The DC Implosion Examined

In 1978, after three years of aggressive expansion, DC suddenly canceled over half of their comic book publishing schedule. This video examines the circumstances that preceded and then instigated this drastic cut.
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#DCComics #Comics #BronzeAge #ComicBookHistory #DCImplosion #OverlordComics

[@charlesmarshall1970]

One of the saddest victims of the DC Implosion was the cancelation of "Shade, the Changing Man." It was, in my humble opinion, Steve Ditko's best work since Doctor Strange and Spider-Man. I remember looking forward to each issue, and the series was really starting to kick into high gear when the implosion occurred. Although DC would revive it in its Vertigo line several years later, Ditko was not involved in it, and the title was nothing like the original. A loss of what could have been a real classic.

[@kforcer]

There was definitely a lot to love about Shade the Changing Man. The advertisements for him used to really fascinate me when I was a young kid thumbing through my brother's comics. I had no clue at the time that the artist responsible for it was the same guy who drew all the classic Spiderman comics I loved. I only recently actually picked up some issue of Shade; fascinating and exciting comic and very unique, like many of Ditko's creations.

[@chrisdragnet722]

I started collecting/reading in 1977......I was still too young to notice an Implosion but remember many of those title s in older kids collections or on the magazine racks in the local newspaper store. That's my real baptism ERA for DC...and was lucky to see it blossom/regain from in the early 80's....w/ Teen Titans and the Justice League prior to the Crisis.

[@macsnafu]

So many covers from my childhood! The summer of 1978 was when I got seriously into comics. The DC Explosion promised a lot, but the implosion quickly pulled the rug out from under that. Nonetheless, a lot of the material was a lot of fun, even if much of it doesn't hold up as great comics. They were still entertaining.

[@_Peremalfait]

I too found DC a little boring compared to Marvel. However, my interest in DC grew with innovative titles such as Jonah Hex and Swamp Thing. I also began to buy titles like Sgt. Rock, for its well written and drawn anti war stories, and even Batman which had taken on a darker tone. They kicked it up a notch for sure.

[@mmickle6191]

The characters that get cut are often the most interesting losses with events like this.

[@RhapsodyInBlaah]

I NEED a 3 hour deep dive into that Welcome Back Kotter book.

[@alexnejako777]

i remember the snow in 78. i still have a photo of the snow covering our car

[@hermmmc]

I'd just note that at the time DC was still publishing some titles on a bi-monthly or 8-times-a-year schedule, so the number of titles per month was a little less. After the Implosion almost all titles became monthly.

[@franksimasko6661]

CAn you do a documentary on "ATLAS" Comics from the 70's .... always loved the short-lived line of comics from ATLAS .... also had such high hopes for the relaunch in 2011

[@StrangeBrainParts]

Yes, sir...I can! In fact, I already did! There is a History Of Atlas Comics (1974) in the archives. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqvLlIyXZ5iDf5I&lc=Ugwz7qhDXenyN4IgleB4AaABAg There's the link to it above.

[@TheJohno95]

Honestly, this is probably what these companies should do NOW! Marvel and DC have been flooding the shelves with books you know they won't support just to have something else out there. At this point, both companies should probably shave their sizes down and lay off of the variant covers a little. DC seems to be adapting for the most part, but Marvel is all over the place. The thing I wish they had both learned from that comic implosion of the late 70's is FINISH THE STORIES! I've really been annoyed how Marvel is taking the stuff that should have come out in the pandemic and releasing them as trades. I've got three issues of a four issue series! I don't want to buy the trade for that last issue! And some of these books....You know they knew they wouldn't sell. I mean, I like the covers of Black Cat and I always love to see Marvel horror on the shelves. But I knew they wouldn't make it a year when they announced them. It's time to see why the 80's worked. Less output from both companies meant tighter continuity and more brand buying. If you only have twenty or so books on the shelves, maybe your loyal customers will buy them all. But sixty-one hundred a month? Nope.

