It's Been That Kind Of Year, Alright

Earlier this week, between the Christmas and New Year's holidays here in the U.S., Diamond Distributors has finally given an official announcement of the cancellation "by the publisher" of the first ever trade collection of Rachel Pollack's DOOM PATROL stories. The announcement came nearly a month after it was reported by Newsarama on November 30th, shortly after Diamond posted their monthly cancellation announcements for December. That made this week's January 2018 Cancellations the earliest outlet to make it a matter of record.

Given a provisional title of "Book 4" when it was solicited last spring, it would have included #'s 64-74, plus ANNUAL #2 and the Doom Patrol story from VERTIGO JAM (1993). It would have had ISBN# [978] 14012-7451-X [or 1], but also would have had nearly 400 pages for $39.95. The page count of the Annual and the short story averages out to about two normal issues, so the remaining uncompiled issues (#75-87) would fill a hypothetical second volume (provisionally called "Book 5"?) roughly the same size and price. According to the Newsarama account, the title will not be resolicited. It's just my own speculation that the price might be intimidating. Whatever the actual reason, DC likely wasn't committed to the project since the Amazon page for the book still has the cover of Pollack's first issue (#64) complete with March 1993 cover date and $1.75 price clearly visible in the upper left hand corner standing in the place of whatever cover art the book would have had. It wouldn't have been a bad idea for the trade paperback to use the same Brian Bolland art used for the cover of #64, but DC never bothered to use a reproduction without the comic's now 25-year old trade dress.

I'm hoping that the reason it "won't be resolicited" is that the followed the reasoning I suggested eight years ago in this blog, recommending a three-volume configuration, which would likely mean each costing $29.95. Three books for $90 versus two books for $80 might, counterintuitively, get higher orders. People always pay more in installments. Call it a mortgage. See the break down here:
DP05-AA Pollack Period synopsis

Flex Mentallo vs. Lucy Van Pelt

.....I know that it's off-season to be using football metaphors so soon after the Super Bowl, but the goal posts have been moved again. For those who have just walked in on this movie, you can check the last three blog posts for details. The short recap is that in the fall of 2011 DC Comics announced that they would publish a deluxe hardcover collection of the Flex Mentallo mini-series published under the Vertigo imprint in 1996. This is germane to this blog because the character Flex was created by Grant Morrison for his run on Doom Patrol in the early 1990's. Morrison turned the series' scripting chores over to Rachel Pollack, who wrote all of the issues under the Vertigo imprint. After Doom Patrol was cancelled Morrison wrote the mini-series as a self-contained story. About two years later DC announced that it would republish the story as a paperback, but legal challenges (which DC eventually won) caused plans for the book to be shelved indefinitely. Since then there have been a few sporadic announcements of their intention to finally publish it, all fruitless.

.....Over the past decade, Pollack's run on Doom Patrol has also remained uncollected and out of print (as has the bulk of the Vertigo comics featuring DCU continuity characters), but Morrison's pre-Vertigo run has been entirely reprinted as six paperbacks with the Vertigo logo. The newly announced Flex Mentallo hardcover would also (more logically) be under Vertigo according to its original solicitation last fall. However, the original projected date of publication (February 1st) has been regularly nudged since the new year began. Shortly after my previous post the Diamond Distributors website announced that the release date for direct market outlets had been changed to March 28th, putting it in line with DC's own website. General interest booksellers would sell their copies the following Tuesday (April 3rd). This week the March cancellation announcements were posted on Diamond's website and once again the hardcover escaped the axe, but today when I checked DC's website the direct release date had been changed once again to April 4th. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

.....I suppose that by the middle of next week the Diamond shipping updates will reflect the new date and non-direct retailers will similarly change theirs to April 10th. The question on my mind is whether they will be sent a replacement promotional script. At the moment the sites I checked (Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indigo) all carry the same capsule description, presumably supplied to them by DC. The description mentions that this is a Vertigo series. The sites each name DC as the publisher with the book's 'stats' (cost, length, ISBN #, etc.), which is what they do with all Vertigo trades. "Vertigo" is also how DC first categorized the book on its website where it maintains completely different pages for Vertigo and DCU trades, with each list containing both published and pending titles. At some point after I began tracking it, though, the still unpublished hardcover was removed from the DC website's Vertigo trade page and added to its DCU trade page. The significance of this is that there would be no point in doing this if the character would never see print again in new stories.

.....Grant Morrison's non-Vertigo Doom Patrol comics were reprinted as Vertigo paperbacks when John Byrne began a new Doom Patrol series in 2004. According to Byrne, he was told that the characters were to be newly introduced to the DCU as though they had never existed before, thus the Morrison run would be relegated to a non-continuity Vertigo status. The concensus seems to be that there was more money to be made in movies or animation with the concept than in print, but only if there was no baggage in the backstory. Byrne or no Byrne, they were going to be relaunched to establish any new identity that would more easily transfer to screen. There are accounts from outside of comics fandom that a movie option for the Doom Patrol name was indeed sold to someone, but events of the last five years make it hard to believe that those plans, whatever they were, will ever be realized. During the Giffen run all the previous incarnations of the DP were reintegrated into DC continuity just before the notion of having coherence across an imprint became some kind of taboo at DC. If the Flex hardcover had been originally listed with the DCU trades, then it would have been keeping with the publisher's current trend of just not caring about the distinction. But moving it after the fact was a deliberate act. Why? Why would the continuity status of a character who hasn't had an adventure in fifteen years matter to a company that doesn't maintain any sense of continuity in the books they currently publish? The two opinions I've heard is that Vertigo will be phased out as an imprint or else Flex Mentallo the character will be brought into the DCU, possibly as a supporting character or guest star in an ongoing series. Maybe Morrison and artist Frank Quitely will give him a short story of his own to contribute to DC's annual Christmas anthology, because at the rate the hardcover is going that would be a good way to tie in to its eventual release.

DP05-BT01 Flex Mentallo news

.....It seems odd to post a 'trade' announcement for the Wilderness Years (summarized in DP05-AB) before there have even been collected trades solicited for the Pollack Period (DP05-AA). The reason I'm going ahead with it anyway is the nature of the item in question. Most of the comics I've cited in the Wilderness Years are brief cameos, short stories from anthologies, retro period stories or non-DP stories that relate tangentially to DP continuity, since this was the period between the cancellation of the Pollack stories under the Vertigo imprint and the group's tentative reintegration into DCU continuity. However, about three months ago DC announced that they would publish a deluxe edition hardcover of FLEX MENTALLO: MAN OF MUSCLE MYSTERY, a compilation of the four issue miniseries from 1996.

