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Dallas, Keith and John Wells. Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics circa 1978. Raleigh: TwoMorrows, 2018. 
Added by: joachim (07/05/2019, 13:16)   Last edited by: joachim (15/06/2020, 12:03)
Resource type: Book
Language: en: English
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 978-1-60549-085-4
BibTeX citation key: Dallas2018
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Categories: General
Keywords: DC, Historical account, Illustrated text, Publishing, Superhero, USA
Creators: Dallas, Wells
Publisher: TwoMorrows (Raleigh)
Views: 14/548
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Abstract
Things looked bleak for comic books throughout the 1970s because of plummeting sell-through rates. With each passing year, the newsstand became less and less interested in selling comic books. The industry seemed locked in a death spiral, but the Powers That Be at DC Comics had an idea to reverse their fortunes. In 1978, they implemented a bold initiative: Provide readers with more story pages by increasing the price-point of a regular comic book to make it comparable to other magazines sold on newsstands. Billed as “The DC Explosion,” this expansion saw the introduction of numerous creative new titles. But mere weeks after its launch, DC’s parent company pulled the plug, demanding a drastic decrease in the number of comic books they published, and leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. The series of massive cutbacks and cancellations quickly became known as “The DC Implosion.” TwoMorrows Publishing marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the most notorious events in comics with an exhaustive oral history from the creators and executives involved (Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, Len Wein, Mike Gold, and Al Milgrom, among many others), as well as detailed analysis and commentary by other top professionals, who were “just fans” in 1978 (Mark Waid, Michael T. Gilbert, Tom Brevoort, and more)—examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever!

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements (5)

Prologue (7)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: Early 1977 (10)

Part 1: Pre-Explosion (1976–1978) (11)
– Interlude: Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New (23)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: Early 1977 (31)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: Early 1978 (Pre-DC Explosion) (52)

Part 2: Explosion (1978) (53)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: June, July and August 1978 (The DC Explosion) (66)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: June, July and August 1978 (Unpublished) (66)

Part 3: Implosion (1978–1980) (67)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles: Early 1979 (Post-DC Implosion) (76)
– Bonus Gallery (79)
– Interlude: Cancelled Comics Cavalcade: The Index (90)
– Interlude: Whatever Happened to–? (98)
– DC Comics’ Lineup of Titles : June, July and August 1980 (117)

Cancellations by Month of Publication (127)
Afterword (129)
References (131)


Added by: joachim  Last edited by: joachim
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