[@johnrunion5357]

i started collecting comics in september of 1974. all i collected were dc titles. then in december 1975 i started collecting marvel. to me the average marvel title was better than the average dc title, but dc always had 4 or 5 titles each month which reached a higher peak than the best of marvel. to me it seemed dc had the more iconic characters, but the marvel style of story telling was more dynamic. marvel also had a knack of being able to breathe life into even their lowest tier characters making me like them. they gave a real personality to their characters. often dc would have a character with a certain power or ability before marvel, but marvel could give their copy such a likable personality i would like their copy as much or more than the dc original. however by the summer of 1978 when i was 16 BOTH comics companies had to me grown stagnant. a lot of the artists or writers had left the titles that i liked and their successors rarely were up to the task. also, a lot of artists and writers had left one company for the other. dc's dollar comics all paled in comparison to the 100 pages for 50, then 60 cents format they had abandoned a few years prior. with that format i felt like i was getting a crash course in the history of comics each month. with the dollar comics i felt like i was getting mostly back up filler. with dc's page increase and the inevitable price increase that came with it i had to reduce the number of titles i bought each week. with marvel it seemed they had a cycle which lasted four years and then they would simply tell a variation of the same story again. the retreads didn't live up to my introduction of the same plots or the reprints from which they originated from. for me the 20, 25 , 30 cent days were a glorious time for comics reading. things started falling apart in the 35 cent days.

[@doommega]

i think this was DC best Books as far as covers and packed for your Punch

[@bolunixan]

Great content, very informative

[@vincentfranklin17]

Informative, indeed!

[@Bolbi145]

Great video

[@WyattoonsComics]

Looking back on it I feel this strategy could’ve worked both creatively and financially had it been a small expansion. But geez I look at that massive amounts of titles added in the explosion and it’s WILD.

[@pulsarstargrave256]

I remember the period and simply put, a LOT of small stores in my area stopped selling comics! They saw them as a nuisance because some kids would try to steal them or just abuse them on the racks and then they wouldn't be in any shape to be sold for full price! The last hold out was a guy who sold them on clothes lines behind his counter but he eventually closed his store and retired! That was a painful day! Fortunately, comic shops picked up the slack! DCs stuff may have been perceived as "boring" to some younger fans back then, especially compared to "obligatory fight scenes" Marvel and Charlton's "TV character" books, today, years later, I find some of those late 70s DC books highly collectible! They were well drawn, entertaining stories, many of which were "one and done" single issue dramas! They aren't super expensive in comic shops or at conventions! I highly recommend SGT. ROCK, WARLORD, and DOORWAY TO DANGER featuring Madame Xanadu! There was also a comic called HOUSE OF SECRETS (or was it House of Mystery?) but that was really hard to find. Check em out!

[@99Michael]

I bought my comics off a spinner rack, and you had to dig behind a Metal Man comic to find a Fantastic Four. Same with Eerie and Creepy Magazines were on a magazine rack hide behind Motor Trend or Yachting.

[@DCMarvelMultiverse]

From the research I've done for my channel, the company lacked a centralized creative outlook that could integrate everything. While Marvel had Stan, DC really didn't have anyone in that sort of role. Jeanette and Dick took a while to focus everything that way. Meanwhile, many editors were older guys who lacked the hipness of Stan had at Marvel. The editors were fuddy duddies who prevented younger, hipper folks to cut loose. Plus, DC didn't focus on its number one creative strength: the short story. Say what you want, they were masters of it in ways Marvel was not. But they never knew that.

[@shoresean1237]

One of the canceled books reprinted in 'Cavalcade' revealed that Kamandi was an AU version of Kirby-Sandman's Jed Walker, who was later brought back for Gaiman's run. Funny note: I always thought that it was Gaiman who relocated Jed away from the kindly grandfather to the abusive farmer couple. Nope. Turns out it was done in the series' original run, in the next to last (of 6) issues. I'd place that fun couple right up there with the parents of Elfen Lied's Mayu. DC suddenly canceling large portions of its line with almost no notice? Thank the Lord that never happened again - like in 2011.

