1st Issue Special is a comics anthology series from DC Comics, done in a similar style to their Showcase series. It was published from April 1975 to April 1976.[1] The goal was to showcase a new possible first issue of an ongoing series each month, with some issues debuting new characters and others reviving dormant series from DC's past. No series were actually launched from 1st Issue Special but the Warlord made his first appearance in the title and the character's ongoing series was already slated to debut a few months later.
Publication history
Writer Gerry Conway explained the series' origin: "1st Issue Special was a peculiar book concept based on [publisher] Carmine Infantino's observation that first issues of titles often sold better than subsequent issues. Carmine's brainstorm: a monthly series of nothing but first issues. It sounds like a joke, but he was dead serious".[2]
Conway has also denied that 1st Issue Special was a tryout series, pointing out that tryout series run each feature for several issues so that the publisher has enough time to get sales figures before deciding whether to give the feature its own series; since each feature in 1st Issue Special ran only one issue, DC would have had to either launch the new series before sales figures came in for the tryout (thus making the feature's appearance in 1st Issue Special pointless) or launch the new series six months or more after the tryout issue (by which time reader interest in the feature would have faded).[3] Conway added: "We used to sit at editorial meetings and [Carmine Infantino] would say, 'Who has an idea for 1st Issue Special next month?' How do you develop a project that has a potential to be a real series within 20 days? You can't".[3] Only two of the 1st Issue Special features received an ongoing series: Mike Grell's The Warlord, which first appeared in issue #8 (November 1975),[4] and Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg's Return of the New Gods, which appeared in issue #13.[2]
Issues #1 (featuring Atlas) featured art and story by Jack Kirby.[5] A number of issues featured existing DC characters: issue #3, Metamorpho, issue #5, Manhunter,[6] issue #7, the Creeper, issue #9, the Golden Age character Doctor Fate, and issue #13, the New Gods.[3] The Metamorpho feature reunited the character's creators, writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon. Haney and Fradon had met at the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con, and while reminiscing, it emerged that both of them regarded Metamorpho as one of the features they had most enjoyed working on, leading them to ask DC if they could do one more Metamorpho story together.[3]1st Issue Special staff have not been able to answer why the Creeper story was illustrated but not written by the character's creator, Steve Ditko.[3]
Some stories which had been intended for publication in 1st Issue Special appeared in other titles instead. A Batgirl and Robin team-up was published in Batman Family #1 (September - October 1975)[3] and a Green Arrow and Black Canary story was kept in inventory until it was published as a backup feature in Green Lantern #100 (January 1978).[7]
1st Issue Special never printed a letters column, opting instead to accompany each feature with a "Story Behind the Story" text page.[3]
DC published a hard cover collection of the series in 2020.[8]
Characters from 1st Issue Special star in the 12-issue 2022-2023 DC Black Label series Danger Street by Tom King and Jorge Fornes.[9] Instead of devoting separate issues to each character or group, as in the original series, Danger Street incorporates all the different characters into overlapping narratives.[10]
The Jack Kirby Omnibus Volume 2 includes the Atlas story from 1st Issue Special #1, the Manhunter story from #5, and the Dingbats of Danger Street story from #6, 624 pages, May 2013, ISBN978-1401238339
Showcase Presents: The Great Disaster featuring the Atomic Knights includes the Atlas story from 1st Issue Special #1, 576 pages, June 2014, ISBN978-1401242909
The Creeper by Steve Ditko includes the Creeper story from 1st Issue Special #7, 288 pages, April 2010, ISBN978-1401225919
The Warlord: The Savage Empire includes the Warlord story from 1st Issue Special #8, 240 pages, November 1991, ISBN978-1563890246
Showcase Presents: Warlord includes the Warlord story from 1st Issue Special #8, 528 pages, September 2009, ISBN978-1401224738
The Art of Walter Simonson includes the Doctor Fate story from 1st Issue Special #9, 208 pages, June 1989, ISBN0930289412
DC's 1st Issue Specials includes issues #1-13, 272 pages, March 2020, ISBN978-1779501776
^ abHarvey, Allan (February 2010). "Apokolips Then: Or, Suppose they Finished a War and Nobody Came". Back Issue! (38). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 54–58.
^ abcdefghAbramowitz, Jack (April 2014). "1st Issue Special: It Was No Showcase (But It Was Never Meant To Be)". Back Issue! (71). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 40–47.
^McAvennie, Michael (2010). "1970s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 165. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Writer/artist Mike Grell elevated the sword-and-sorcery genre to new heights with the Warlord.
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 162: "Debuting with Atlas the Great, writer and artist Jack Kirby didn't shrug at the chance to put his spin on the well-known hero".
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 164: "Though 1st Issue Special was primarily DC's forum to introduce new characters and storylines, editor Jack Kirby used the series as an opportunity to revamp the Manhunter, whom he and writer Joe Simon had made famous in the 1940s".
^Wells, John (October 24, 1997), "'Lost' DC: 1971 - 1975", Comics Buyer's Guide, no. 1249, Iola, Wisconsin, p. 125
