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ctdsnark β the killing joke
Published: 2014-06-29 21:12:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 3185; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 18
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In 1975,DC Comics decided to give the Joker his own comic book.Intended to be an ongoing series,it was unceremoniously cancelled after its ninth issue,despite including a teaser for the tenth,a promised clash between the Clown Prince Of Crime and the Justice League.It occurred to me that the unpublished artwork might still exist;a search of the internet found it quickly,not the entire story but several pages.According to the blog I found them on,they had been auctioned off not too long ago.I took the opening page and completed it,as you see above.
If you'd like to see the original art,albeit in rough form,you can find it on my blog posted alongside the work above.
Also,I did a second version of this,made to look like a real comic page ...look for the rather unimaginatively named the killing joke 2Β in my gallery.
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Comments: 7
And also: Very nicely done! Great art, fantastic captions that really capture the feel of the comics of the era.
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Was this one of those books that was cancelled very suddenly in the "DC Implosion?"Β
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I'm afraid I don't know what that is.
What I do know is that the 70's were a time of experimentation at DC;some things worked,some didn't.The Joker's comic never really found an audience...Batman was conspicuously absent from its pages,so the writers usually had the Joker go up against another DC supervillian,usually another from Batman's rogues' gallery,although in one issue,he fought Green Arrow.
The Comics Code Authority was still in existence at the time,and they dictated that every issue had to end with the Joker back in custody.This may explain how,in one issue,he was defeated by a stage actor who,as a result of a blow to the head,not only believed he was Sherlock Holmes,but somehow gained his legendary deductive and reasoning abilities.In another,he was beaten by a (fictional) screen comedian and his pet cat..."secret signal",indeed.
Despite the flaws,this was a fascinating series...in fact,all nine issues were recently collected into a single volume,which is currently available. Β
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Oh man, I love talking about the DC Implosion!
So, let me preface by saying that the 70s is probably my favorite era for DC comments, in large part because of the experimentation you talked about. Lots of interesting ideas being tried out, lots of genre mash-ups, a move toward more gothic horror, especially in the Batman titles, all that good stuff.Β
Long story short: DC was then (and still is) owned by Warner Brothers. At the time, Marvel was independent. Marvel had recently surpassed DC in sales, which drove DC crazy since they were the sales leader in the 50s and 60s. So DC looked at Marvel's sales and realized that the two companies were matched, sales-wise, at the top of the list, but that Marvel had more sales because they simply were publishing more books every month.Β
Here is what I have gleaned happened next, based entirely on extrapolation and my best guess: DC's publishers/editors had a meeting with whatever Warner executive oversaw DC. That executive said something to the effect of "we stand behind DC 100% and want you to get back to being the #1 comics publisher." DC's editors took this as a blank check to go crazy and get experimental, because if things didn't sell and they took losses, Warner would foot the bill.
So they got crazy and experimental. This lead to the DC Explosion, an official marketing campaign where they expanded the number of pages per issue and were launching multiple books every month. Some were great, others... not so much. Creatively, it was really interesting and exciting. Sales-wise, it was a disaster. The new books didn't sell (for any number of reasons; inflation, bad weather on the east coast, just bad luck).
My understanding of what happened next is that in Fall of 1978 the Warner exec got the publishers and editors of DC behind closed doors and violently disabused them of the notion that they had any kind of blank check, then gave them an ultimatum: Cancel every book that is not making a profit immediately or DC will be shut down. About 40% of the books DC was publishing at that time were cancelled, literally overnight, including a few long-standing titles that hadn't even been part of the DC Explosion. Some issues were actually completely finished, ready to go to press, and never got printed because of the instant cancellation (which is super-rare in comics; usually books get a couple of issues leeway after the cancellation decision is made to tie up storylines). They were even planning to cancel Detective Comics, which wasn't selling great at the time, before a bunch of writers and artists got together to beg for the title's survival.Β
So, yeah. And that sudden cancellation of nearly half of DC's titles in a single month was called the DC Implosion, as a joking reference to the earlier DC Explosion marketing push.
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Can you imagine what might have happened for DC if Warner chose to buy Marvel instead?
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Although I read comics in the 70's,I didn't really pay attention to the behind-the-scenes stuff then...thanks for the info!
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