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Post by gothos on Sept 14, 2014 10:31:00 GMT -5
When Lee and Kirby debuted semi-sympathetic "villains" like Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in other heroes' features, I assume they had some vague idea of putting them in features of their own, though not necessarily taking over the AVENGERS title.
Before Marvel, how often did comics publishers use spinoffs, intentional or not, within established features? I include "unintentional" types because the one that comes first to mind, the Heap, is rumored to have been an accidental hit with readers.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 14, 2014 12:43:08 GMT -5
First thought I had was of Elongated Man appearing in Flash, and he eventually got the back-up slot in Detective when Schwartz took it over. He debuted in # 112, then returned just 3 issues later and reappeared every few issues for a while through#138, which was just a few months before his first Detective story.
DC used Showcase and later, Brave and the Bold, for that kind of thing as opposed to spinning characters off.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 14, 2014 13:07:26 GMT -5
The Golden Age Captain Marvel was the king of spin-offs: Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, The Lt. Marvels, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny...
Cei-U!
I summon the lightning! (I still got it!)
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 14, 2014 15:33:16 GMT -5
Dell was doing Uncle Scrooge, Grandma Duck, and the Duck Family Album, all as spin-offs to Donald Duck, in the Atom Age.
You also had the Captain Marvel Family titles over at Fawcett (whoops! Cei-U beat me to this one)
Technically, couldn't Superman #1 even be considered a spin-off from Action Comics?
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Post by MDG on Sept 15, 2014 11:26:18 GMT -5
Tubby got spun off from Little Lulu, and Jughead from Archie. Not sure about Sluggo.
Pretty sure The Schmoo had his own book for a couple issues.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Sept 15, 2014 11:49:53 GMT -5
Golden Age hero The Hangman spun off from the PEP Comics feature "The Comet," who was killed in the line of duty. The Comet's brother then adopts the identity of the Hangman and carries on in the Comet's place, eventually being given his own (short-lived) title.
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Post by gothos on Sept 15, 2014 16:18:47 GMT -5
Golden Age hero The Hangman spun off from the PEP Comics feature "The Comet," who was killed in the line of duty. The Comet's brother then adopts the identity of the Hangman and carries on in the Comet's place, eventually being given his own (short-lived) title. This is the sort of thing I was thinking about, and my OP should have excluded franchises that spun off variations on the same concept, as the Marvel Family and the "Duck Family." I was trying to think of direct parallels to my "Hawkeye, etc." example, which meant characters being spun off that had no conceptual relationship to the host feature, and the only one I thought of was the Heap. Hangman certainly qualifies, though it was sort of a "pyrrhic spinoff" for the Comet... I have a dim memory from reading the Steranko HISTORY that Fawcett's Captain Marvel introduces a postwar character named "Radar" (now impossible to think about w/o adding "O'Reilly?"). I'm not sure if that was in a Cap Marvel story or in Radar's own feature, though. |
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Sept 15, 2014 18:02:33 GMT -5
DC had a number of instances where supporting characters ended up supplanting the main characters. I'm not sure why DC did it that way, but for whatever reason, when a new character got unexpectedly popular, instead of giving them an additional strip, DC usually just had them replace the older character.
One prime example would be Black Canary, who first appeared as a bad guy in the Johnny Thunder strip in Flash Comics #86. In the next issue, she returned, only now as a good guy teaming up with Johnny. After a few issues where they teamed up, Johnny was dropped entirely and it became a Black Canary strip.
This sort of thing also happened to characters like the Spectre and Green Lantern during the Golden Age.
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Post by benday-dot on Sept 15, 2014 19:19:16 GMT -5
Boy Commandos was an extremely popular spinoff book. It debuted in Detective Comics, proving to be as popular as lead Batman himself, and went on to also get a spot in Worlds Finest, before getting its own title. I've read that Boy Commandos was at its peak one of DC's best selling books, and this probably meant sales in the millions back in the day.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 15, 2014 19:28:48 GMT -5
I expected Scott Harris would have mentioned Iron Jaw, Crimebuster's arch foe who spun off into his own backup feature in Boy Comics.
Plastic Man's pal Woozy Winks had his own feature in Plas's comic, but there was another Plastic Man spinoff, Her Highness, a humor comic featuring an old woman who was a criminal. She appeared in a Plastic Man story as the villain, and debuted in her own backup feature within an issue or two.
The Golden Age Flash's goofy comic relief characters, Winky, Blinky, and Noddy (Three Stooges knockoffs), were also given their own backup feature, and I believe there were Lois Lane and Etta Candy (with the Holliday Girls) stories--maybe just one of each?--backing up Superman and Wonder Woman comics in the Golden Age.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 15, 2014 20:14:05 GMT -5
And how can we not mention Robin getting his own solo feature for 65 issues in Star Spangled Comics beginning in 1947
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Sept 17, 2014 13:43:23 GMT -5
Richie Rich spun out of Little Dot although, surprisingly, it took him 7 years.
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