Comic book stories, issues of comic book limited/ongoing series, or even entire comic book series were written or promoted and solicited for release but, for various reasons, were never published. Some were eventually reprinted elsewhere or published in different forms.
This is a list of comics that were unpublished as originally intended, but would eventually be published in a different form or after a long delay.
Vollmar: "Detour also utilizes some of the same ecological themes that haunt the pages of Deadenders. Is this theme you find yourself returning to in your work based on your personal interest in environmentalism?" Brubaker: ". . . These magical horrible weather ideas do cross over into Deadenders, though, which I see very much as a combination of Detour and Lowlife , but more commercial than both of them".
It's no secret that 'Emerald Twilight' (the story arc that destroyed the Corps and turned Hal Jordan into Parallax) was planned at the last minute. Gerard Jones himself has said on numerous occasions that something entirely different was set to run in Green Lantern #48, #49, and #50. It was, unfortunately, deemed by Kevin Dooley too uninteresting to grab new readers. Mike Carlin, Paul Levitz, Archie Goodwin, and Dennis O'Neil were then assigned to plot "Emerald Twilight", which was eventually scripted by Ron Marz.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Unpublished 1972 Laurel and Hardy cover by Henry Scarpelli with Superman figure redrawn by Joe Orlando.
I guess the most infamous "lost" DC treasury comic was the ambitious King Arthur book. Intended as a four-part series by Gerry Conway and Nestor Redondo, the book was heavily promoted in the seventh issue of DC's self-published fanzine, Amazing World of DC Comics , as well as in ads that ran in their Sept. 1975 issues.
Gerber and Frank Miller pitched DC on revamps of the "Trinity". The three titles would be called by the 'line name' of METROPOLIS, with each character being defined by one word/phrase… AMAZON (written by Gerber); DARK KNIGHT (written by Miller); and Something for Superman – I believe either MAN OF STEEL or THE MAN OF STEEL, but I'm not sure about that (written by both men).
In the 1960s, the huge popularity of the James Bond movies and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series led readers to ask DC for a secret agent hero, so Showcase editor Lawrence Nadle created a spy who was a master of disguise, slated to debut in Showcase #50, naming him Yankee Doodle Dandy.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)In 1987, DC debuted a Spectre ongoing series, written by Doug Moench and drawn by the great Gene Colan...However, this comic was ORIGINALLY supposed to be written by Steve Gerber, only everything fell apart before the first issue was even completed!
He continued to write and draw Sugar & Spike until 1971, when failing eyesight forced him to abandon cartooning...Mayer's sight was restored a few years later, and he went back to producing new Sugar & Spike stories. But the American comic book market was no longer able to support such a feature, so these were mostly published overseas.
In a 'Meanwhile' column in several Aug. 1984-dated titles...DC vice-president-executive director Dick Giordano tentatively announced Sugar and Spike #1 as appearing 'sometime this fall or early winter'...Ultimately, for reasons virtually no one recalls, DC quickly got cold feet on the project even as Marvel's Star Comics rolled out in 1985.
The Caped Crusader leaped off the pages in all his red-and-blue glory in this over-sized eighty-page special crafted by 3-D expert Ray Zone...[for] an all-new tale written and illustrated by John Byrne.
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)'An Evening with Superman', this oversize art book has entered fan folklore because of the years it has spent in limbo.
The gist of it is that by the time Marvel was interested in having us work on the story, Frank was off doing Dark Knight and I was off doing X-Factor. So it never happened. Too bad—it was a cool story too.
The Redeemer, a character Kubert created to star in a 12-issue, 1983 maxiseries that never actually saw print.