Casualties of the DC Implosion (Part 1)

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 . . .

Prelude to Implosion

Didja know? DC imploded once. It wasn't the result of an anti-matter wave or the cracking of the source wall, but instead the comics publisher suffered a crisis of the commercial kind. In 1978, DC was forced to take drastic steps to insure their survival, the most savage of which, (for fans, anyway) was the cancellation of more than two dozen ongoing or soon-to-be published titles. This event has since gained the moniker, "The DC Implosion" and has generated quite a mystique around itself. Multiple what-could-have-beens and what-ifs have spawned within fandom surrounding the implosion, and some of them have even been demystified a bit thanks to titles like Cancelled Comics Cavalcade.

These events would have ramifications for many years and many regime changes afterward, effecting not just the immediate place DC occupied in the comics market, but the way publishing and branding initiatives would be handled going forward. A couple of years ago, when fans compared the first wave of New 52 cancellations to the '78 implosion, I rolled my eyes. The cancelled New 52 books at that time (I wanna say . . . 2012?) were quickly replaced with new titles, and the machine continued to churn out roughly the same amount of content each month. The Implosion was a stiffer, more sobering blow to DC, and when one starts to take some of those little aforementioned what-ifs to their natural conclusions, it's a wonder the publisher survived.

The content DC was publishing in 1978 was as varied in quality and consistency as its ever been, which is a nothing statement except to say that the factors leading to the Implosion were purely financial and the result of bad or overzealous predictions, not due to any kind of dip in the quality of the books. 1978 saw Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers pit Batman against the Joker in Detective Comics #475's "The Laughing Fish", one of the more beloved and referenced encounters between the two. The two Pauls, Kupperburg and Levitz, brought us a celebration of DC's already rich history as of '78 in the trivia geek landmark Showcase #100. Denny O'Neil, Michael Golden, Walt Simsonson, and so many more industry legends than I could name here were still making their mark and the superhero genre continued it's trek through the bronze age with DC at the helm in terms of characterization. The foundation for Frank Miller, Watchmen, and Vertigo is being laid out by the crafty veterans of the Silver Age.

What went wrong? Thematically, DC's Implosion gets its cynical geek handle from an initiative left over from 1977 but still being carried out in '78: The DC Explosion. The Explosion was an attempt to take back the majority market share from Marvel by increasing the number of titles published and adding more story pages to each issue as well. Naturally, this was accompanied by higher cover prices, leading the comic readers' perception to the conclusion that DC was the "premium" or "black label" product. Not just a set of hero rags meant to shill fruit pies and Stan's Soapbox, DC's books were top shelf, varied in genre, and leading the way in cultural relevance. That was the message DC hoped to send, anyway. There are several miscalculations at work here, the least of which is DC's overconfidence that they had a better "finger on the pulse" when it came to the issues of the day. Marvel was undergoing its own bronze age metamorphosis, and it was just as rocky. The latter half of the 70's also saw many mainstay talents from both brands switch sides or fall out of favor with an evolving readership as some of the old tropes in cape books were starting to wear thin.

So again, what went wrong? A lot of things. One major factor that no one could have foreseen took its toll the previous year. Rough blizzards in '77 affecting shipping and distribution, which in turn derailed a business model based on selling a variety of monthly serials. Titles got backed up, fans got frustrated, creators got frustrated, sales dropped off. Below the realms of weather, but still above the heads of the average Joe was the ongoing economic recession of the 70's, another factor from the all-too-real world that would bring the publishers of cosmic flights of fancy to their knees with a blaring red pair of financial Omega Beams. When God and the economy team up against you, what chance is there?

It's important that I take a step back here, so as not to paint DC in too much of a sympathetic light. These events were exacerbated by greed and the desires to yell "Checkmate!" at a competitor that had done the unthinkable earlier in the decade, dethroning what had been the most dominant institution in comics since the days of National and Timely. DC's clout in the publishing world had made life hell for Marvel and publisher Martin Goodman in the 60's, even limiting the number of titles Marvel could publish at one point. (As a result, we got all of those cool double feature books like Strange Tales.) Marvel came up as the underdog, or at least the smallest of the Titans. Marvel redefined superheroes and even trademarked the damn term! Marvel was making headway in Hollywood, or at least it looked that way at the time, and they were getting their heroes read on college campuses while DC's heroes lived in long shadow of their multimedia adaptations like William Dozier's Batman series or the Lynda Carter version of Wonder Woman. DC was hungry and determined to get back on top, but their desired outdistanced their reach and the cost would be heavy.

These costs would come in the form of staff layoffs, stock damages, and the cancellation of nearly 40% of the publisher's line at the time. To be clear, this company was nearly cleaved in twain by these events. As dramatic as the losses were, what was worth betting on for DC at the time? Could Vixen, Green Team, and Shade the Changing Man have entered the 80's as breakout titles if the weather had been a little different? Or if the recession had cleared up a bit? What impact could stepping on this proverbial butterfly have had on the careers and legacies of guys like Tony Isabella or Russ Heath?

See what I mean about the What-Ifs? They get to you. I'm no economist and I'm certainly not the weather man, so I'll be focusing mainly on the cancelled titles of the Implosion. In this multi-part feature, we'll be exploring the titles lost in the Implosion and hopefully getting a peek at what could have been. Join me tomorrow for what I like to call, "The Casualties".