That line, which opened a news article in THE COMIC READER # 159 (August, 1978), proved completely accurate. In the midst of a heavily promoted expansion of their comics line, DC was forced to cancel an astonishing seventeen titles and put the brakes to still more forthcoming new titles. The expansion had been referred to as "The DC Explosion" but its fate would cause it to enter the history books as "The DC Implosion."
The purpose of the "Explosion" had been to beef up the amount of story pages in DC's comic books. The average issue for much of the 1950s and 1960s had contained twenty-five pages of story and seven pages of editorial content and advertising. The ratio had been shifting since the late 1960s. As the story content was shrinking, the price of an average comic had begun to rise, first to 12 cents, then to 15 cents. By 1971, the 20 cent comic seemed to be inevitable.
DC publisher Carmine Infantino countered with a radical idea and bypassed the 20 cent price altogether. Instead, he offered a 25 cent comic book with significantly more pages of story. Effective with books going on sale in June of 1971 (cover-dated August), all of DC's comics expanded from thirty-two pages to forty-eight. The number of story pages (then set at twenty-two) rose back to twenty-five within a few months. An additional twelve to fifteen pages of reprints filled out each issue.
Scrambling to keep up with this development, Marvel adopted the 25 cent format at the end of the summer in issues cover-dated November. Unlike DC, the average Marvel book of that month contained thirty-four new story pages but, with a few exceptions, no reprints. Marvel got cold feet on the whole idea and fell back to the standard thirty-two page issue (with a subsequent average of twenty-one story pages). They did not, however, return to the old price. Marvels now cost 20 cents.
Ultimately, with sales dropping and virtually every other segment of the comics industry undercutting them, DC abandoned the experiment after eleven months and returned to the thirty-two page comic book (now priced 20 cents) with July 1972-dated issues. Infantino still liked the new/reprint fusion and instituted a variation on the idea in 1974-1975. A select group of books was expanded into one-hundred page giants, with twenty pages of new story and dozens more of reprints. Though fondly remembered, this experiment was also abandoned after little more than a year.
By the time Jenette Kahn took over as DC's publisher in 1976, the average comic book contained only seventeen pages of story for 35 cents. Nearly half of each issue was filled with advertising and editorial content. Kahn's initial move to reverse this trend was 1977's line of Dollar Comics. In terms of content, a Dollar Comic gave readers approximately the story pages of four 35 cent comic books for the price of three. The initial experiments with the line worked well enough to expand it further in 1978 with THE BATMAN FAMILY and, at the dawn of the DC Explosion, ADVENTURE COMICS.
DC entered 1978 with high hopes for the future. Of all the events planned for the year, few were as eagerly anticipated as the big-budget "Superman: The Movie" that was slated for a June premiere. That release date dovetailed nicely with Kahn's plans to increase the page-count in the average DC book to forty-eight pages. This time, however, the material would all be new and the story pages would jump from seventeen back to twenty-five. The price for the new package would be a steep 50 cents.
The initial line-up for June's DC Explosion was almost immediately altered when the Superman movie was postponed until December. Several tie-ins, including a reprint of SUPERMAN # 1, a new tabloid story detailing "Superman's Life Story" and a "World of Krypton" three-parter in SHOWCASE were all pulled until the film's release.
That disappointment failed to dim anyone's enthusiasm and the spring of 1978 saw dozens of house ads touting the forthcoming new features, most notably a nice full page drawing by Joe Staton. Behind the scenes, DC was continuing to make schedule changes. The developments were coming so furiously that a text page in the first wave of 50 cent comics ("The Answer Man's Guide to the DC Explosion") was already outdated by the time it saw print.
By April of 1978, several marginal titles had been cancelled: AQUAMAN, MISTER MIRACLE, NEW GODS, THE SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS and SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN. With the spring shakedown behind them, DC confidentally introduced their expanded line-up in early June. On the 22nd of that month, the ax fell.
DC had been purchased by Kinney National Service in 1968 and Kinney, in turn, was bought by Warner Communications soon after. Warner had become concerned about the shrinking sales on their comic book line and resolved to do something about it. At this point, the direct sales market played a minimal role in the comics field. It was magazine distributors who held the real power. As related in THE COMIC READER # 158, Warner had instituted "a massive overhaul of the distribution process. Basically, this involves getting a much greater percentage of the copies that are printed displayed on the nation's newsstands, working more closely with local distributors and wholesalers."
"The people at Warner feel that the new system of distribution should be given a chance with DCs looking like the rest of the industry's books, since there will be some risk of alienating wholesalers. So, beginning in September (books cover dated December), all DCs that are not dollar books will be 32 pages with 17 pages of story again, but now for 40 cents."
