In 1978, plans for a massive expansion of DC’s publishing line, which were being promoted as the DC Explosion, crashed and burned as an unusually heavy winter took its toll on comic book sales. The DC line was slashed rather than expanded, and a bunch of staff members were laid off. This became known as the DC Imposion. There were a number of stories that were well into production at the time of the Implosion, so in order to maintain a copyright on the work, DC produced a pair of issues of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE (named after the 1940s title COMIC CAVALCADE) and generated 35 xeroxed copies, one set of which went to the Library of Congress. The remaining sets were distributed to the creators who had worked contained within it. To this day, those two issues have never seen actual print, though some of the individual story material within them has.
Artist Alex Saviuk, who was then a mainstay in DC’s line, was asked to produce a cover for this second issue.
In the years since then, bootleg copies of the two issues of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE made their way throughout fandom and remain a pricey collectors’ item on the back issue market.
So we’re going to take a look at this second issue over the next couple of weeks, starting with the section for unused covers that didn’t have any actual story work associated with them.
Joe Kubert’s unused cover for ARMY AT WAR #2
Joe Kubert’s unused cover for BATTLE CLASSICS #3. It was eventually used as a pin-up in a digest.
Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin’s unused cover for DEMAND CLASSICS #1, reprinting FLASH #123.
Ross Andru and Dick Giordano’s unused cover for DEMAND CLASSICS #2
Jim Aparo’s unused cover for DYNAMIC CLASSICS #2
Michael Golden and Russ Heath’s unused cover for MISTER MIRACLE #26
Joe Kubert’s unused cover for RAGMAN #6
Jim Sherman and Maurice Whitman’s unused cover for WESTERN CLASSICS #1
Ross Andru and dick Giordano’s unused cover for WESTERN CLASSICS #2
Joe Orlando’s unused cover for WEIRD MYSTERY TALES #25. It was eventually published as the cover to SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #20
Michael Kaluta’s unused cover for WEIRD MYSTERY TALES #26. It was eventually published as the cover to HOUSE OF MYSTERY #265
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Has it ever been determined or researched into WHY the winter of 1978 was particularly bad? If it had this bad an impact on the comics industry, why did DC implode and not Marvel? Or was it across the board? I recall being in college, not reading or buying comics at the time, and so was unaware of “The DC Implosion”… when did it earn that name? Certainly not immediately….
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I could answer you here, but for a thorough examination of this period, Iād recommend the book Implosion from TwoMorrows: https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1802
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Marvel actually wound up canceling almost as many books as DC did, though because they did it second (and it wasn’t as large a percentage of their line), it didn’t make anywhere near the same kind of splash.
But Marvel was hit by the Imposion-causing effects, too.
And I’ll second Tom’s recommendation of the TwoMorrows IMPLOSION book. Along with their KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID, it’s an essential volume for anyone interested in US comics history.
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thanks to a certain superstar creator, I was able to get a copy (xth generation xerox admittedly) of CCC in a trade for some DC 100 page Romance comics. As a huge SSOSV fan, happy to finally to see that missing issues and of Freedom Fighters (the other FF).
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The missing SSoSV issues are included in the two volume collection of the SSoSV issues. Those volumes are frustrating thanks to everything not being published in correct reading sequence. I had to work this out for myself and include it inside on a post-it note for when I read then again. For those interested that order is:
SSoSV #1-5, DC Special #27, SSoSV #6-9, Super Team Family #13, SSoSV #10, SSoSV Special, Super Team Family #14, SSoSV #11-15, CCC #1 & 2, JLA #166-168
All of these are included in those volimes.
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Nice Work! Thanks
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If they were putting the volumes together today then adding in 2005’s JLA #115-119 would also be a good idea. Split would the come after Super Team Family #14, I think.
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Someone showed foresight at Warner Communications by not sacking Jenette Kahn over this, who proved to be a very effective publisher over the long haul.
I’m not sure that would happen in any major corporation today.