.....This is far from the first time a trade for the miniseries has been discussed. The first attempt was derailed by a lawsuit filed by the owners of Charles Atlas' image claiming that the character Flex Mentallo (an obvious parody of Atlas' comic strip advertisements so common in comic books during Grant Morrison's childhood) had damaged the company's reputation. They couldn't substantiate any such injury in court but I have read accounts that DC agreed to pay a nominal royalty rate to the company that now owns Charles Atlas' image whenever Flex Mentallo appears because it would cheaper than continuously defending themselves against frivolous claims. It also means they've avoided reprinting the miniseries.

.....There was once a paperback planned that would carry the ISBN# 978-156389-408-4. Its release was delayed and eventually cancelled. (Some online booksellers note its 'release' date as April 1, 1998; April Fools' Day.) At the time there had only been one DP trade, so Flex' original appearances in Doom Patrol [for one year from #35 (08/90) to #46 (08/91)] had never been reprinted. There was some disappointment, but in perspective the lack of a trade had not yet become a serious issue. That came when the same creative team (Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely) began a lengthy run on New X-Men for Marvel [#114(07/01) to #138(05/03); Morrison continued with art by (variously) Phil Jiminez, Chris Bachalo and Marc Silvestri until #154(05/04)]. During that run John Arcudi and Tang Eng Huat created a new Doom Patrol series [#1(12/01)-#22(09/03)]. Inevitably new fans following either the creators or characters backwards learned of the out of print material. Demand (and secondary market prices) grew.

.....After Morrison left New X-Men two things happened. A Claremont/Byrne story arc in JLA introduced a modernized version of the original Doom Patrol, with the premise that previous incarnations never existed. That led directly into yet another Doom Patrol series months before a second paperback collecting Morrison's Doom Patrol run was published in October 2004. The third, containing the first Flex Mentallo stories, followed in November 2005.

.....Just as the Byrne series ended, Morrison and Quitely returned as a team with All-Star Superman, an erratically published title yielding twelve issues in three years, during which the remaining three volumes of Morrison's Doom Patrol run were published. There was then a gap of almost a year until the Keith Giffen series began, but otherwise the past decade has been continuously overlapping DP or Morrison/Quitely projects even though none of them covered more than a few years. The cumulative effect has kept Flex Mentallo, now fifteen years out of print, on fandom's radar when many of his contemporaries have been long forgotten.

.....The latest version of the promised Flex Mentallo trade is in a hardcover format whose dimensions are somewhere between Golden Age and US Magazine sizes (7- 1/16" X 10- 7/8"). It should be 112 pages for $22.99 (US) with an ISBN# 978-140123-221-4 (or 10-digit 1-40123-221-3). The original release date was solicited as February 1, 2012, but that was changed to Feb. 15 (announced 12/13 on Diamond's website), then changed to Feb. 29 this past week (announced 12/27). Here's hoping that isn't an omen of cold feet again. All I know is that the new date leaves only one month until April Fools' Day.

.....[ADDENDUM January 19, 2012: Two days ago Diamond announced that their shipping date for the Flex Mentallo trade has been moved again from February 29th to March 14th.]

.....[ADDENDUM January 26, 2012: Two days ago Diamond announced that their shipping date for the Flex Mentallo trade has been moved again from March 14th to March 21st. That much closer to April Fools' Day, but not cancelled. Yet. <<Sigh.>>

DP02-09 Teen Titans reprint index 1972-1982

.....For one year from mid-1971 to mid-1972 DC comics did not publish comics in the standard 32-page length they had been using for nearly two decades. Their new standard became 48 pages at 25¢, known as the "Bigger and Better" format. Until then, that had been the price point of their 64-page "Giant" format, which then became 35¢ for its last four issues. While those four issues played out in the last half of 1971, three issues of a new title in a new format were published. DC 100 Page Super Spectacular was actually 96pp @ 50¢. By including the covers in the count, a nice round number could lend itself to marketing. As 1971 ended, the '100-page' series ceased to be a title per se and instead replaced the 64-page Giant special format for seven monthly issues. That ended temporarily when the "Bigger and Better" experiment ended, then it returned as a monthly title for a year as 1973 began. In 1974 it became a general format again, exploding to seven titles a month for a year.

.....The reason I bring all this up is because the time between the cancellation of the Original Period Doom Patrol series and the introduction of the New Doom Patrol in Showcase (when this sudden experimentation with formats took place) was a growth period in comics as a hobby. Monstrous print runs for a handful of titles each at several publishers gave way to smaller runs for an avalanche of titles at a shrinking number of publishers. Even with more titles, smaller print runs meant smaller profit margins for new material and both Marvel and DC made full use of the lower production costs of reprints. Dell and Tower were already ghosts and in ten years Charlton, Atlas/Seaboard, Harvey, Fawcett, Gilbert and Gold Key would be gone or going. Marvel and DC increasingly found themselves competing only with Archie and undergrounds, usually perceived as serving different markets and therefore more symbiotic than competitive. Marvel and DC in the early 1970's began slowly reducing non-super-hero and/or non-adventure stories. First went funny animals, then teen humor, then romance, then westerns, then war and finally, reluctantly, horror. Yet, this was also the time during which Robert M. Overstreet marketed the first commercially available comic book price guide. The first national scale comic book conventions were held. The direct market was created, eventually yielding direct-only titles by the early 1980's. These were to be sold in existing stores devoted to the hobby of reading and collecting comic books. This strongly suggests that the ratio of casual readers to hobbyists nearly reversed and that the hobbyists favored super-heroes. This meant packaging greater quantities of super-heroes (and in the early 70's, barbarian adventure) and much of those expanded formats at DC in the first half of the decade were filled out with reprints pulled out of three decades of back catalog. Even relatively new characters like Hawk & Dove and The Creeper saw their Showcase debuts reprinted even though they had no title or even feature of their own at the time.