[@RockandrollNegro]

That Kamandi/Jed connection was sloppily thrown together at the last minute so that the finished last issue of the cancelled Sandman book could be published in Kamandi. Then, whoops... Kamandi gets cancelled too. So the hastily edited version wound up in CCC. DC finally "officially" published it last year in Kamandi Challenge Special, for folks that want to own it.

[@kforcer]

I think there was a lot of really, really great stuff in the DC Explosion. I personally loved Claw The Unconquered, for example. Welcome Back Kotter was a great comic adaptation of the show that had a lot of very well-done issues as well and an art style that really captured the essence of the series. Secret Society of Super Villains was another great title that was full of action, plot twists and unusual lead characters. Gorilla Grodd was probably the breakout character of the series; we got to see just how tough Grodd was, his iron-will and grit really came cross and we were able to see just why he was such a formidable villain. I think it was just ultimately a matter of throwing too much at the reader at once; no matter how good or how creative the comics that were part of the Explosion might have been, readers are ultimately only going to be able to juggle so many titles. As good as a comic like Claw was, how many people that are already buying Conan the Barbarian every month, on top of other titles, are going to check it out or even necessarily have the time or money to? When you have so many great comics on the market, as they did in that era, its going to be hard for new characters and new titles to break through and stick.

[@unrulysimian3897]

I remember buying BEOWULF and JOKER. I was pretty much a full fledged Marvelite once Kirby left. BEOWULF = Coolest. Helmet. Ever.

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

I have the trade paperback reprint of the Joker series. I would guess that popular titles featuring The Joker (Dark Knight Returns, Killing Joke, Death In (and of) The Family, etc.) gave DC a kick in the butt it needed to reprint this 9-issue run. Not a page-turner, but I liked it much better than Marvel's "Super-Villain Team-Up" regarding "villain-featured" titles.

[@charlesmarshall1970]

@@DavidTSmith-jn5bs FYI: Marvel printed the "Super-Villain Team-Up" book simply to keep "super-villain" as an exclusive trademark. That's why the stories were often pretty lame. However, I do recall one story arc where Doctor Doom fought to prevent the Red Skull from using a hypno-ray to take over the earth. While I admit the story was not a stand out, I found it intriguing that one villain was working to thwart another. I'd often wondered why it was always only the heroes who wanted to stop the bad guy in such circumstances, when it was obvious that other villains, like Doom, would also have a stake in such situations.

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

While it doesn't surprise me that Marvel would use a title as a means of obtaining and/or keeping a copyright (Re: Captain Marvel), the reason why I brought up that title is that I don't recall either of The Big Two featuring a title headlined by a "villain" other than those two. Rose & Thorn and Eclipso don't count because they were "second stories" in titles like Adventure and House of Mystery. Incidentally, I liked the Doom/Submariner team-ups for the reason you liked the Doom/Red Skull story: infighting between two "strong personalities" seemed to be Marvel's stock-in-trade since the early 60's.

[@youraveragecrownofthorns8919]

Since you mention Grell, I wonder how The Warlord did managed to get through this for such a long run? Don't remember how popular that series was, but I enjoyed the first handful of issues.

[@StrangeBrainParts]

The title probably sold very well (it had to in order to survive) and Mike Grell was a popular creator. Plus, it was pretty well done.