"DC and their parent company feel that the decrease in volume will relieve the glut on the stands that has existed since 1969 and enable them to build the paid circulations of their long-time best-sellers that the distributors know and feel an affinity for."
To provide consistency to the DC line, all of the thirty-two page books were promoted to monthly status. Books whose sales did not justify being a monthly and the new titles whose sales had not yet been proven were cancelled. Consequently, another twenty-three comics met their demise, including six that never even saw their first issue published.
Given the abrupt cancellations, there had been a great deal of material ready for publication. Those stories were collected into two xeroxed publications entitled CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE and provided to the creators who had work therein. It was small consolation to the writers and artists who'd lost their regular assignments -- in some cases, their only assignments.
Exactly two years later, DC tried the line expansion again, raising the cover price from 40 cents to 50 cents. This time, everything clicked, thanks in part to the fact that Marvel simultaneously raised the price of its own comics to 50 cents. By the end of 1980, DC even had a certified hit to its credit in the form of THE NEW TEEN TITANS. Buoyed by its success, they were finally able to put the DC Implosion behind them.
The following is an attempt at tracing the eventual homes of all the other comics scheduled for publication in 1978. News items originally reported in THE COMIC READER # 145, 146 and 153-159 were particularly useful in putting it all together.
ACTION COMICS # 490's Air Wave back-up appeared in # 511 (1980). The script for # 491's Atom story was illustrated and expanded from eight pages to ten for WORLD'S FINEST # 260 (1979).
Before ADVENTURE COMICS began accumulating material intended for other books (New Gods, Aquaman, Justice Society), it had scheduled the Metal Men (by Gerry Conway and Ramona Fradon), Roger McKenzie and Don Newton's "The Man Called Neverwhere" and a Steve Gerber-scripted Doctor Fate three-parter.
ALL-NEW COLLECTORS' EDITION's Justice League 72-pager was broken apart in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 210-212. "Superman's Life Story", planned to coincide with the June (then December) release of the feature film finally saw print in ACTION COMICS # 500 in mid-1979.
Material intended for 1978's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tabloid (including "Will a Stitch In Time Save Christmas ?" and "The Secret of the Lucky Dragon's Egg") appeared one year later in the digest, BEST OF DC # 4. Five pages of puzzles slated for the tabloid were published in Robin Snyder's THE COMICS (volume 7) # 12 (1996). At least one other unpublished Rudolph story, the sixteen-page "A Whale of a Christmas Visit" exists. Its first and last panels appear in THE COMICS (volume 5) # 12 (1994).
The contents of ALL-STAR COMICS # 75 were split into a two-part Justice Society story published in ADVENTURE COMICS # 461-462. A three page prologue was added to the first part while the issue's unused cover became a splash page for # 462's conclusion, depicting the death of the Golden Age Batman.
AQUAMAN # 64 was shaved of four pages and published in ADVENTURE COMICS # 460, bumping the new "Man Called Neverwhere" series. Two never-completed back-ups for AQUAMAN were to have featured the Vigilante (by Roger McKenzie and Gray Morrow) and Martian Manhunter (by Cary Burkett, John Fuller and Bruce Patterson). The Martian Manhunter strip was tentatively rescheduled for ADVENTURE COMICS # 461-463 but never appeared.
The cover intended for ARMY AT WAR # 2 later appeared on SGT. ROCK # 382 (1983).
BATMAN # 306 crunched its lead story from seventeen pages to fifteen while the full-length episode in # 308 was reduced from twenty-five pages to twenty-three. Issue # 307's "Public Life of Bruce Wayne" back-up surfaced in DETECTIVE COMICS # 483 while # 309's "Unsolved Cases of The Batman" story appeared in DETECTIVE # 484 (1979).
DETECTIVE COMICS, the comic book from which DC took its name, was actually among the comic books cancelled in the purge. Fortunately, someone suggested that the more successful BATMAN FAMILY book be merged with the long-running title. THE BATMAN FAMILY # 21 and 22's contents appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS # 481 and 482.
BATTLE CLASSICS # 2 was to have reprinted OUR ARMY AT WAR # 140's "Brass Sergeant" while issue # 3 would probably have featured OUR ARMY AT WAR # 115's "Rock's Battle Family." The covers for both issues were used as pin-ups in DC SPECIAL BLUE RIBBON DIGEST # 18 (1981).
DC's digest comic, THE BEST OF DC, which had been "tentatively scheduled for August" was delayed until the summer of 1979.