.....I've already examined Doom Patrol reprints in three DP01-AR posts (February 8-10, 2010) in detail and a neat one-page post (February 14, 2010) with the basics for anyone who'd like a printable checklist. Of course, the entire series has been reprinted in both the Archive and "Showcase Presents..." formats. Teen Titans, roughly the same length, seems to have stalled as of this writing. There was one Archive of the original series and two "Showcase Presents..." (with a third necessary to include the revival and Hawk And Dove). By comparison, New Teen Titans has been reprinted in four Archives and a spattering of color paperbacks. When trying to research the visibility of Beast Boy and Mal Duncan during the nearly twenty years between the first and second Doom Patrol titles, their absence from reprints of Teen Titans stories was glaring. The only appearance of Gar in the original run (#6) has only been reprinted in bound volumes, to my knowledge. The revival issues have never been reprinted, meaning that Karen Beecher/Bumblebee doesn't show up on this list at all. Her other half, Mal Duncan, appears exactly once. That appearance is flagged accordingly.

1. Action Comics #409 (02/72)- 410 (03/72) Reprints Teen Titans #4 (07-08/66), split into two parts.
2. Superboy #185 [aka DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-12] (05/72) Reprints The Brave And The Bold #60 (06-07/65), their second appearance.
3. [DC] 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-21 [Superboy-themed issue, but published outside his title's numbering, unlike the issue above] Reprints The Brave And The Bold #54 (06-07/64), their first appearance.
4. The Brave And The Bold #114 (08-09/74) Reprints Teen Titans #5 (09-10/66).
5. The Brave And The Bold #116 (12/74-01/75) Reprints Teen Titans #16 (07-08/68).
6. Limited Collectors' Edition #C-34 (02-03/75) [this is a tabloid-sized "Christmas With The Super-Heroes"] Reprints Teen Titans #13 (01-02/68). This is missing page 2, with contemporary references to the Batman TV show, and alters some narration, but extends the art in some panels. Nick Cardy also does the ensemble cover with the Teen Titans (in their 1960's costumes) in the front and in portraits on the back.
7. Super-Team Family #1 (10-11/75) Reprints Teen Titans #19 (01-02/69) and has a new ensemble cover by Dick Giordano.
8. DC Super-Stars #1 (03/76) Reprints Teen Titans #11 (09-10/67) and #24 (11-12/69) plus five new pages combining text and spot illustrations. They discuss Gar and Mal, so they'll be covered in the next post.
9. DC Super-Stars #7 (09/76) Reprints the Aqualad back-up story from Teen Titans #30 (11-12/70)
10. [Mal appears] Super-Team Family #7 (10-11/76) Reprints Teen Titans #31 (01-02/71), and they also appear in part of a new composite cover by Ernie Chan and Vince Colletta. In this same issue is a full-page ad with original art announcing the revived series beginning the next month.

.....Finally, with a month to go before he returns with the new series Mal Duncan (and Lilith, come to think of it) shows up in one of the almost twice-annual sporadic reprints that had kept his teammates in the public eye. After the 1978 DC Implosion most of the publisher's larger page-count titles were anthologies of new material. Beginning in 1979 a new line of digest format titles emerged (possibly to explore new markets) which were primarily or entirely reprint material. The format was discontinued after Crisis in 1986 as DC began rewriting a new, coherent and consolidated history and wanted to be extremely selective about reprinting old stories lest they undermine the new continuity before it even had a chance to assert itself. Mal wasn't in these, either:

1. The Best Of DC #3 (01-02/80) Reprints Teen Titans #18 (11-12/68).
2. DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (11-12/80) Reprints the 8-page "THE ORIGIN OF WONDER GIRL" from Teen Titans #22 (07-08/69).
3. The Best Of DC #18 (11/81) This was an all-Teen Titans issue with new front and back covers by George Pérez and an original New Teen Titans story by Marv Wolfman and Carmine Infantino. The rest reprinted Teen Titans #20 (03-04/69), #21 (05-06/69), #22 (07-08/69) [except for the story reprinted the previous year] and #24 (11-12/69).
4. The Best Of DC #22 (03/82) Reprints Teen Titans #13 (01-02/68).

.....That last story continued to be reprinted in various Christmas collections over the years. A dozen issues in a decade and only one story from Mal's tenure. Better news in Part 6.

DP02-08 Beast Boy and Mal Duncan Part 5

.....We've reached 1971. Beast Boy and the Doom Patrol will remain unseen for six years (Gar reappears in Part 6). Mal Duncan has been asked to join a covert, government sponsored civic works program run by Mr. Jupiter, only to learn that he has become the only member of the Teen Titans without a super power. The team that created him has left the book and been replaced by industry veterans Murray Boltinoff (editor), Bob Haney (writer) and George Tuska (pencils). Also at this time only Robin and Kid Flash appear in back up features in titles for the characters from whom they were derived (Robin regularly in Batman and Kid Flash sporadically in Flash).

.....In the previous two years, the Teen Titans' roster had doubled from five (Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl and alternate Speedy) to ten (Hawk and Dove, Lilith, Mal and Gnarrk). With only ten issues left in the original run only Hawk and Dove leave until the revival a few years later. The other eight would appear in combinations of four to six both in the main title and guest appearances, such as the Brave And The Bold issue that closed Part 4. This juggling of the cast may keep everyone visible but it also makes it difficult to plan continuing stories. The choice of returning Bob Haney to scripts made this approach a more workable option, given his predilection for short, self-contained stories. That talent was what made him a longtime favorite on The Brave And The Bold, where the cast is (a) always small and (b) changes every issue. Unfortunately, the irregularity of the cast coupled with a bi-monthly schedule made character development next to impossible. And of course, regardless of which characters actually star in any given issue, portraits of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Speedy appear on the cover in the margin along the spine.

