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This is a list of comics that were unpublished as originally intended, but would eventually be published in a different form or after a long delay.
George Pérez was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling Fantastic Four and The Avengers for Marvel Comics. In the 1980s he penciled The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics' top-selling series. He penciled DC's landmark limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by relaunching Wonder Woman as both writer and penciller for the rebooted series. In the meantime, he worked on other comics published by Marvel, DC, and other companies into the 2010s. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his facility with complex crowd scenes.
James P. Starlin is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Nebula, and Shang-Chi, as well as writing the acclaimed miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, all detailing Thanos' pursuit of the Infinity Gems to court Mistress Death by annihilating half of all life in the cosmos, before coming into conflict with the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Elders of the Universe, joined by the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Nebula, and Drax.
Marvin Arthur Wolfman is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's The Tomb of Dracula, for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's The New Teen Titans and the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series with George Pérez.
Gary Frank is a British comics artist, notable for pencilling on Midnight Nation and Supreme Power, both written by J. Michael Straczynski. He has also worked with author Peter David on The Incredible Hulk and Supergirl. He had a creator-owned series, Kin, which he wrote himself, published by Top Cow Productions in 2000.
Richard Joseph Giordano was an American comics artist and editor whose career included introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes and serving as executive editor of DC Comics.
The Rocketeer is a comic book superhero, created by writer/artist Dave Stevens. The character first appeared in 1982 and is an homage to the Saturday matinee serial heroes from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Nelson Alexander Ross is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries Marvels, on which he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek for Marvel Comics. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which he also cowrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek's series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment. His feature film work includes concept and narrative art for Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), and DVD packaging art for the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable (2000). He has done covers for TV Guide, promotional artwork for the Academy Awards, posters and packaging design for video games, and his renditions of superheroes have been merchandised as action figures.
Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.
Mark Waid is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles The Flash, Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright as well as his work on Captain America, Fantastic Four and Daredevil for Marvel. Other comics publishers he has done work for include Fantagraphics, Event, Top Cow, Dynamite, and Archie Comics.
David John Mazzucchelli is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work on seminal superhero comic book storylines Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, as well as for graphic novels in other genres, such as Asterios Polyp and City of Glass: The Graphic Novel. He is also an instructor who teaches comic book storytelling at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
Airboy is a fictional Golden Age aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II, before ending his initial run in 1953. The hero was the costumed identity of crack pilot Davy Nelson II, and created by writers Charles Biro and Dick Wood with artist Al Camy.
Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was one of the first to offer royalties and creator ownership of rights.
Scout is an American dystopian comic book series created and written by Timothy Truman, and first published by Eclipse Comics in 1985. The story stars a Native American Apache named Emanuel Santana. The setting of the series is a future United States which has become a Third World country.
Phil Jimenez is an American comics artist and writer known for his work as writer/artist on Wonder Woman from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005–2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The Invisibles, and his artistry for his 2021 critically acclaimed partnership with writer Kelly Sue DeConnick on Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons.
Barry Kitson is a British comic book artist.
In the field of comic books, and particularly in the United States, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production, and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues. The term is often used interchangeably with miniseries (mini-series) and maxiseries (maxi-series), usually depending on the length and number of issues. In Dark Horse Comics' definition of a limited series, "this term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a comic book series with a clear beginning, middle and end". Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of twelve issues or more as maxiseries, but other publishers alternate terms.
Strike! is an American creator-owned superhero comic book series created by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Tom Lyle, published by Eclipse Comics between 1987 and 1988. It concerns about a teenage boy who finds the power harness of Sgt. Strike, a hero that fought for the US in World War II before disappearing.
The Prowler is a creator-owned American comic book series created by Timothy Truman and John K. Snyder III. It was published by Eclipse Comics between 1987 and 1988, and chronicled the adventures of 1930s vigilante Leo Kragg, a.k.a. The Prowler, as he trained teenager Scott Kida to take up his legacy.
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.