The Black Lightning story from BLACK LIGHTNING # 12 appeared uncut in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS # 260 (1979). The Ray backup for the issue, reprising the hero's origin, appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1. The Ray strip had been scheduled to end in # 13, replaced by Steve Ditko's "Odd Man" in # 14. The covers for BLACK LIGHTNING # 12 and 13 appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1.
THE BRAVE & THE BOLD # 145-147's Human Target back-ups appeared in DETECTIVE # 483, 484 and 486 (1979).
The contents of CLAW THE UNCONQUERED # 13-14, in which the barbarian presumably regained the hand he lost in # 12, appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1. The "official" story of how Claw regained his appendage appeared in 1981's WARLORD # 48-49 (by Paul Levitz and Tom Yeates).
The twenty-five page stories prepared for DC COMICS PRESENTS # 4 and 5 were each edited into twenty-three page installments.
DC SPECIAL SERIES' planned Green Lantern/Green Arrow giant was split into a two-parter published in 1978's GREEN LANTERN # 111-112. Likewise, a Superboy/Legion story was divided between 1979's SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES # 250 and 251, albeit slashed from its original 64 pages to only 42.
DEMAND CLASSICS # 1 was to have reprinted "Flash of Two Worlds" (FLASH # 123) while # 2 would have featured "The Ghost of Ferro Lad" (ADVENTURE # 357). The covers for both issues appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
DETECTIVE COMICS # 481's Hawkman backup was used in WORLD'S FINEST # 256. Len Wein's never-completed episode for # 482 would have featured the Gentleman Ghost and led into a Batman-Hawkman team-up in BATMAN # 310. Instead, Hawkman was simply written out of the Batman story.
DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE # 6-9's episodes appeared in UNEXPECTED # 190, 192, 194 and 195 and further stories had been scripted but never illustrated. A Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers installment appeared in 1981's MADAME XANADU # 1.
DYNAMIC CLASSICS # 2 was to have featured "Planet of the Angels" (SUPERMAN # 236) while # 3 would have been "The Man With No Heart" (PHANTOM STRANGER # 14). Backups in the two issues would have been the Manhunter installments from DETECTIVE # 438 and 439. A one-page Berni Wrightson reprint, "The Hound of Night" (UNEXPECTED # 121) was also to have appeared in # 2. Issue # 3's cover appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
Although FIRESTORM # 6 appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1, Gerry Conway eventually used that issue's villain, Typhoon, in a new story in THE FLASH # 294-296 in late 1980.
THE FLASH # 268's Kid Flash backup, which led directly into # 269's Flash/Kid Flash team-up, appeared in issue # 325 (1983), edited so that Gail Manners became her previously unseen sister, Jill. A new eighth page eliminated the cliffhanger. Not explained was why Wally West wasn't suffering a severe case of deja vu, having experienced the same events with Gail a few years earlier (flashbacks from the story had appeared at the beginning of # 269). Issue # 269, incidentally, was another twenty-five page story condensed to twenty-three pages.
GREEN LANTERN # 111-113's Green Lantern Corps back-up appeared in # 130-132 (1980).
Following its cancellation with # 154, HOUSE OF SECRETS was merged with THE WITCHING HOUR and DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE in THE UNEXPECTED, which was expanded to Dollar Comic size to accommodate the changes. The inventory from the books began to appear with UNEXPECTED # 189.
More twenty-five page stories that were trimmed into twenty-three pagers appeared in JONAH HEX # 19-21 and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 161-162. JLA, in fact, continued to maintain a twenty-two page story length through issue # 165 although no art was cut from those later issues.
The lead story in KAMANDI # 60 would have sent the last boy on Earth "Into the Vortex", where, according to the cover copy, he would "see a thousand Kamandis on a thousand worlds." Issue # 61 was to have integrated a Jack Kirby-illustrated Sandman story, first slated for 1975's SANDMAN # 7. The contents of both issues appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
A resolution of sorts for the series was prepared for THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD # 157 (1979), in which Kamandi was temporarily dropped out of the vortex into the twentieth century. Meanwhile, after striking out twice, Kirby's Sandman story finally made it into print in THE BEST OF DC # 22 (1981).
The OMAC story from KAMANDI # 60 ended up in WARLORD # 37 (1980). The next two installments of the story, which presumably had been prepared in 1978 by Jim Starlin, appeared in WARLORD # 38-39.
LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION # C-61's original contents would have been "Menace of the Dragonfly Raiders" (BRAVE & BOLD # 42), "The Hundred Dollar Deal" (ALL-STAR WESTERN # 11), "Must There Be a Superman?" (SUPERMAN # 247) and "No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" (GREEN LANTERN # 76).