1. Teen Titans #34 (07-08/71) Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Lilith and Mal appear. The last 15¢ issue.
2. [No Mal] Robin appears in the landmark Batman #232 (06/71). Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, who have been working on Green Lantern/Green Arrow for about a year, begin a truly killer residence. It is also the last 15¢ issue. After this first story (and #237) Robin kept to his Mike Friedrich back-up feature, with the next arc being #234 (08/71)- 236 (11/71).
3. [No Mal] Justice League Of America #91 (08/71)- #92 (09/71) This annual cross-over between the JLA and JSA has a long overdue chat between Robin and the adult Robin of Earth-2. The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe (link on the left margin) places this story after the last of the Mike Friedrich-scripted Robin stories in Batman. Friedrich scripted this story as well and introduces the teen Earth-1 Robin by saying that he was responding to a report overheard in the story from Batman #234, above. There is no such scene anywhere in the three-parter, so the DCUGuide chronology may not be off after all. Although there's no Mal here, this story is still worth mentioning because it introduces a costume change. When Earth-1 Robin's costume is shredded while on Earth-2, his adult counterpart offers him one "fashioned by a costume-maker I know-- Neal Adams!". This is the original version of the costume eventually worn in the late 70's.
4. World's Finest Comics #205 (09/71) Mort Weisinger's departure dropped several titles into Julius Schwartz' lap, including this one. In his two years as editor, #198 (11/70)- #214 (10-11/72), Schwartz tried to shake up the tired Superman/Batman formula by pairing Superman with other characters (as Kashdan and Boltinoff used Batman in The Brave And The Bold). With Steve Skeates scripting, he uses the five teammates who appeared in all five of the Teen Titans issues he scripted: Lilith, Mal, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Speedy. Mal even makes the cover... drawn by Neal Adams!
5. [No Mal] At about this time Speedy (as Roy Harper) is the focus of the famous anti-heroin story in Green Lantern/Green Arrow # 85 (08-09/71)- #86 (10/11/71), but because the events of that story are not reflected in Teen Titans they are generally assumed to take place after the title is cancelled.
6. Teen Titans #35 (09-10/71)- #36(11-12/71) The "Bigger and Better" format is adapted. The standard format of 32 interior pages ('guts') is expanded by 50% for 25¢ for all DC comics for one year. (The only exceptions are oddities, such as digests, magazines and specials with 64 or more pages.) While some issues carry blurbs announcing "48 pages" and later ones announcing "52 big pages, don't take less", they are all the same page count. The later ones merely count the covers as four pages. The only two issues I've mentioned so far here not in this format are the ones I've noted were 15¢. The additional pages were usually filled with some combination of original back-up features (often giving a solo story to a supporting character) and random reprints. In this case, Mal gets a solo story. While Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Lilith go to Italy with Mr. Jupiter for the two-parter in the lead stories, the same creative team gives us "A TITAN IS BORN", a seven page Mal story in #35. In it, he remains in the states and faces The Gargoyle, an extradimensional menace that has escaped from the limbo in which Robin imprisoned him in issue #14 (03-04/68). That issue, the Mal short here and the final issue of the revival, #53 (02/78), form the basis of the Secret Origins Annual #3 (1989). Plotted and written by George Pérez, the 66-page story reveals that The Antithesis was the force behind the Gargoyle's attacks on the Teen Titans and that, in the post-Crisis continuity, he took the opportunity while Mal was knocked unconscious to enter a program into the computers in Mr. Jupiter's facility. The program included the means to breach dimensions and was planted in the hope that it would be discovered, tested and eventually used by someone who would accidentally breach The Antithesis' prison. About two years later (in continuity; five years in publishing) Karen Beecher built a sonic tool/weapon called the Gabriel's Horn using the Teen Titan's computer's so that Mal would have more resources during the team's battles. The Antithesis program was one of those incorporated into the design of the horn, meaning that the Titans' Lair was using Mr. Jupiter's equipment until the revival in 1976. In those actual issues, the pre-Crisis continuity had it that Mal was given a shofar, not a mechanical device, by the angel Gabriel as a reward for defeating Azrael, the Angel of Death in combat in issue #45 (12/76). (More on that in Part 6.) #36 has the first chapter of Lilith's origin story and a three page fragment of an Aqualad story that was probably intended for the recently cancelled Aquaman title since it was written by Skeates, drawn by Aparo and edited by Giordano. Two pages of an Aquaman story (with a different artist) had already appeared in Super DC Giant #S-26 (07-08/71), buried amid Aquaman reprints.
7. [No Mal] Flash #211 (12/71) Wally has a back-up feature.
8. [No Mal] Batman #237 (12/71) Robin appears in the lead feature.
9. Teen Titans #37 (01-02/72) Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Lilith and Mal get in the middle of a foreign war and fight the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse. The only back-up is a reprint.
10. [No Mal] The Brave And The Bold #100 (02-03/72) Robin guests with Green Lantern and Green Arrow. This must take place mid way through the O'Neil and Adams GL/GA stories, although that title was one issue from cancellation when this came out.
11. Teen Titans #38 (03-04/72) Robin, Wonder Girl, Lilith and Mal. In what must rank among the creepiest of plot ideas, Mr. Jupiter and Lilith plot to induce hallucinations in the other three members to force them to confront their fears. Mal's, for the record, is agoraphobia (a fear of open spaces), curiously not a problem when he and Kid Flash were trapped in prehistory in #'s 32-33 or on a battlefield in the previous issue. In Wonder Girl's hallucination she calls herself Donna Drake and goes undercover in male drag. The back-ups include the second chapter of Lilith's origin and some reprints. Mal's on the cover.
12. [No Mal] Batman #239 (02/72)- #242 (06/72) Robin back-up features. Kid Flash (#241) and Lilith (#241-242) guest star in this four part story. After this, the JLA/JSA story with both Robins (mentioned above) is presumed to take place.
13. Teen Titans #39 (05-06/72) Gnarrk returns. Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Lilith and Mal take him on an assignment to the southwest. Bizarrely, Wonder Girl is called "Donna Drake", the name she used in her dream in #38. Thankfully, that mistake doesn't need to be explained, since this self contained story would be stricken from continuity by the events in New Titans #56 (07/89), which repositions Gnarrk's first appearance between the end of this series' revival and the beginning of New Teen Titans.
14. The Brave And The Bold #102 (06-07/72) Another Haney script teaming Batman with Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Mal. The back-up reprint is the Robot-man story spliced together from two different Doom Patrol back-up stories. (see the post DP01-AR1 Original Period reprints)
15. [No Mal] Flash #216 (06/72) The last Skeates back-up feature for Wally. This is also the last "Bigger and Better" format comic on this list. After this DC's standard format reverts to 32pp of 'guts', but at the new price of 20¢.
16. Teen Titans #40 (07-08/72) Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Mal and guest star Aqualad. Art Saaf takes over the pencils from George Tuska. Saaf was an industry veteran from the early 1940's who had been doing romance and war comics for DC since the late 60's. He continues until the end of the original run with Cardy continuing to ink. Mal technically appears on the cover, but farthest in the background and possibly only because the Titans are all in chains.
17. [No Mal] Batman #244 (09/72) Elliot S![sic] Maggin takes over scripting the Robin back-ups. DCUGuide gives an odd order to Robin's appearances in the latter half of 1972: After this, Teen Titans #41(main story), then Batman #243(main story), #245(back-up), Teen Titans #42 and Batman #246(main story).
18. Teen Titans #41 (09-10/72) Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Mal only. Mal plays a pivotal role in yet another supernatural story, but only due to his resemblance to a pre-Civil War slave. If that weren't bad enough, he still doesn't get on the cover despite being central to the plot and despite the fact that Kid Flash (who does not appear in this story or the back-up) is both on the left margin as usual and in the scene from the story depicted on the cover. The back-up story is the third chapter in Lilith's origin.
19. [No Mal] Batman #243 (08/72) with Robin in the main story and #245 (10/72) with Robin solo in the back-up feature.
20. [No Mal] Justice League Of America #100 (08/72)- 102 (10/72) This year's JLA/JSA Crisis reintroduces the Golden Age Seven Soldiers of Victory, including the Earth-2 Roy Harper. This story may have been three years in the making. The SSoV were the subject of one of the last of DC's old Fact Files in, among other places, Binky's Buddies #4(07-08/69) and reprinted in DC Special #5 (10-12/69). They were also part of four pages of new pin-ups and text in the otherwise all-reprint Justice League Of America #76 (11-12/69). This Roy Harper/Speedy is no relation to the Earth-1 Roy.
21. Teen Titans #42 (11-12/72) Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Lilith and Mal. All the Teen Titans, including Mal, make the cover. They're tiny and with their backs to the reader, but they're all there. This is Mal's last appearance for a while.
22. [No Mal] Batman #246 (12/72) Robin appears in the main story.
23. [No Mal] Teen Titans #43 (01-02/73) Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Lilith. The events of this story are cited in the Secret Origins Annual #3(1989) by Dick (by then Nightwing) as the reasons for the Teen Titans splitting and Mal's absence as the reason he maintained the Titan's Lair until the series resumed. Dick's reasoning was that Mal was the only one not disillusioned when they failed to prevent an old man from killing a supernatural being masquerading as his dead grandson. The members disagreed as to whether all life, even unnatural ones, required their protection. The fourth chapter of Lilith's origin story is the back-up feature. All four parts take place before her first appearance in issue #25.
24. At this point the O'Neil and Adams GL/GA stories with Roy take place.

