First comic miniseries? 3 3

[warden5523]

I recently impulse-bought World of Krypton #1 and realized that it touts itself as the first comic book miniseries. I guess I was surprised that the first comic miniseries happened in 1979 and not earlier, but some light google research seemed to confirm it. But then I thought if anyone might have some contrary information, they'd be on these boards.

[Shadow]

I remember buying it at drug store. Was unique at time but I was only 13. No historical context

[OtherEric]

I'm pretty sure it is the first book specifically conceived as a mini-series.  One-shots have been around much longer, though.

[miraclemet]

Does it SAY its a miniseries? I dont see anything on the cover...

[steveinthecity]

There’s a House ad announcing it.

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

AFAIK, it's accurately described as the "first miniseries".

[Brock]

I was 12, and bought it off the newsstand. I remember thinking the miniseries idea was such a brilliant and obvious but overlooked idea... In 1977, the TV miniseries “Roots” was the biggest thing on television, but it took two years for someone to think about applying the idea to comics.

At the time, anthology titles were in decline, but #1s were a hot commodity among collectors.

And I also remember Untold Legend of the Batman as the 2nd miniseries.

Edited November 5, 2020 by Brock

[shadroch]

Rich Man, Poor Man  was a huge hit a year or two before Roots.  

I've always considered the 1973 Legion of Super-Heroes series as a limited series, even though it was all reprints. 

[mrlatko]

Bought Contest of Champions off the shelf from Marvel.  Think that was their first mini?

[the blob]

well, marvel and DC produced plenty of minis before then ... at least unintentionally ... plenty of titles that didn't go past 4 - 6 issues!

 

[piper]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:11 PM, mrlatko said:

Bought Contest of Champions off the shelf from Marvel.  Think that was their first mini?

I would think so.

[the blob]

It makes sense that this would catch on when the direct market did. Minis might be a hard sell to newsstands. Frankly, all second and third tier titles would seem to have been tough sells.

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

It makes sense that this would catch on when the direct market did. Minis might be a hard sell to newsstands. Frankly, all second and third tier titles would seem to have been tough sells.

If you look at the annual circulation reports, DC had trouble selling any superhero comics in the late 1970s.  Their horror lineup consistently outsold Superman and Batman. 

[the blob]

18 minutes ago, shadroch said:

If you look at the annual circulation reports, DC had trouble selling any superhero comics in the late 1970s.  Their horror lineup consistently outsold Superman and Batman. 

which is odd because some of the batman books were ok. with that said I remember my older brother had a friend who read the D.C. books and everyone else was a marvel zombie and they used to give him such grief, like only someone who is ___ would read DC super hero comics.

i get it, i'd rather buy this than some superman family book for sure:

if you look at a lot of the superman and batman books around then, so much are filler with one off, non super powered villians ... they wanted batman to be a crime fighter, so he was dealing with a lot of regular crime/playing detective. meanwhile, nearly every week spiderman was doing battle with some bad arse dudes/dudettes in one of his titles. 

but given the quantity of these late 70s DC super hero books out in the market, i suspect those unsold newsstand copies got sucked back into the market and not pulped, inhabiting 5 for $1 boxes for years to come.

Edited January 28, 2021 by the blob

[Axelrod]

Don't forget the first "Maxi-series!"

Or, do forget it.  You know.  I thought it was cool.  I was young.  

[bronze_rules]

Interesting trivia. I wouldn't have known that. But I don't see anything refuting it.

History[edit]

In 1979, in the process of recovering from the DC Implosion, publisher DC Comics experimented with a new format in the World of Krypton "miniseries",^[2] as DC termed such short-run works. The new format allowed the company to tell stories that may not have fit into an ongoing series and to showcase characters in a short story without the risk and obligations of an ongoing monthly. In 1980, DC followed World of Krypton with the three-issue series The Untold Legend of the Batman, by Len Wein, John Byrne, and Jim Aparo. DC produced three more limited series in 1981, featuring another Krypton series, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Green Lantern Corps.

With the success of the miniseries format, DC followed by experimenting with longer stories and concepts outside their universe of superheroes. Debuting in 1982, Camelot 3000 was the first limited series to run to 12 issues. DC coined the term "maxiseries" as a promotional description for this.^[3]

It did not take long for other publishers to begin using the limited series format. In 1982, Marvel Comics published its first limited series, Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions,^[4] followed shortly thereafter by miniseries featuring the X-Men's Wolverine and then the Avengers' The Vision and the Scarlet Witch. At first, Marvel used the limited series format to feature popular characters from team titles and put them in solo adventures. Contest of Champions brought forth the idea of a major event affecting the Marvel Universe; crossovers were introduced in limited series form before the concept of multi-title crossovers was even conceived. This would be taken further with the 12-issue Secret Wars saga in 1984 and by DC's saga Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-1986.

[Muno42]

8 hours ago, Axelrod said:

Don't forget the first "Maxi-series!"

Or, do forget it.  You know.  I thought it was cool.  I was young.  

I loved this series!