Over two dozen different titles were forced onto the chopping block during the '78 implosion that DC comics suffered. Twenty of those titles were ongoing, and monthly sales dictated who would stay and who would go. This made things awkward for the publisher, as Detective Comics was a low-seller at the time, but as a legacy book, represented the origins of DC as a publisher and was even the place where one of their flagship characters, Batman, was introduced. Sentimental editors made their case, and 'Tec was saved. However, the same couldn't be said for many of the others.
I'm going to take this space to provide a capsule review for each of the lost Implosion titles. My expertise in different areas of DC vary pretty wildly, but with resources like Wiki and Comic Book Database at my side, we can slowly but surely paint a more complete picture of DC's publishing line at the time and maybe speculate on why these particular books didn't make the cut at the time.
For example, some titles may have just been showing their age. Antholgies started to fade in popularity at this time, as character focused books and longer storylines played hell with the format. DC's spooky anthology The Witching Hour met its end in Oct '78 with #85. "More Bewitching Pages!" promises the banner atop the title on the cover, in line with the Explosion initiative that contributed to this whole jam in the first place. The remaining anthology entries that would have appeared here merged into The Unexpected, but that title wasn't long for this world either.
Looking at the cancellations chronologically, August is ground zero. Aquaman, Claw, The Unconquered, Mister Miracle, and Shade, The Changing Man were the first wave of titles to go. By the time of its final issue (#63), Aquaman had already been relegated to bi-monthly status, coming out 6 times a year rather than a dozen. This is also true of several of the other cancelled titles, and indicitive of their place in DC's late 70's cosmology. It's not surprising to see Aquaman at the front of one of these lists since he has traditionally had problems maintaining a monthly series and DC has even gone long spells without a monthly Aquaman book. The second part of the story that begins here, "My Brothers Keeper", ended up appearing in Adventure Comics, where the Prince of Atlantis would once again make his home as a back-up feature.
Claw, The Unconquered is perhaps the most unfortunate case in the August cancellations. Claw had been revived just a few months prior after an 18-month hiatus. David Michelinie's Conan clone hacked his last slash with issue 12. One might start to notice a disturbing trend at this point: genre books outside of the usual capes and tights stuff are on the low end of the totem pole when it comes to these cancellations. There was clear pressure from DC's decision makers to streamline the brand and (I have to imagine) a hard stop put on things that might be a little too "left of center", with the "center" being the Justice League and their assorted Super Friends.
There's a lame joke hidden inside the premise of Mister Miracle's Scott Free not being able to escape cancellation. One of the last remnants of Kirby's fling with DC had since been taken over by future Kirby ally and Howard the Duck co-creator Steve Gerber. The incomparable Micheal Golden was on art chores for this final issue, which saw the escape artist super hero pitted against his wife, both under the thrall of Granny Goodness. This particular cancellation seems unfair, as the creative team is sooo good. I suppose that the Fourth World and the Kirby aesthetic in general was starting to wane in popularity.
Speaking of Marvel legends who found new inspiration at DC, Steve Ditko's Shade, the Changing Man met its end with issue #8, "The Gambles!" In light of the enigmatic Mr. Ditko's recent passing, I feel the same pang of regret with this series' cancellation that I did with Mister Miracle. The saga of the Odd Man, the Zero Zone Murders, and Dr. Z would have to settle themselves elsewhere. In the case of Shade, Detective Comics (itself barely surviving the cut) would become a home for the conclusion to Ditko and Michael Fleischer's story.
So far, the cuts have been almost predictable. DC would naturally want to focus on their core heroes and their satellite titles, while off-shoots like Kirby's Fourth World and the fantasy realms of Claw weren't worth the investment or risk. The fall of '78 would become a time of homogenization for DC, meaning non-superhero books would be a tough sell no matter the creative vision or talent attached. The Implosion was just beginning in August though, and the next month would see twice as many titles getting the axe and the number of story pages per issue being reduced to 17 (equal to Marvel's standard issue size at the time).
Like it said on those slick 80's Crisis ads, "Worlds will live. Worlds will die. And the DC Universe will never be the same again." Nearly a decade before a storyline crisis would wipe the slate clean in the DCU, DC the publisher was dealing with a different kind of destructive wave. And there was no Pariah to warn us.
Next time: It was a black September . . .
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