.....That's it for Part 5. Part 6 will be entirely about the revival, although I may precede that with an appendix on the intervening presence of the Teen Titans, individually or in reprint form. As always, if there's any omissions or outright mistakes please use the comment area. With all those numbers there could be some typos in there, you never know. Also, if you've read any of these stories recently and can cite reasons why the chronology or continuity should be otherwise, that's helpful, too, but with the tendency at this time to rely on self-contained stories that's less likely.

DP01-AR4 Original Period reprints part 4 of 4

.....For convenience, I've decided to provide a one-page summary of the reprints of the Original Period Doom Patrol stories. The list will be redundant to the previous three posts. Following the list will be mentions of any reprints of the period released from Gypsy Period 1 on to the present.

1. House Of Secrets #93(08-09/71) reprints non-DP back-up story from My Greatest Adventure #85(02/64).
2. Batman #238(01/72) reprints My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63) and has a new Neal Adams/Dick Giordano wraparound cover with the team in a group.
3. The Brave And The Bold #102(06-07/72) combines panels from the Robotman back-up stories in Doom Patrol #100(12/65) and #105(08/66) to form a single story.
4. The Doom Patrol #122(02/73) reprints the main story from Doom Patrol #89(08/64)[edited] plus a new text page and a non-DP short story from My Greatest Adventure #76(02/63).
5. The Doom Patrol #123(03-04/73) reprints Doom Patrol #95(05/65)[edited] plus a new text page.
6. The Doom Patrol #124(06-07/73) reprints Doom Patrol #90(06/64)[edited] plus a new text page.
7. The Brave And The Bold #116(12/74-01/75) includes the three-page article "Heroes Who Wouldn't Die" with panels of Robotman.
8. Super-Team Family #7(10-11/76) reprints the main story from Doom Patrol #86(03/64) plus small illustrations on the cover.
9. Super-Team Family #8(12/76-01/77) reprints the main story from Doom Patrol #87(05/64) plus a one page origin recap from #86.
10. Super-Team Family #9(02-03/77) reprints Part 1 of the story from Doom Patrol #88(06/64).
11. Super-Team Family #10(04-05/77) reprints Parts 2 and 3 of the story from Doom Patrol #88(06/64) plus the artwork from the cover reworked into a title page and six panels from Part 1 reworked into a story recap.

.....During Gypsy Period 1, there was an all-Doom Patrol issue of DC SPECIAL Blue Ribbon Digest #19(03/82) which reprinted My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63) and Doom Patrol #86(03/64)(main story and origin page), #91(11/64) and #90(09/64) intact plus covers. This was digest-sized and, in keeping with their then-newly forged ties with New Teen Titans had both covers and a Robotman pin-up done by George Perez. It's edited by Karen Berger.

.....The entire Original Series (including the Challengers cross-over from 1966) has already been reproduced in color in five hardcover DC Archives from 2002 to 2008 and as of this writing is in the process of being reprinted in black-and-white in two paperback Showcase Presents... volumes. For details see the recently posted DP08-AT Trade Format Survey.

