Showing posts with label Cool Articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cool Articles. Show all posts
Friday, October 20, 2023
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Cool Article: 13 GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS: The Groovy Glory of EARTH-TWO ROBIN By WALT GROGAN
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Original Ending to X-MEN #137 & 138 by Tom Brevoort
But just to quickly recap: creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne were heading towards the climax of their Dark Phoenix storyline, in which founding X-Man Jean Grey had been consumed by her cosmic power and become evil, forcing the other X-Men to combat her. As originally conceived, the idea was that Jean’s cosmic abilities would be stripped from her by the alien Shi’ar, and all would be well. However, Marvel’s Editor in Chief had a problem with that ending, saying that because Dark Phoenix had ben shows obliterating a populated planet, she needed to face the consequences of her actions. After a ton of late-in-the-game negotiating, because the issue was just about due to go to print, and even the subsequent issue was largely finished being penciled, the decision was made instead to kill off Phoenix. This development was a bombshell to fandom, and the frenzy created by this shocking and unexpected twist was the wave that propelled X-MEN from being simply a popular comic book among collectors and turned it into a sales juggernaut, the best-selling title in the Marvel line for more than a decade. So by any objective measure, the decision to change the ending to the story and kill Jean Grey was the correct one. But what would these issues have looked like had that not happened? That’s what we’re here to take a look at. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
History of Elson's Present Super Hero Comics
By Sean Kleefeld
In 1981, Elson's Gift and News paid DC to repackage some of their comics into Elson's Presents Super Heroes Comics. There were six issues, each featuring the same cover (with just a change in background color). The interiors were pulled from existing DC books, including the original ads. The only new material for any of the issues was the Elson's comic style ad on the back covers with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
DC had a similar deal with Lionel Playworld and produced a similar five-issue series with them. Again, using this same cover (with the Playworld logo dropped in where the Elson's one appears here). The interiors, while different, were also pulled from various DC comics from early 1981.
There's curious debate about the interiors. Because the original ads are included, and nearly all of the material comes from January 1981 issues, many people believe these were not in fact reprints at all. Rather, they were returned/remaindered copies of the originals which were literally pulled apart and glued back together with a new cover. A little while back, I talked about how Russ Cochran did something similar a few years later with his EC reprints.
In DC's case, I suspect they were looking to deal with massive overages that came from the rise of the direct market. Newsstand sales, you'll recall, were returnable whereas direct market sales were not. But since the two markets worked side by side for several years, I expect there was a point where direct market sales outstripped newsstand ones and the printing overages were no longer necessary. But in that transition period, DC could well have ended up with thousands more returned comics than they used to see. And while they used to pulp those returned issues, I don't doubt there was a clever DC executive who struck upon this repackaging idea.
That these comics were set up with a generic cover, and a small retailer logo dropped in place, I'm pretty confident it was DC who packaged these up and went to retailers with this set up. Possibly as a variation on those three-comics-in-a-sealed-bag deals you used to find at convenience stores. Given that the whole experiment with both the Elson's and Lionel versions started and ended in 1981 -- and used 1981 issues as their contents -- I suspect it didn't go over very well. Either they were far too costly for the retailers, or for DC itself.
The predominance of the direct market today almost inherently precludes an experiment like this from taking place again. Thanks to the non-returnable nature of direct market sales, publishers simply don't print the huge overruns that they used to. They print exactly what is ordered and no more, so there aren't any extra copies that need to be dealt with at all; never mind having to decide whether to pulp or repackage them.
But I think it's fascinating little nugget of comics history that essentially only could have occurred in a small window when the direct market was really starting to gain traction over newsstands.
Series 1 Reprints: Batman #331, DC Comics Presents #29, The Flash #293
Series 2 Reprints: Ghosts #96, Justice League of America #186, Superman #355
Series 3 Reprints: The New Teen Titans #3, Secrets of Haunted House #32, Wonder Woman #275
Series 4 Reprints: The Brave and the Bold #170, Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Superboy #13
Series 5 Reprints: Green Lantern #136, Legion of Super-Heroes #271
In 1981, Elson's Gift and News paid DC to repackage some of their comics into Elson's Presents Super Heroes Comics. There were six issues, each featuring the same cover (with just a change in background color). The interiors were pulled from existing DC books, including the original ads. The only new material for any of the issues was the Elson's comic style ad on the back covers with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
DC had a similar deal with Lionel Playworld and produced a similar five-issue series with them. Again, using this same cover (with the Playworld logo dropped in where the Elson's one appears here). The interiors, while different, were also pulled from various DC comics from early 1981.
There's curious debate about the interiors. Because the original ads are included, and nearly all of the material comes from January 1981 issues, many people believe these were not in fact reprints at all. Rather, they were returned/remaindered copies of the originals which were literally pulled apart and glued back together with a new cover. A little while back, I talked about how Russ Cochran did something similar a few years later with his EC reprints.
In DC's case, I suspect they were looking to deal with massive overages that came from the rise of the direct market. Newsstand sales, you'll recall, were returnable whereas direct market sales were not. But since the two markets worked side by side for several years, I expect there was a point where direct market sales outstripped newsstand ones and the printing overages were no longer necessary. But in that transition period, DC could well have ended up with thousands more returned comics than they used to see. And while they used to pulp those returned issues, I don't doubt there was a clever DC executive who struck upon this repackaging idea.
That these comics were set up with a generic cover, and a small retailer logo dropped in place, I'm pretty confident it was DC who packaged these up and went to retailers with this set up. Possibly as a variation on those three-comics-in-a-sealed-bag deals you used to find at convenience stores. Given that the whole experiment with both the Elson's and Lionel versions started and ended in 1981 -- and used 1981 issues as their contents -- I suspect it didn't go over very well. Either they were far too costly for the retailers, or for DC itself.
The predominance of the direct market today almost inherently precludes an experiment like this from taking place again. Thanks to the non-returnable nature of direct market sales, publishers simply don't print the huge overruns that they used to. They print exactly what is ordered and no more, so there aren't any extra copies that need to be dealt with at all; never mind having to decide whether to pulp or repackage them.
But I think it's fascinating little nugget of comics history that essentially only could have occurred in a small window when the direct market was really starting to gain traction over newsstands.
Series 1 Reprints: Batman #331, DC Comics Presents #29, The Flash #293
Series 2 Reprints: Ghosts #96, Justice League of America #186, Superman #355
Series 3 Reprints: The New Teen Titans #3, Secrets of Haunted House #32, Wonder Woman #275
Series 4 Reprints: The Brave and the Bold #170, Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Superboy #13
Series 5 Reprints: Green Lantern #136, Legion of Super-Heroes #271
Series 6 Reprints:Actions Comics #515, Mystery in Space #115, Detective Comics #498
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