These days, I see so many readers complaining that all we get are “revamped” and “redesigned” characters, instead of the flood of brand-new concepts that we used to see in the 60s and 70s… and the truth is that those times are not coming back, EVER again. In our day and age, if a comics creator has a brand-new character idea, he’s going to KEEP that idea until he can publish it himself; while in the 60s, the main companies were pretty much the only game in town for a comics creator with new superhero ideas. Let’s face it: Todd McFarlane wouldn’t be NEARLY as rich as he is today if Spawn were a Marvel character.

So by all means, let’s look at these old “Marvel Premiere” and “DC Showcase” with all the fondness they deserve – but let’s also understand that books like these, filled with bold and outrageous new characters, are a thing of the past as far as Marvel and DC are concerned. The bold and outrageous new characters of OUR time still can be found, mind you, but not on Marvel or DC. Now they’re published outside the “Big Two”, and the good news is that these characters’ creators still own them: heroes like Astro City‘s Jack-In-The-Box, the retired superhero from Ex Machina, the mystical superheroine Promethea… and of course, there are many crappy “new ideas” too, characters just as bad as the worst “Marvel Premiere” auditioners.

Meanwhile, Marvel and DC repeatedly “redesign” their old properties, always hoping to attract new readers… and instead of really NEW ideas we get new costumes and/or powers for decades-old characters such as Nova, Batwoman, Mister Terrific and Luke Cage (who’s still the black stereotype he always was, but now instead of an afro he dresses like Shaft). Because that’s IT for these two publishers; we fans can’t really expect the writers and artists, who have families to feed, to introduce brand-new characters in books whose publishers won’t let them keep the rights over their creations. That leaves Marvel and DC with their existing (and vast!) universes of already-owned properties, so that’s the best they can offer us: reheated/revamped/redesigned old characters. If we want new and outrageous concepts, we gotta look outside the “big two”.

The fun of these series from a back issue hunting perspective is definitely being able to read some potentially really out there material that in all liklihood will never see a collection (unless somebody wants to do a “Weird stuff we did” book). Some concepts leave you wondering just why they didn’t take off (where’s my Legion of Monsters book, dangit!!??) and others make it fairly self-evident.

Lois Lane, on the other hand, had a try-out in Showcase in 1957, and had her own title six months later.

That’s right. Very often, the team-up books at Marvel were used to tie up loose ends of series that got canceled or never greenlit in the first place. That’s why, in addition to the Woodgod example you mentioned, you saw such unlikely pairings as Ben Grimm and the Scarecrow in Marvel Two-In-One, or Ben, Spider-Man and Warlock on the moon in the Marvel Two-In-One Annual.

I just went digging in old cover archives and discovered Marvel Premiere. Seriously? *Awesome.* I want all of them. Woodgod, man! WOODGOD!!! I’d bring him back. Yes, I’m the only one who would do so.

And anything Kirby did back then was gold, even Dingbats, I’m sure. Karl Kesel will attest to that.

It’s a shame that anthologies like these fail in today’s market. That’s what happens when you lose the newsstands, and kids, who are the ultimate impulse buyers.

I also liked seeing the succession of almost always unsuccessful but often interesting characters and situations.

Woodgod is my copilot!

Failed audition characters have always fascinated me!