DP01-AR3 Original Period reprints part 3 of 4

.....During 1974 many of DC's major titles converted to the '100-Page' format (96 pages plus covers) fo 60 cents. Flying under most people's radar, the recently cancelled Supergirl and Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane were folded into the similarly flagging Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and collectively became Superman Family. As 1975 began, the major titles reverted to the standard 32-page format which immediately increased in price from 20 to 25 cents. Superman Family, however, was reduced to 64 pages for 50 cents. Although this seemed like twice the pages for twice the price, the fact that Marvel and DC were both reducing the page count of story material (to sell more advertising) in their standard comics but running nearly the same number of ads as in their double-sized books meant that these "Giants" came close to giving three times the material for twice the price. Superman Family apparently struck some readers as more than the sum of its parts because by the end of 1975 it was joined by (in succession): Batman Family, Super-Team Family, and Tarzan Family (converted from Korak ). The formula became rotating new lead features followed by related reprints.

.....By spring of 1976 all four titles were scaled back to 48 pages for the same price while DC's standard format titles underwent yet another price increase to 30 cents. All but Super-Team Family found their rhythm from that point on. While the others had a roster of characters and relatively consistent creative teams for the new lead material, Super-Team Family had a number of editors, no permanent feature, oscillated between new and reprinted material (both Golden Age and Silver Age) and even the teams could be either established groups or newly formed partnerships. In retrospect, had there been better planning and editorial coordination at DC it could have been a Showcase for team books, never lacking for new lead material. Between its first issue, #1(10-11/75) and the first 48-page issue, #5(06-07/76), DC launched four team titles. They revived All-Star Comics (with the JSA) and Metal Men and began two new titles: Freedom Fighters and Secret Society Of Super-Villains. If they had tied the features in Super-Team Family to the team books they were releasing at the time, possibly running a new short story ahead of each title's release, it might have created an implied bond among their new titles and even shared readership even without explicit story cross-overs. They came close to that in the next year, which saw revivals of Teen Titans, Challengers Of The Unknown, New Gods and Showcase (beginning with Doom Patrol). Although there were no New Gods stories there were reprints of both DP and Titans and three new Challenger leads that carried over into the revived title.

.....The Doom Patrol had not been seen in any form for three years when their reprints began, and the details of those reprints are below:

1. Super-Team Family #7(10-11/76) A new, unsigned cover (C-288) recreates a scene from Teen Titans #31(01-02/71), an early Mal Duncan appearance (he gets two whole word balloons) that starts off the issue. It's followed by a full-page ad (L-510) announcing the title's return with new stories beginning with #44(11/76) "on sale August 19th", "And introducing-- The Guardian!" (it's Mal wearing Jim Harper's costume and shield without the helmet). The letters' page, "Team Talk" (L-509), has two pages of letters about issue #5 and an unsigned editorial response announcing the next issue will begin new Challengers stories and DP reprints. The lower third of the cover has the blurb, "Meet The World's Weirdest Heroes-- The Doom Patrol!", with the implication that you are not expected to know them. Below that are three small full-body portraits of Larry, Cliff and Rita in action. The reprinted story is the first appearance of the Brotherhood of Evil from Doom Patrol #86(03/64) (L-515). In addition to Brain, Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge there is the robot ROG (no relation to the John Byrne character; see DP07-AA) and Mr. Morden who would later become Mr. Nobody during the Morrison run. The issue ends with a full-page ad (L-511) for next issue's Challengers serial "On sale the last week of September!". Hey, there's Father Davis!


2. Super-Team Family #8(12/76-01/77) The new Challengers lead begins (J-4396) and the Doom Patrol reprints are mentioned as a blurb on the cover-- no illustrations (C-316). Team Talk is now one page (L-556), devoted to retelling the Challs' revised origin from 1963. The rest of the book reprints the main story from Doom Patrol #87(05/64), another Brotherhood story, replacing Morden with Giacomo. He and Madame Rouge are captured by the story's end. Of note is that Rita sees Larry's unbandaged, translucent-skinned face for the first time. Although the Robotman back-up story that originally ran in #87 is not reprinted here, we do get the one page DP origin recap from #86 that was not included in the previous Super-Team Family. The recap gets a new code (J-4435) but not the main story, implying that they are considered a unit for the purposes of this issue. The next issue is "on sale Nov.25th!"


3. Super-Team Family #9(02-03/77) The DP are again only a blurb on the cover (C-354) meant to announce the new Challengers story (J-4429). Team Talk (L-587) has no letters; it runs an unsigned article on substitute Challengers during the original series. There's a short Green Arrow reprint from 1958 with no further attribution (J-4493) [it's from Adventure Comics #254(11/58)]. It wasn't announced in the previous issue, mentioned on the cover or credited in the text page, so it appears to be a last minute addition to accomodate the DP reprint, Part 1 of "The Incredible Origin Of The Chief"(J-4492) from Doom Patrol #88(06/64). Rather than reach backwards to the also-never-reprinted and shorter My Greatest Adventure stories, someone decided to continue reprinting the nominal Doom Patrol issues in sequence even if it meant splitting the first issue-length story since their debut. The next installment would be "on sale last week in January".


4. Super-Team Family #10(04-05/77) The DP aren't even blurbed on the cover (C-399). The new Challengers story (J-4491) runs three pages more than in previous issues. Those three pages and two pages of padding leading into the DP reprint serve the same purpose as the Green Arrow story did last issue. The first page of padding (J-4611) uses the cover art of Doom Patrol #88 reworked into a title page (even though Parts 2 and 3 each have their own 2/3 splash and title). The second page is constructed from six panels taken from four different pages previously reprinted in the first installment last issue, but with relettered captions and dialogue. Then Parts 2 and 3 are reprinted intact but with renumbered pages. The Team Talk page (L-633) runs three letters about the new Challengers stories including an anonymous one from a real address (I checked; thank you, Google Maps!) asking for new DP stories as well. The unsigned response includes the following: "...there are no plans for new DOOM PATROL stories as of now, yet who knows? Things change around here faster than we can keep track of them. Perhaps, if reader reaction to the DP is strong enough we might just surprise you!" Four months later that new DP story was on the stands.

.....The indicia for these issues includes the editorial staff, in addition to the president and publisher. All four list Joe Orlando as managing editor, Vince Colletta as art director and Paul Levitz as editorial coordinator. Also in common is Jack Adler as production manager, a title that is renamed 'vice president of production' as of issue #10. A new credit is added when the Challengers lead begins: the story editor. Tony Isabella was the story editor for #8, and Dennis O'Neil took over for issue #9, but there was no credit at all for #10 either in the indicia or the story itself. (In fact, after #8 there were no further credits for colorists or letterers.) It's a safe assumption that this credit is exclusive to the new material and that the Doom Patrol reprints were tended to by either Joe Orlando or Jack Adler or both. As art director, their depiction on the cover of #7 was probably the province of Vince Colletta.