MEN OF WAR was forced to return from a three-feature book to two features as its two back-up features began rotating with one another. The immediate result found the Enemy Ace story intended for MEN OF WAR # 11 pushed back one issue in favor of "Dateline: Frontline." A Blackhawk trilogy by Len Wein and Howard Chaykin announced for the book in early 1978 was abandoned.
MISTER MIRACLE # 26 was to have featured "Freedom Is A Four Letter Word" (by Len Wein and Michael Golden) and a Big Barda backup (by Steve Gerber and Joe Orlando). Only Golden's cover, seen in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2, was completed.
NEW GODS # 20 was cut in two pieces for ADVENTURE COMICS # 459 and 460.
OUR FIGHTING FORCES # 182's Losers story eventually appeared in UNKNOWN SOLDIER # 265 (1982) while its Captain Storm story was in G.I. COMBAT # 213 (1979). The HQ: Confidential episode ("The Missile Jockey") was never published. Although Bob Kanigher had written a script for # 183's lead story ("No Exit For a Loser"), it was never illustrated (cited in CHRIS PEDRIN'S BIG FIVE).
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS # 16-18 was to have featured the conclusion to the Freedom Fighters/Silver Ghost war that had been left unresolved since the FF's own book was cancelled. None of it made it into print and only # 16 and 17 were even illustrated (appearing in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2). The details of the story, including # 18's climax, were related in DC COMICS PRESENTS # 62's text page. Other loose ends from the book were dealt with in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 166-168.
A Captain Comet backup strip had been planned for the book, alternating with villain origins. Issue # 17's back-up (also left unillustrated) would have revealed the origin of the new Star Sapphire and was described in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 174's letter column.
SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN # 9 would have plunged its title character into the Zero Zone where, according to the Daily Planet page in DC COMICS PRESENTS # 2, he would "confront one of his most deadly foes," forcing him to seek help from "a malevolent being who seeks his destruction." "The Deadly Ally" appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2. A resolution to Shade's battle with Doctor Z, left unresolved in SHADE # 8, was finally depicted in SUICIDE SQUAD # 16 (1988). "The Odd Man" back-up story slated for SHADE # 9 ("The Pharaoh and the Mummies") was rescheduled for the ultimately unpublished BLACK LIGHTNING # 14. After an appearance in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2, an edited version of the story was finally released to the general public in DETECTIVE COMICS # 487 (1979).
SHOWCASE # 105's Deadman story appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS # 465 (1979), minus two pages and its cover. Issue # 106 was slated to star the Creeper in a twenty-page opus by Steve Ditko that found Jack Ryder's Creeper alter-ego imperiled while fighting a villain named Doctor Storme. The issue appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2 as did an uncut version of # 105.
A trilogy featuring popular Justice Society member, the Huntress, had been scheduled for SHOWCASE # 107-109 but was replaced by a new western strip, the Deserter. By the time the decision was made, the Huntress story's placement had been mentioned in a house ad seen in several September cover-dated comic books, thus contributing to the myth that at least part of the serial had been completed.
The Deserter, in turn, was given his own ongoing title at the eleventh hour only to perish amidst the other cancellations. The origin of tormented Civil War deserter Aaron Hope (by Gerry Conway, Dick Ayers and Romeo Tanghal) appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1.
Initially scheduled for SHOWCASE # 104-106 to coincide with the June premiere of "Superman: The Movie", "World of Krypton" was rescheduled to issues # 110-112 when the film's release date was moved to December. Ultimately, "World of Krypton" was released under its own name in the summer of 1979, one year after it was first to have appeared. Despite the fact that SHOWCASE and books like it had been featuring short-run strips for years, the release of WORLD OF KRYPTON under its own name awakened publishers to the potential of the mini-series concept, certainly the most significant repercussion of SHOWCASE's cancellation.
A revamped version of Suicide Squad created by Len Wein had been slated for release in March-June, 1979 in SHOWCASE # 113-116.
The Adam Strange backup intended for STAR HUNTERS # 8 was briefly rescheduled for ADVENTURE COMICS # 467 (1979). After being bumped from that book for a new incarnation of Starman, the twice-spurned episode was finally used in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS # 263 (1980). Its sequel, written for STAR HUNTERS # 9, was finally illustrated in 1980 and used in GREEN LANTERN # 132.
STAR HUNTER # 8's never-completed lead feature was advertised in # 7 as "the final battle with the Corporation." It would have been written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Rick Buckler and Tom Sutton.