[@buttgoomagoo6919]

I worked in subscriptions at D.C. in the 70s(college intern) and I can tell you that believe it or not warlord was doing close to 80% sell thru print run,,,which was close to the highest of ALL d.c. books..it was a cash cow

[@richmcgee434]

Warlord was rather an unusual book for its period. Sword & sorcery fantasy (even with more than a splash of pulp scifi) was still a middling popular genre in the book and film market, but in comics there was Marvel's Conan books and DC Warlord - and that was about it after the implosion. I had every issue of Warlord, but I have to admit, I'd have been happier if Claw had survived in its place. Very interesting read, and solid artwork (albeit not up to Grell's) - but it did get a roper conclusion to the character's story arc, so at least it wasn't left hanging for eternity.

[@akaiseigo]

I remember Teen Titans and X-Men were once rivals in the comic book market.

[@alancarnell2747]

You mean $1 dollar comics, not 80 page giants. They had been doing giants long before this period. Dollar comics angered me. Just a year or 2 previous they offered 100 Pages for 60 cents. Now it was 80 pages for a DOLLAR!!! I still bought them but I was salty about the whole thing.

[@jasonguinn6075]

Why was there a Welcome back Kotter comic book?? ....implosion indeed

[@markshulusky6680]

I remember that period in comics! Bad art and weak writing. You couldn't understand why the crap was being released. And let's not forget the influence of Lady Caligula herself: Jeanette Kahn.

[@nick.19]

What happened to your Warlock video? I can't find it.

[@bsabruzzo]

So DC was the leading distributor, they increased page count, published more titles, and raised prices... then the industry collapsed, partially due to natural causes and societal changes. The Marvel did (and to some extent still does) the same and the industry is collapsing. Hmmm, history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme. Maybe DC having separate distributors and both companies reducing the number of published titles will increase their story quality again.

[@99Michael]

Jeannette Khan explained in a DC editorial within the comics the price increases were necessary for many reasons. One in particular because of the low cover price of $0.12- 15 cents news vendors made very little money percentage-wise verus carry a TIME magazine competing for shelf space. One thing that has plagued and may ultimately lead to the demise of Comics beyond SJWs writing is the lack of distribution reaching the general public beyond comic book stores.

[@jeremycline9542]

Where does the relaunch of the titans fit in?

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

I'll defer to our host for confirmation, but I believe that The New Teen Titans title was a stellar success and later prompted a X-Men/Titans crossover event.

[@jeremycline9542]

David T. Smith Were the New Teen Titans a result of the failure of the implosion?

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

I think it "dodged a bullet" regarding the implosion. I don't remember it being cancelled after its release. Again, I'll defer to our host for confirmation.

[@StrangeBrainParts]

I do believe Jeremy is inquiring about the revival of 1976-78. I don't believe it's officially a casualty of the implosion. I would say, and this my best guess, that it didn't perform well so it was cancelled and replaced with some other title that probably ended up being a casualty.

[@StrangeBrainParts]

Oh, and I should have added...I'm almost certain the series was revived because of the initial DC Explosion. I'm not positive, but I'm reasonably sure.

[@emsleywyatt3400]

Sheer demographics plays a part as well. I stopped buying comics and instead spent money on magazines with fold-outs.

[@jaredgarcia8638]

Anyone feel that history is going to repeat itself

[@godemperor7742]

As a kid in the 70s and 80s, I watched the campy Batman and Super Friends and Wonder Woman on TV, and Superman in the Movies -- but I bought and read Marvel Comics, because yeah DC was boring by comparison. There are of course many DC gems from every decade, especially in the 70s.

[@alfredhutchinson3713]

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[@gregorblack5557]

Stupid GD Tv. I guess I'm 1 of the few (and proud) true comic fans who prefers the medium period. Not obviously saying you, simply the slumping sales on the best form of entertainment of all time: comic books. Tv is to blame for slowly chipping away "thinking" in any form from entertainment & that's the motivation I suppose. Sigh rant ended- lol

[@gregorblack5557]

Oooh a pretentious person who quickly tries to "knock someone down a peg" then gives glib remarks. Awesome, welcome to comment section! you can keep your remark after starting it with b.s. Guy, no one's listening. try, I don't know, manners, if you intend a lecture. smh