.....One last note on the Team Talk page is that the book would change format once again with the next issue. Still 48 pages, it will now feature double-length all-new stories of team-ups written by Gerry Conway and edited by Paul Levitz. It will also sport a 60 cents price tag, although that was not announced in issue #10. Those last five issues (11 through 15) would keep that identity and format right up to its cancellation (and beyond; see the Superman Family note in DP02-AA).

.....Next entry is a summary and brief note on reprints since the 1970's.

DP01-AR2 Original Period reprints part 2 of 4

.....In 1973, DC briefly published standard format reprint titles. Some were entirely new titles, such as Legion Of Super-Heroes, and Secret Origins. Others had been cancelled in the previous five years and returned where their numbering had left off, except that they now had reprints. These were Challengers Of The Unknown, Metal Men, and Doom Patrol. Those last three each lasted only three more issues and were cancelled again. Had Metamorpho lasted longer in the '60's it likely would have joined them, as these titles were often considered 'of a kind' in contrast to DC's other mid-60's super-hero titles.

.....The three 'new' issues of Doom Patrol are detailed below:

1. The Doom Patrol #122(02/73) features a reprint of the first Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man story in issue #89(08/64), except for page 13 of the main story and omitting the Elasti-Girl back-up story completely. In their place is a text page, "Meet The Doom Patrol", presumably by editor Jeff Rovin and a non-DP story, "We Battled The Micromonster" from My Greatest Adventure #76(02/63).
2. The Doom Patrol #123(03-04/73) features a reprint of the second Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man story in issue #95(05/65) but with two pages' worth of panels eliminated. Pages 2 and 3 are combined into one page as are pages 20 and 21. A new text page, "The Men Behind...The Doom Patrol" by Allan Asherman, is added.
3. The Doom Patrol #124(06-07/73) reprints a Brotherhood of Evil story with Madame Rouge in which she receives the brain surgery that enables her to change identities, but which eventually drives her insane. This comes from #90(06/64) and reproduces the first chapter (7pp) intact and all the material from the second chapter (10pp) blended with another seven pages made of panels from chapter three (originally 8pp) and a new 2/3 page text piece, "The Doom Patrol's Professional Fans" by Allan Asherman.
4. Each of the three Doom Patrol issues above have covers made with reduced art taken from the covers of the issues reprinted within and framed by head-and-shoulders spot illustrations of each of the members. These mini-portraits were taken from the letters' pages of the 1960's.
5. The Brave And The Bold #116(12/74-01/75) This was one of this title's '100-Page' issues, edited by Murray Boltinoff and Paul Levitz. While there are no DP stories, there is a three page article called "Heroes Who Wouldn't Die!" by Bob Rozakis. It mentions both the Golden Age Robotman (Paul Dennis?) and our own Silver Age Cliff Steele (but it's the Golden Age Robotman whose face accompanies the cover blurb). Each character discussed is accompanied by an appropriated illustration, and the panel used as an example of Cliff may come from either My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63) or Doom Patrol #100(12/65).

.....Speaking of The Brave And The Bold, the Metal Men seemed to make nearly annual appearances in that title until they were awarded their own series again in 1976, with the numbering continuing where the 1973 reprints left off. In 1976, the Challengers of the Unknown began appearing in new stories in Super-Team Family, eventually carrying over into their own restored title in 1977, again with the numbering continuing from where their 1973 reprints left off. In 1977 the Doom Patrol began appearing in new stories in Showcase and in 1978... well, you can always type in "DC Implosion" to the word-search engine of your choice. There was no issue #125, of course. The actual rocky path to a regular series is summarized in DP02-AA and DP03-AA.

.....Part 3 will focus on reprints in Super-Team Family.

DP01-AR1 Original Period reprints part 1 of 4

.....When Marvel Comics was experiencing a renaissance in the early 1960's it was during a period of restricted and spotty distribution. As their audience increased they found that the demand for those early stories was enough to support entire titles and by 1966 began regular, sequential reprint titles. They continued this practice through 1981, with some titles continuing beyond that. Eventually the trade format became more versatile at reaching new markets and dedicated reprint titles became extinct except for one-shots and miniseries.


.....DC had by 1966 published a number of Annuals for Superman, Batman and some others which collected often-requested stories, a practice that was probably intended to extended their shelf life (it is less obvious when an Annual is due to be returned from a newsstand than it is for a monthly comic). Previously they would pad a comic by running reprint stories as back-up to new main features. The popularity of their Annuals prompted them to launch a regular series, 80-Page Giant , which ran a little more than a year before carrying its numbering over to the established titles. For instance, Justice League of America #39(11/65) was also #G-16, an eighty-page issue of reprints, while the issues immediately before and after were standard 32-page issues of new material. #G-17 was an eighty-page issue of Batman and so forth. At the end of the decade the format shrank to 64 pages. The numbering was discontinued in the summer of 1971 when it was becoming obvious that the prices for standard 32-page comics would soon have to increase from 15 cents to 20 cents. As a stop-gap measure to lessen the blow, or distract from it, DC introduced the "Bigger And Better" format: 48 pages for 25 cents with roughly the amount of pages of new material one would find in a standard 32-page comic plus reprinted stories. DC had never suffered the distribution restrictions that its owners had imposed on Marvel in the late 1950's and the only editor not playing fast and loose with continuity was Julius Schwartz. Aside from the same recurring, "When did Lex Luthor first appear?"-type questions, there was no substantial demand for old material.


