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39-418: DC Special Series was an umbrella title for one-shots and special issues published by DC Comics between 1977 and 1981. Each issue featured a different character and was often in a different format than the issue before it. DC Special Series was published in four different formats: Dollar Comics , 48 page giants, digests , and treasury editions. Neither the umbrella title nor the numbering system appear on

78-462: A Batman vs. Kobra story by Martin Pasko , Michael Netzer (Nasser) , and Joe Rubinstein originally scheduled for the unpublished Kobra #8 . DC Special Series #1 also included the story, "How to Prevent a Flash", which introduces Patty Spivot . That character would later appear in season two of The Flash TV series, portrayed by actress Shantel VanSanten . DC Special Series started out as

117-786: A biweekly title in 1977 until Spring 1978, when it became quarterly. The series went on hiatus after the Fall 1978 issue and was revived in Summer 1979. Two stories originally scheduled to appear in DC Special Series were split apart and published in other titles due to the DC Implosion . The final three issues were in the oversized treasury format. Issue #25 was a tie-in to the Superman II film and #26 featured "Secrets of Superman's Fortress" by Roy Thomas , Ross Andru , and Romeo Tanghal . The last issue

156-463: A high color content. They are normally cover-dated with the following year's date to ensure that stockists do not remove them from their shelves immediately after the new year. One of the earliest annuals was issued in 1822. Frederic Shoberl was the founding editor of Ackermann ' s The Forget-me-not , which was an early annual, a then-new type of publication in England. Shoberl continued to edit

195-528: A pretty woman with a lapdog . "The American Book of Beauty" also has several copies of the books with portraits in different orders. One edition of the "Heath's Book of Beauty" was a college project and contained poems, short stories, etc. 1826 was not a good year for the annuals, because of the Panic of 1825 . Thomas Hood 's sarcastic poem "The Battle of the Annuals" was published in the 1830s. Watercolor became popular in

234-668: A series of one-shots would be Marvel Comics ' Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius publications. This type of one-shot is not to be confused with a comic book annual , which is typically a companion publication to an established ongoing series. The term has also been borrowed into the Franco-Belgian comics industry, with basically the same meaning, although there it mostly refers to comic albums . The comic art histories of different countries and regions are following divergent paths. Japanese early comic art or manga took its rise from

273-494: A single library catalog record for the title, not for individual years. The single record must then indicate which volumes (years) are held. The mid- and late 20th century saw a sharp increase in the publication of annuals to report scientific results and provide overview, both in ever more specialized topics and in popular summary. A new form of literary work called the "Annual" was a fad from about 1823 through 1857 and became so popular that they were soon published up to 17 times

312-483: A story for A-list characters which "creates an opportunity for a rising star to encounter the dedicated fanbase associated with these series, developing overlap that can expand the audience for talented new voices and grow the publisher's concept of who should be part of their top tier of creators". In 2017, Katie Schenkel, for Book Riot , highlighted that annuals are "less common that they were 20 or 30 years ago, but when companies decide to put them out for specific series

351-408: A unifying theme, either a similar theme that individual stories were written around, or a crossover storyline bringing many of the characters in the individual publishers' continuities together for a single overall event. In the case of the "crossover" annuals, the number of characters and annuals involved in a crossover story varied. Some were company-wide, incorporating virtually every character in

390-411: A year. British royalty increased their popularity. They closely resemble many college literary "books" just produced for college campus today, except they contained many etchings of beautiful women from steel plates. They were the fashion magazines of the day. Later it became fashionable to watercolor the etchings and the "Annuals" became early coloring books. There was later a backlash against "beauty" and

429-643: Is a volume that summarizes events of the past year. One of the earliest is The Annual Register , published in London since 1758. A forerunner is Abel Boyer 's The Political State of Great Britain (38 volumes, 1711–29). Later examples include The Statesman's Yearbook (since 1864) and the Daily Mail Year Book (since 1901). Two early German titles are Europäischer Geschichtskalender , founded in 1861 by Heinrich Schulthess and Gottlob Egelhaaf's Historisch-politische Jahresübersicht (28 volumes, 1908–1936). In

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468-427: Is still the majority of American comic market. Around the late 1960s- mid-1970s, due to the dislocations of social developments, alternative comic art traditions were developing under the era. This alternative underground comix movement used the medium as a method for radical changes. In more recent years, European albums are still the dominant comic format in their own markets, while superhero comic books dominate

507-502: The United States , one-shots are usually labeled with a "#1" despite there being no following issues, and are sometimes subtitled as "specials". On occasion, a character or concept will appear in a series of one-shots, in cases where the subject matter is not financially lucrative enough to merit an ongoing or limited series , but still popular enough to be published on a regular basis, often annually or quarterly. A current example of

