Comic Book Implosion: Expanded Edition: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978

by Keith Dallas

In 1978, DC Comics launched a bold initiative to win over fans and retailers with an expanded line-up billed as “The DC Explosion.” But mere weeks after its launch, DC’s parent company pulled the plug, cancelling a slew of titles, and leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. Now, over 45 years after that "DC Implosion", TwoMorrows Publishing recalls one of the most notorious events in comics with an exhaustive oral history from Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, Len Wein, Mike Gold, Al Milgrom, and other creators and executives involved! Plus: detailed analysis and commentary by other top pros who were “just fans” in 1978 (Mark Waid, Michael T. Gilbert, Tom Brevoort, and more)―examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever! This new Expanded Edition of the sold-out Eisner Award-nominated book explodes in full-color for the first time, with additional coverage of lost 1970s DC projects like Ninja the Invisible and an adaptation of “The Wiz,” Jim Starlin’s unaltered cover art for Batman Family #21, content meant for cancelled Marvel titles such as Godzilla and Ms. Marvel, and more! By Keith Dallas and John Wells.

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2024

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched and written book on this mostly unknown today comic event. Nice read. Recommended

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhh...the DC Implosion. That legendary late 70s reaction to the DC Explosion that cut the company's output by about 60%. Dallas uses an oral history format to look at the events leading up to both the explosion and the subsequent implosion, focusing on the transition from the Infantino regime to the Jeannette Kahn regime. For those of us who lived through it but weren't in a position to see anything in the fan press at the time (probably most of us) this is very interesting. Of particular note (to me) were the reminiscences of Mike Gold, the first DC public relations manager. It was also interesting to see that Marvel actually went through a pretty similar period of book cancelling at the same time, that simply wasn't as publicized. Of course Marvel wasn't cutting those books directly on the heels of the price increase from 35 cents to 50 cents and the accompanying hoopla. I was also interested to see some significant thoughts about DC's Dollar Comics format. I bought almost none of those books because they were just too rich for my blood at the time.

If you were a comic buyer in 1978 this will be very interesting to you. As usual, the layout is traditional Twomorrows, so you're getting a lot of images with your text. It's a fun book and it definitely answers some questions that have lingered for me for almost 50 years.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

TwoMorrows takes aim at the DC Implosion in Comic Book Implosion - avoiding putting DC in the title, but then, one of the things the book makes clear is that while DC asked for it by bragging about their EXplosion, Marvel was just as hard hit by the same factors, just not so much in their pride. A commented assembly of quotes from the comics professionals who lived it, the book plays like a talking heads documentary and isn't too far from what, say, Marvel: The Untold Story was doing, except Sean Howe built them into paragraphs there. Covering half a decade, it really sets the table with the pre-Explosion years, showing where the industry was and what led to those decisions, and eventually takes us to how DC got out of the slump in the early 80s. Perhaps the Implosion was a contraction before a better expansion. Marvel and, to some extent, other publishers get dinged along the way, as is proper. It's all very interesting even to older comics fans who know at least PART of the story, but my favorite part is about the lost material - where it went, how it was repurposed, and seeing all those wonderful Joe Kubert covers (among others, but Kubert is my favorite comics artist, so) that were criminally shelved, sometimes, forever. And Comic Book Implosion doesn't skimp on the art whenever available.

[Mariano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está bueno, pero la forma en la que está escrito, como una colección de quotes básicamente, lo hace medio difícil de seguir y rompe cualquier intento de enfoque narrativo. Termina siendo más un informe que una historia.

No está mal, sigue siendo una buena lectura, pero todo tiene el mismo tono, entonces cuando llegas a la Implosion es medio meh "Y bueno, cancelamos unos comics". No se siente como un momento crítico ni pivotal.

El afterword es que le da buena perspectiva a todo, pero son dos páginas de 140.