Mike Grell's STARSLAYER had been scheduled for a late fall debut. Instead it remained in the possession of its creator and appeared at the dawn of Pacific Comics' line in 1981.
Roy Thomas wove excerpts from STEEL, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN # 6 into ALL-STAR SQUADRON # 8-9 (1982). Don Heck's pencils were reinked or completely redrawn by Jerry Ordway. The original version of the story appeared only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
A revival of the science fiction anthology title, STRANGE ADVENTURES, was stopped in its tracks before any material could be prepared for the book. When DC returned to its plans in 1979, the series was expanded from a standard format book into a Dollar Comic now titled TIME WARP.
SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES # 246 had two pages of story cut from its contents while # 247 lost three. There were two more twenty-five page Legion issues, intended as bookends to a never published issue of DC SPECIAL SERIES. The first appeared in issues # 248 and 249 with a newly-added cliffhanger and splash page. After the recycled DC SPECIAL SERIES tale appeared (in # 250-251), the stories prepared for the latter issue were used as the lead in # 252 and back-up in # 257.
SUPER FRIENDS # 15's Wonder Twins episode appeared in # 29 (1979) while # 16's installment was completed for use in # 34 (1980).
SUPERMAN # 330's story was reduced to twenty-three pages while the "Private Life of Clark Kent" and "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" back-ups intended for # 331 and 332 were used in SUPERMAN FAMILY # 195.
Marty Pasko's fall revival of SWAMP THING didn't come to fruition until early 1982. Joe Orlando had "been mentioned as the artist" for the 1978 book but Tom Yeates ended up with the assigment three and a half years later.
After being touted in house ads during the summer, details regarding THE VIXEN # 1 appeared in a Daily Planet text page in BATMAN # 305 and THE FLASH # 267. Ultimately, "Who Is The Vixen ?" was printed only in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2. In 1985, Gerry Conway recycled elements of the Vixen's origin for use in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 234 and 239.
The back-up series in VIXEN was originally to have been a Bob Haney creation known as Matt Treadway. He would have debuted in # 2. Instead, Bob Rozakis' Harlequin was slated as the back-up series but the story never made it beyond the script stage.
WEIRD MYSTERY TALES # 25's "Talisman of the Serpent" (including the cover) appeared in SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE # 20. The eventual home of "The Long Arm of The Law" was HOUSE OF MYSTERY # 286. The covers for # 25 and 26 appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
The "Cinnamon" back-up story intended for WEIRD WESTERN TALES # 50 has never appeared.
WESTERN CLASSICS # 1 and 2 would have split Bat Lash's debut from SHOWCASE # 76. The balance of the two issues would have been Johnny Thunder in "The Silent Gun" (ALL STAR WESTERN # 105) and "The Origin of Johnny Thunder" (ASW # 108). The covers for both issues appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2.
Following # 85, THE WITCHING HOUR was merged with HOUSE OF SECRETS and DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE in THE UNEXPECTED, beginning with # 189. WITCHING HOUR # 86's cover and lead story ("Dracula's Daughter") were used in UNEXPECTED # 199 while its other contents appeared in UNEXPECTED # 197 ("A Pound of Flesh...and Blood"), 213 ("Bring Me Back to Life") and SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE # 34 ("Haunt of Hate").
After the "Amazons" installment in WONDER WOMAN # 250 ("Siege of Thunder"), Steve Ditko was to have taken over the art chores on the series (DIRECT CURRENTS NEWSLETTER # 6). Neither episode ever appeared although plot threads from the series were partially dealt with in WONDER WOMAN # 252 and 253 late in 1978.
CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE CONTENTS
For those who couldn't keep track in the preceding article, here's a quick rundown of the exact contents of the two issues of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE. Note that GREEN TEAM # 2 and 3, PREZ # 5 and the cover to RAGMAN # 6 were older inventory material and hadn't been scheduled for release in 1978.
CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 1:
Black Lightning # 12, plus the cover to # 13
Claw the Unconquered # 13 and 14
The Deserter # 1
Doorway To Nightmare # 6
Firestorm # 6
Green Team # 2 and 3
CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE # 2:
Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth # 60 and 61 (integrated with The Sandman # 7)
Prez # 5
The Secret Society of Super-Villains # 16 and 17 (lead story)
Shade, The Changing Man # 9
Showcase # 105 and 106
Steel, The Indestructible Man # 6
The Vixen # 1
Also included in the second issue were the covers to Army At War # 2, Battle Classics # 3, Demand Classics # 1 and 2, Dynamic Classics # 3, Mister Miracle # 26, Ragman # 6, Weird Mystery Tales # 25 and 26 and Western Classics # 1 and 2.
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