Something I love doing is going through old promotional pieces and finding comic book projects that never or barely came out. Often, these are books that I wouldn't care about if they'd actually been released, but they're far more intriguing when never realized (plus they don't cost me anything extra and have a life in the imagination.) Due to the outrageous success of comics in the 1990s, that decade was a hotbed of under-realized prospects, and there's a slew of them in "1993: The Year of Change" editorial presentation that was sent to retailers and industry types. I figured I'd highlight some of their misbegotten offerings.
- Vince Russell never got to be that big of a name in comics, and is probably best known for inking Mark Bagley on Thunderbolts. He was set to draw the '90s Outsiders revival, but was replaced by Paul Pelletier.
- Not sure if this Kevin Nowlan Batman piece turned up anywhere.
- Young playboy Rick Starr would have saved the 23rd Century from a hidden war between Earth and alien forces involving the Planeteers if Michael Jan Friedman, John Calimee & Mike Chen's 8-issue Space Ranger mini-series had come out. Randy DuBurke produced covers for issues #1, #2 and #3.
- Here's a wicked little seen Deathstroke promotional image by Jerome K. Moore.
- For a hot minute it looked like DC's was going to make Kirk Jarvinen a big deal, but he fell right off after producing this promo image for the ongoing Aquaman series that spun out of his "Time & Tide" mini-series. You know, the one drawn by Marty Egeland, who also fell off instead of staying the course, until we ended up with Jim Calafiore. You know, Jim Calafiore.
DC Comics 1993 Editorial Presentation: Family Values— Rolled Spine Podcasts (@rolledspine) September 1, 2018
Promo art from Vertigo's The Children's Crusade featuring Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Black Orchid, Robotman, Dorothy Spinner, Dead Boy Detectives and
Timothy Hunter from Books of Magic#DoomPatrol #DC pic.twitter.com/4vga0DMPsC
- Vertigo's first and only crossover event, 1994's The Children's Crusade, was originally titled "Family Values."
- Dean Motter's The Heart of the Beast took twenty years to come out, with a different artist and publisher.
- Dick Foreman & Paul Johnson's The Rites of Alchemy was apparently, finally self-published as a giveaway in 2011.
- Captain Stone and the Dinosaurs was a planned one-shot by Val Semeiks and "hot new talent" (re: some dude named) Charlie Santino about time-travelers. Not sure how far that got, but there is an image in the book.
- There was going to be a Ringworld comic by Adam Blaustein & Joe Staton that was stillborn, but here's the cover art.
DC Comics 1993 Editorial PresentationDC Comics 1993 Editorial Presentation: Doom Patrol— Rolled Spine Podcasts (@rolledspine) September 1, 2018
Featuring art (presumably by Richard Case & Linda Medley?) of Robotman, Dorothy Spinner, and what's left of The Chief.#DoomPatrol #DC pic.twitter.com/nls5UorukS
- The Atom @ Power of the Atom
- Justice League Task Force @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
- Justice League America @ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman
- Justice League International @ Justice League Detroit
- The Killing Machine @ ...nurgh...
