1st Issue Special

Comics anthology series from DC Comics

1st Issue Special is a comics anthology series from DC Comics, done in a similar style to their Showcase series. It was published from April 1975 to April 1976. The goal was to showcase a new possible first issue of an ongoing series each month, with some issues debuting new characters and others reviving dormant series from DC's past. No series were actually launched from 1st Issue Special but the Warlord made his first appearance in the title and the character's ongoing series was already slated to debut a few months later.

Writer Gerry Conway explained the series' origin: "1st Issue Special was a peculiar book concept based on [publisher] Carmine Infantino's observation that first issues of titles often sold better than subsequent issues. Carmine's brainstorm: a monthly series of nothing but first issues. It sounds like a joke, but he was dead serious". Conway has also denied that 1st Issue Special was a tryout series, pointing out that tryout series run each feature for several issues so that the publisher has enough time to get sales figures before deciding whether to give the feature its own series; since each feature in 1st Issue Special ran only one issue, DC would have had to either launch the new series before sales figures came in for the tryout (thus making the feature's appearance in 1st Issue Special pointless) or launch the new series six months or more after the tryout issue (by which time reader interest in the feature would have faded). and Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg's Return of the New Gods, which appeared in issue #13. A number of issues featured existing DC characters: issue #3, Metamorpho, issue #5, Manhunter, issue #7, the Creeper, issue #9, the Golden Age character Doctor Fate, and issue #13, the New Gods. The Metamorpho feature reunited the character's creators, writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon. Haney and Fradon had met at the 1974 San Diego Comic Con, and while reminiscing, it emerged that both of them regarded Metamorpho as one of the features they had most enjoyed working on, leading them to ask DC if they could do one more Metamorpho story together. 1st Issue Special never printed a letters column, opting instead to accompany each feature with a "Story Behind the Story" text page. Characters from 1st Issue Special star in the 12 issue 2022 2023 DC Black Label series Danger Street by Tom King and Jorge Fornes. Instead of devoting separate issues to each character or group, as in the original series, Danger Street incorporates all the different characters into overlapping narratives.

Issue #DateFeatured character and story titleWriterArtists1April 1975AtlasJack KirbyJack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry2May 1975The Green Team: Boy MillionairesJoe Simon Jerry Grandenetti3June 1975Metamorpho, The Element Man: "The Freak and the Billion Dollar Phantom". Bob HaneyRamona Fradon4July 1975Lady Cop: "Poisoned Love"Robert Kanigher John Rosenberger and Vince Colletta5August 1975ManhunterJack Kirby Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry6September 1975Dingbats of Danger StreetJack Kirby Jack Kirby and Mike Royer7October 1975The Creeper: "Menace of The Human Fire Fly". Michael FleisherSteve Ditko and Mike Royer8November 1975The Warlord: "Land of Fear"Mike Grell 9December 1975Doctor Fate: "The Mummy That Time Forgot"Martin PaskoWalt Simonson10January 1976The Outsiders: "Us The Outsiders". Joe Simon Jerry Grandenetti and Creig Flessel11February 1976Codename: AssassinGerry Conway and Steve Skeates The Redondo Studio and Al Milgrom12March 1976StarmanGerry ConwayMike Vosburg and Mike Royer13April 1976Return of the New Gods: "Lest Night Fall Forever". Gerry Conway and Denny O'NeilMike Vosburg