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They had actually sacked Carmine Infantino for similar reasons — DC and Marvel were both worried about Atlas Comics getting a toehold on the racks, so they were both under pressure to get more books on the stands to crowd Atlas out. They both did, but Marvel’s sold better, which resulted in DC’s line-average sales (which were used to calculate advertising prices) dropping sharply. So Carmine was fired for that, even though it was caused by him doing what the bosses wanted him to do.
Jenette had only been at DC for about two and a half years, so it may be that the higher-ups wanted to give her more of a chance, or she may have had a contract that wasn’t close to ending yet.
Interestingly, one of the books Marvel put out as part of their rush to fill up the racks and block Atlas was a revival of X-MEN as a Giant-Size (which rapidly turned back into a regular book). So in a way, Martin Goodman getting pissed off that his son was passed over for the job of Marvel publisher was responsible for both the launch of the New X-Men and the arrival of Jenette Kahn, two events that had a huge effect on comics history. Not bad for a fit of pique…
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You have to wonder what might’ve happened if winter that year hadn’t been so brutal. Although if I’m honest, I don’t see much in these two issues that screams “breakout success”.
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Way back, I wrote a letter to the Comic Buyers Guide questioning cancellation policies. It was one thing to cancel a book that had just started, like Steel, but a long running book like Kamandi and it’s readers deserved better. I thought DC should take the financial hit for the good will it would get respecting the fans. I know the storyline was sort of tied up, maybe it a Brave and the Bold issue but after 59 issues it should have been able to finish. A few weeks after my letter was printed I got a nice envelope in the mail, it contained photo copies of Kamandi #60&61. Sender asked that I not share them or really mention it back then. Figure it is safe to do it now. I don’t think there was a return address on it so have no idea who the cool person was.
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You’re absolutely right that DC should have treated its readers better! I was a huge Kamandi fan at the time (I was 14) and was really enjoying the direction the comic was taking. I was looking forward to finding out the cause of the Great Disaster and what was behind the Wondrous Western Wall. The “tie-up” in the Brave and the Bold #157 was pretty anti-climatic, so it didn’t help at all! I have read the material that was supposed to be Kamandi issues 60 & 61, but it seems there was still a lot of the storyline left. I believe #62 was going to reveal the fate of Pretty Pyra, but apparently we’ll never know. Very disappointing.
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I would bet that person was Jack C. Harris, who worked up in the office at the time and who wrote those issues.
But DC didn’t have the choice to “take the financial hit” — the orders to cut their line back came from corporate ownership, not DC itself. DC got to choose what got canceled and who got fired, but the orders to cut the line back by 40% (or whatever it was) and to eliminate X-thousand dollars of salary were not their call.
DC was left making agonizing choices about who to abruptly fire, which books to end and how to keep their contract freelancers working while freelancers who didn’t have a contract lost work even if they were good and commercial.
Even some of the creative choices must have been frustrating. The Implosion is why, for instance, Paul Levitz stopped writing LEGION and Gerry Conway started, even though Paul loved the book and was doing an excellent job, and Gerry had very little interest in it. Gerry had a contract for X-number of pages a month, and they had to give him something to replace the canceled work, while Paul had a staff job and could step back safely without hurting his finances too bad. I sometimes wonder if that’s why Jim Sherman left in the middle of a story — because Joe Staton had to be given pages to draw to meet his contract.
It was a catastrophe, not a situation where DC had much leeway.
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I really enjoyed that run of Mister Miracle. About 15 years ago, I came across a colored version of that Golden/Heath cover (no idea who the colorist was or I’d give them their due) and, just for fun, added various bits of trade dress to it to “finish” it up. You can see it here: https://reviewsofdoom.blogspot.com/2013/03/mister-miracle-26.html.
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Some great pieces by Kubert, Kakuta, Golden, & others. Nice LoSH by Andru & Giordano, very Silver Age-y. And Aparo drawing Goodwin’s & Simonson’s Manhunter. (That Manhunter outfit was worse than Jack of Hearts) š šš
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Once again one of your posts hits my nostalgic sweet spot
I was regularly buying a lot of the titles that got cancelled. The three I mourned the most getting cancelled was All Star Comics, Firestorm and Shade the Changing Man. Even though the All Star stories eventually got printed it feels criminal to me that Shade was never finished up to a suitable conclusion.
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