546-401: The "bust", when numbered series of annuals had reached the tens or twenties, indicating over a decade of regular publication. Currently, the comic book annual is still something of a rarity, its purpose in presenting "extra" material often served by Special Edition s that are released at random intervals rather than the set yearly schedule of an annual. Annuals often allow new talent to develop

585-400: The 12th century and developed from Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga ("Animal-person Caricatures"), went so far as to ukiyo-e ("floating world") in the 17th century. Western-style humour comics and caricatures had been introduced into Japan in the late 19th century and impacted on the styles of comic art. On the other hand, the significant development of modern era Japanese comic art was arising in

624-629: The 1830s and the black and white etchings were the coloring books of the day. In 1842, Volume 1, page 521 of the Illustrated London News , there are sarcastic pictures poking fun at the annuals. In 1844 there was an article referring to it as imbecilic mania and finally the " Obituary for the Annual" appeared in the Art Journal of 1857. The death of the annuals and new photo techniques replacing etching ended most engravers' careers. A yearbook

663-482: The 1930s, a specific form of comic, the superhero comic , has been causing a feeding frenzy in America and further impacted on other countries' comic markets. It dominated the publishing industry on comic art, and most of the published comic books were contained one-shot stories rather than serialized stories. A single popular protagonist always centered all the highlights in a superhero comic story. This best-selling model

702-461: The 20th century, Western alternative comic art was quickly developed as well as 1970s and 1980s' America. Also, America has stirred up a spree of superhero comics since 1930s, and this comic form is still dominating the comic market. In this period, comic strips and magazines were the major reading formats that had been leading the markets. Divergent genres such as humour , caricature , and horror were dominant forms of comics in that time. In

741-834: The American market rather than continued stories. Several large comic book publishers , Entertainments and animation production companies were established such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics . On another note, Japanese comics are increasing in popularity as Japanese-style anthologies are published in America in recent decades. Annual publication#Comic books Annual publications , more often simply called annuals , are periodical publications appearing regularly once per year . Although exact definitions may vary, types of annuals include: calendars and almanacs , directories , yearbooks , annual reports , proceedings and transactions and literary annuals . A weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to

780-500: The North Star , Naruto , Bleach , One Piece , Berserk , Kinnikuman , Attack on Titan and Death Note . Rising Stars of Manga was an annual competition for original English-language one-shot manga, many of which have gone on to become full-length manga series. Some noted manga authors, such as Akira Toriyama and Rumiko Takahashi , have worked on numerous one-shot stories in addition to their serialized works. In

819-501: The aftermath of World War II and further developed into diversified genres. Nowadays, almost a quarter of all printed materials in Japan are in forms of manga, while the audiences are from all ages. Most modern era one-shot manga ( yomikiri 読み切り ) have independent settings, characters, and storylines, rather than sharing them with existing works. In Japan and other Asian countries, some one-shot manga are more like takeoff boards to determine

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858-449: The annual until 1834. A junior version called The Juvenile Forget-me-not was published from 1828 onward. For many years until the near-collapse of the British children's comics market, an annual would be published each year for each of the comic titles published by Thomson and IPC/Fleetway, featuring extra adventures of the comic's current and former characters, plus additional material in

897-515: The annuals are often out towards the end of summer. Comic story arcs tend to be around six issues long, and annuals fit in between one arc and the next". In the U.K. , a large number of annuals are published shortly before the end of each year by companies such as D. C. Thomson , Egmont (formerly IPC/ Fleetway ), and Rebellion Developments , aimed at the Christmas market. These annuals are generally large-sized hardcover books with over 100 pages and

936-725: The case of comic books , an annual is an extra issue that corresponds with an ongoing series , providing story material in addition to the customary 12 issues per year of a monthly series and filling holes in a publishing schedule that are usually created when a fifth release day falls in a month. A comic book annual customarily has a larger page count than its monthly counterpart, leaving room for longer single stories, biographical information on featured characters, full-page pin-ups of characters, reprints of previously published material, and/or all-new short stories (often called "back-up" stories). Chase Magnett, for ComicBook.com , highlighted that "annuals are ultimately best defined by being what

975-413: The characters featured than in the monthly publications, reflecting the "special" status of their once-yearly publication. Most annuals consisted of standalone stories that did not fit in with the then-current thrust of the monthly series' storyline. In the late 1980s and much of the 1990s, annuals published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics were usually released in the summer of the year and often had

1014-404: The cover; the title "DC Special Series" appeared only on the first page in the indicia . Most issues featured new material, but eight issues were reprints of previously published material. DC Special Series was preceded by the theme-based reprint title DC Special , which ceased publication the month before DC Special Series debuted. The first issue included "The Dead on Arrival Conspiracy",

