The DC Implosion is the informal yet established name by which fans and other observers refer to the dramatic number of sudden cancellations among DC Comics publications in 1978.
History
The name is a natural one to choose, since DC had not too long before announced the "DC Explosion", an equally dramatic marketing strategy of publishing more monthly titles and increasing the number of story pages in all titles (accompanied by slightly higher cover prices). Many titles which had been canceled in the 60s and 70s were brought back as part of the "explosion."
After low sales, partly attributed to blizzards in 1977 and 1978 as well as the poor quality of the titles themselves, in 1978 National Periodical Publications (DC's owner at the time) ordered that titles with marginal sales be canceled. About 30 titles were canceled, some before they were even published. Much of the work that was unpublished saw print in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, a two-issue "series" which "published" the work for the sake of copyright purposes. A few titles and works would see print in later series, however.
Shazam! #35 (which was "merged" into World's Finest Comics), Karate Kid #15, and Freedom Fighters #15 were not part of the mass cancellations of the Implosion. These titles were canceled a few months earlier to make room for other titles in the DC Explosion. All three were announced within the comics themselves as being canceled, and unlike the Implosion titles, Freedom Fighters and Karate Kid even had ending stories published (although the Freedom Fighters ending would have been continued into Secret Society of Super Villains #16-18, which did fall victim to the Implosion, however).
Canceled Titles And Their Last Published Issues
- All-Star Comics #74
- Aquaman (Volume 1) #63
- Army At War (Volume 1) #1
- Battle Classics #1
- Black Lightning (Volume 1) #11
- Challengers of the Unknown (Volume 1) #87
- Claw the Unconquered #12
- DC Special #29
- DC Super-Stars #18
- Doorway to Nightmare #5
- Dynamic Classics #1
- Firestorm (Volume 1) #5
- House of Secrets (Volume 1) #154
- Isis (Volume 1) #8
- Kamandi #59
- Metal Men (Volume 1) #56
- Mister Miracle (Volume 1) #25
- New Gods (Volume 1) #19
- Our Fighting Forces (Volume 1) #181
- Prez (Volume 1) #4
- Secret Society of Super-Villains #15
- Shade, the Changing Man #8
- Showcase #104
- Star Hunters #7
- Steel: The Indestructible Man #5
- Super-Team Family (Volume 1) #15
- Teen Titans (Volume 1) #53
- Welcome Back, Kotter (Volume 1) #10
- The Witching Hour #85
Unpublished Titles
- Demand Classics
- Deserter
- Strange Adventures relaunch (renamed Time Warp and published one year later)
- Vixen
- Western Classics