mini-series

[dan bailey]

having had my earlier query about the advent of #0 issues addressed so knowledgeably, i now find myself wondering about another still-continuing phenomena that seems to have begun only a few years after i took my leave from the comics field circa 12/78 -- the proliferation of mini-series.

off the top of my head (i.e. without resorting to the gcd), it seems like by '82 or so, you couldn't turn around without falling over a 4-ish mini, particularly from marvel (or maybe those are just the ones i've gone back & bought 20-plus years after the fact). anyone have any recollection on the who/what/when (& heck, if you're really knowledgeable, the how/why) of the beginnings of this trend?

[Cherokee Jack]

I think the first mini-series was from DC, WORLD OF KRYPTON, from the late 70s. Or I could be completely be misremembering the whole thing.

[MWGallaher]

I agree, World of Krypton was the first intentional American miniseries...as for how/why, I assume it was to capitalize on the recent Superman movie; the first issue is dated July 1979, so it probably came out in March, just 2 or 3 months after the film's debut. And although it's easy to imagine creating an ongoing Krypton series, if your intention is to appeal to the movie audience, you have to get to the climactic planetary destruction pretty quickly, so I guess that led them to the great idea of doing a limited series. And yes, it was a great idea. I loved knowing that I wasn't going to have the rug pulled out from under me when I invested in a series that told me in advance it was only going to run 3 or 4 issues. Yes, I got burned by some bad ones--Marvel's Iceman (1984) stands out as a really terrible production--but I loved getting short-run series featuring characters that would never rate a shot at an ongoing book, like Wolverine. ;)

[benday-dot]

Didn't know about the World of Krypton... first one I picked up and remember is Untold Legend of the Batman from sometime in 1980.

[MWGallaher]

Didn't know about the World of Krypton... first one I picked up and remember is Untold Legend of the Batman from sometime in 1980.
...which was a superior effort to Krypton...Byrne and Aparo! and then lots more Aparo! DC got a lot of mileage out of that one, reproduced in paperback and cassette tape combos, and it was a top-notch effor.

[Bill Angus]

World of Krypton had the potential for great art... didn't Chaykin pencil that?

I know he didn't ink it it...

[Lone Ranger]

Didn't know about the World of Krypton... first one I picked up and remember is Untold Legend of the Batman from sometime in 1980.

That was my first one as well - would could pass up that cover to #1?

My first Marvel mini was either Wolverine or Contest of Champions, not sure which one hit stands first.

[Jolly Mon]

Contest of Champions was Marvel's 1st, as I recall.

[Bill Angus]

World of Kyrpton was pencilled by Chaykin, inks by Murphy Anderson. I haven't looked at it years... but it seems to me that Anderson sort-of sucked the Chaykin out of it (Vinnie Colleta did a similar thing to Chaykin on one of Marvel's James Bond film adaptations, IIRC).

[MWGallaher]

Contest of Champions was Marvel's 1st, as I recall.
I believe that's right...although as I recall, it wasn't originally prepared as a miniseries, but as a one-shot Treasury Edition to coincide with the 1980 Olympics. By the time Marvel retooled it (due to the US boycott of the Olympics that year), the Treasury format was dead and DC had blazed the miniseries trail, so we got it in installments.

[Aaron King]

Here I thought you guys were badmouthing the 1980s World of Krypton pencilled by Mike Mignola, which would be okay because it wasn't excellent by any means, but it looked pretty nice.

I've actually been stumbling across weird Superman minis lately. I got two issues of "Superman Presents the Krypton Chronicles" which traces Kal-El's family back through the ages. Turns out his ancestors are the Columbus, Galileo, Benjamin Franklin, and any other important historical figures of Krypton.

I also found an issue of "The Phantom Zone" with some nice art by Gene Colan. It was pretty psychedelic, mapping out different parts of the Phantom Zone as Superman and Mon-El explored it.

[Bill Angus]

Those are both from the early 80s as well, right? I'm pretty sure I've got both of those series in a box somewhere. I was a bit of sucker when it came to minis (at least when they were a relatively new & unique format) - I bought most of the one's that came down the pike back then. Eventually, I became more... discriminating.

I definately remember the Phantom Zone one - Colan art & references to (now absolutely archaic) newspaper paste-up work.