1053-596: The early market, for example, during the Depression comics were used to increase the sales of newspapers and some other products in the United States. Most of the comics were one-shot comics before the rise of long continuities in newspaper strips . After some early developments, weekly comic magazines became the major way of dissemination in European comic markets. Influenced by the chaos of social revolutions and changings in

1092-468: The fad ended, as did steel plate etchings for books. "The Annual" was a long-running fad from 1824 until 1857 which started in England, but spilled over into the U.S. Steel plates of the 1820s allowed book publishers to mass-produce pictures. What started out as an "annual book" or a gift for the holidays turned into something that had up to 17 editions through the year (yet were still called annuals). Countess Blessington and other royal women contributed to

1131-528: The form of puzzles, text articles, etc. Annuals were often even published for comics which had themselves ceased publication or been absorbed into other titles; for example, Scorcher annuals were still being published 10 years after the comic itself had been absorbed into Tiger . Today, this section of the market has been reduced to just a couple of surviving titles. In addition, annuals are often published centered on sports, toys, currently-popular celebrities, recently released films, and popular TV series. In

1170-445: The late 1990s, mainly due to the near-collapse of the comic book industry in the wake of the speculator boom ; annuals were seen as an unnecessary risk in a climate where many monthly publications were in danger of cancellation for lack of sales (especially at Marvel, which filed for bankruptcy at this time). When the industry began to recover from the "bust", annuals began re-appearing on occasion, but by no means as regularly as before

1209-428: The monthly issues are not" and that "the only consistency surrounding the concept of these special sorts of issues is that they have been around in some form or another just about as long as superhero comics have been published". An annual is considered a separate series for purposes of numbering and collectability; a particular periodical's Annual will thus have its own numbering series, or alternately be referred to by

DC Special Series - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-492: The period of the 1950s to the 1980s, companies like World Distributors , Brown Watson , and Grandreams were known for publishing annuals based on licensed characters and properties. British annuals are also published featuring American characters such as Spider-Man , often with simplified content aimed at younger readers. As tastes in these areas change, so does the line-up of annuals released each year. The increasing emphasis in recent years on annuals of this type (as opposed to

1287-591: The popularity among the audience. The format of a one-shot manga could be changed if it has a broad market prospect, so that: The prototype comic works in Western countries were pamphlets , giveaways, or Sunday newspaper comic sections in the 19th century. These were then developed and published as comic magazines which were distributed with the newspapers sales on newsstands . On the other hand, graphic books in America were also viewed as developing from pamphlets that sold on newsstands. Comics were not highly regarded in

1326-427: The publisher's shared universe whose series received an annual edition. Most of those which used smaller groups of characters were specific to teams or "extended families" of characters; annual crossovers with no preexisting connection between the characters do exist, such as Marvel Comics' "Lifeform" from 1990, but are comparatively rare. Annuals published by DC and particularly Marvel became fewer and far between by

1365-406: The regular publication. Some encyclopedias have published annual supplements that essentially summarize the news of the past year, similar to some newspaper yearbooks . To libraries and collectors, annuals present challenges of size (tens or hundreds of volumes) and completeness (acquiring a sequence with no missing volumes). They are handled similar to serial publications, which typically means

1404-515: The very beginning, magazines were divided from the comic supplements of newspapers within a decade of their first appearance in America. On the other side of the coin, in Europe, magazine format was developed as a comic supplement of newspapers along European features and never lost the identification. It is worth mentioning that comic art is developing more rapidly during social revolutions, while comic strips were very topical and aimed at all ages. Since

1443-446: The works and altered fashion. This fad was sometimes referred to as "beauty", as books with plates of women defined the content. In one book, the steel plate was damaged and another picture of a woman was simply used as a replacement. The illustrations often had nothing to do with the text content. The content of the text was often of poor quality and "The American Book of Beauty" contained a story of prison torture with an illustration of

1482-587: The year of its publication. As a result, annuals are much less valuable as collectables than other comic books, since collectors do not view them as part of a complete series run. Comic book annuals originally were little more than reprint albums (for example Superman Annual #1, August 1960), representing stories that had first seen publication in their monthly counterparts, but eventually, this changed to annuals featuring primarily all-new material (the first example being Fantastic Four Annual #1, July 1963 ). Later annuals often featured stories with greater import to

1521-574: Was a DC-Marvel crossover between Batman and the Hulk . One-shot (comics) In the Japanese manga industry, one-shots are called yomikiri ( 読み切り ) , a term which implies that the comic is presented in its entirety without any continuation. One-shot manga are often written for contests, and sometimes later developed into a full-length series, much like a television pilot . Many popular manga series began as one-shots, such as Dragon Ball , Fist of

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