I've long known that Jack Kirby's famed Fourth World epic The New Gods was slated originally to appear in the venerable Showcase series. There is even a mock-up of the cover for that never-to-be issue.
But I didn't quite realize I supposed that Showcase a title ongoing at DC since 1956, the book that birthed the Silver Age with the revival of The Flash and so many other classic heroes, was actually cancelled to make way for New Gods.
Here's what Mark Evanier says about it on his excellent Kirby F.A.Q. at his superb website:
"The original idea was that the three books would be called Orion, The Forever People and Mister Miracle, and then the overview title would be "The New Gods." Somehow, before its release, the Orion book had its title beefed-up and was being called Orion of the New Gods. At that point, the series was going to debut in DC's tryout comic, Showcase. Jack objected to this. He felt that readers would not commit to an "epic" that was being offered to them on a trial basis...so DC cancelled Showcase and a book called New Gods appeared on the schedule in its place."
The emphasis is mine.
Now the last issue of Showcase was #93 dated September, 1970 and featured Manhunter 2070. The debut of New Gods was dated March, 1971 so the replacement wasn't immediate.
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True, but at least Showcase reappeared years later with a great three part Power Girl run, an intro to the lackluster new Doom Patrol, and a very good Hawkman/Adam Strange three-parter. Oh, and the pre-Crisis issue of Showcase #100, with its red skies alluding to the Crisis to come.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes and no.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this page, Showcase was the bottom seller for DC in 1969 -- considerably beneath The Adventures of Jerry Lewis (!) or Star-Spangled Comics or Challengers of the Unknown. Sales probably didn't improve dramatically for the last few issues in 1970. So it's likely Showcase was already headed for cancellation.
DC might have kept Showcase going a few issues longer because they expected Kirby was going to give them an instant Marvel-type sales hit overnight…but if they had, the sales figures still wouldn't have been what DC wanted, so Showcase might still have been cancelled anyway. Even worse, we might have ended up with only those three tryout issues of the Fourth World series, with none of them being continued due to poor sales. And that's one world I wouldn't want to visit!