.....After spending the late 1940's to early 1950's jettisoning super-heroes and beefing up on licensed properties (comics based on Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, radio shows like Mr. District Attorney and various movies and personalities of the day) the success of reintroducing super-heroes through Showcase meant a scramble to produce original characters. Initially that meant Schwartz and Gardner Fox making updated versions of the Golden Age heroes from National and All-American, and acquiring the characters published by Quality as intellectual property. Later it meant hiring a large number of creators from Charlton in an uncharacteristicly massive turnover in personnel. This led to an explosion of imaginative and provocative characters like Hawk And Dove, Creeper, Brother Power, Swamp Thing and others, many of whom didn't sit well with the middle-of-the-road audience DC had worked hard to cultivate since the McCarthy era. Only Swamp Thing, introduced in the 1970's, made it past ten issues (24, in fact). Then, as the price change loomed, DC acquired the Fawcett characters and now had an enormous back-catalog to draw on: their own original Golden Age characters, those from Quality and Fawcett and the new characters who were too colorful to sustain their own titles in the conservative '60's but too colorful for 1970's writers to resist using as guest stars. There was enough potential reprint material for DC's major titles to remain in the "Bigger And Better" format continually for a year. After a year or so at 32 pages for 20 cents, DC upped the ante with a "100 Pages" format (really 96 pages plus covers), with which DC had experimented during the "Bigger And Better" year.



.....Sooo...what does this have to do with the Doom Patrol? During the Original Period, Doom Patrol (the series) never had an Annual, an 80-Page issue or even ran reprints of its own stories. In 1968 the series ended with the team dying, so guest spots were more trouble to explain than they would be worth. Yet, the 1970's called for funkier characters. It's no coincidence that twenty years later the Vertigo editors would go back to that decade's well repeatedly for intriguing premises that flared briefly and went out without fulfilling their promise (i.e., Shade, Black Orchid, Prez, the Kirby Sandman, etc.). The DP would eventually get their new lease on life as well, but as the decade opened they were a source for reprints.



.....These four posts form a (possibly) complete list of Doom Patrol reprints of the Original Period preceding the Gypsy Period 1. Please note that all of these have been made redundant by the more complete Archives listed in the Trade Survey (see DP08-AT). The only reason for listing these is to provide historical perspective before beginning the individual reviews for Gypsy Period 1. What is listed below is the only Doom Patrol available for nine years.

1. House Of Secrets #93(08-09/71) is the first issue after the 'Alex Olsen' Swamp Thing story and also the first of the title in the "Bigger And Better" format. Rather than a DP story, this is an Alex Toth story "The Curse Of The Cat's Cradle", all eight pages, that ran in the back of My Greatest Adventure #85(02/64). I only mention it here for completists, as it would not be in the Archives.


2. Batman #238(01/72) I mentioned earlier that DC experimented with the 100-page format at this time, and this is a prime example. During the 1960's, Batman was a title that would normally become an 80-Page Giant issue twice a year, and a 64-page Giant by the end of 1969. The last Giant Batman was #233(07-08/71)/#G-85. The "Bigger And Better" format ran from #234(08/71)- #242(06/72), except for #238. Just like the majority of the 80-pagers from the 1960's, this carried an alternate title/number. It was DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-8. Unlike them, it had a wraparound cover, one by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, featuring the many characters inside with the Doom Patrol standing (or sitting, in Niles' case) prominently on the front. Oddly, each of the characters (or groups, for the DP and LSH) are identified on the cover by their names in small, white block letters. It was an example of DC's subconscious identity crisis at this time. They knew better than anyone that covers sold comics, yet the characters on the cover are named, almost as if they expected the reader to simultaneously not know who they were and shell out more money than usual for them. Among other things, this issue reprinted the first DP story from My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63) in its entirety.


3. The Brave And The Bold #102(06-07/72) This was the last "Bigger And Better" format issue for this title. The new, lead story teamed Batman with the Teen Titans, including Mal Duncan. Mal would join the DP as Vox more than thirty years later. The reprint back-up story combines two DP back-ups: "Robotman-- Wanted Dead Or Alive" (originally 8pp) from Doom Patrol #100(12/65) and "The Robot-Maker Must Die" (originally 10pp) from Doom Patrol #105(08/66). These two are combined to form a 14-page story with the editor's code B-1380. The editor for this issue was Murray Boltinoff, who also edited the Original Period Doom Patrol.

.....The next section focuses on the temporary revival of the Doom Patrol series.

DP08- AT Trade Format Survey

[This page is a dedicated list of trade format Doom Patrol publications and as such is not a permanent fixture, but will be subject to periodic revision. The nature of future revisions may or may not include: adding new titles; adding details regarding differences between original magazine format publications and trade reprintings; noting the solicitation/publication of new printings and/or revised editions; making release dates more specific as/if more accurate information becomes available; and original list prices.]

.....This list of trade format publications strives to be complete, be chronological and include the ISBN number for each title. The information should refer only to authorized U.S. publications (primarily DC Comics). Although there are legitimate authorized overseas and foreign language trades (such as Titan in the U.K.), I'm less confidant that I could provide a comprehensive and complete listing for them. I would recommend to anyone searching for foreign language editions that they search by author and be aware that the books' titles may not necessarily translate literally.

.....Ideally, each of the titles here will be individually 'reviewed', meaning that they will have entries contemporary to their publication that note contents, credits for any new materials such as introductions or cover art, page count, list price, contemporary advertising (if any), etc. What they will not do is reiterate the critical reviews of the individual stories, which would have already been written in most cases. They will also not include information on current market prices and availability of used copies because those would fluctuate too frequently. Trades for other titles reprinting guest appearances or cameos that have been noted in the period synopses will not have their own entries nor will they be on this list of trades.


.....In order to include both 10-digit and 13-digit ISBN's but minimze the space they use, I've adopted the following notation: "[978] x-xxxxx-xxx-a [-b]". The 10-digit codes will consist only of the x's and the a. The 13-digit codes will consist of everything but the a.

• [RPG] "MOONSHOT"(from Mayfair Games)0588-238MFG0900 written by Paul Kupperberg and Ray Winninger. ISBN# [978] 0-91277-150-X [2] / UPC# 0-29877-00900-00047. Mayfair generally marketed gaming adventure 'modules' separately from reference 'sourcebooks'. Both were supplements to the basic role-playing sets. The "DC HEROES" RPG was released in 1985. "Moonshot" was a package containing both a module and a sourcebook of original materials about the Doom Patrol released in 1988 while Paul Kupperberg was writing the monthly title. The letters' page of Doom Patrol #19(02/89) cites this sourcebook as a reference for DP chronology.


• TP "CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE" reprinting Doom Patrol #19(02/89)- #25(08/89). ISBN# [---] 1-56389-034-8 [-]. This first edition was solicited to ship June 30th, 1992, six months before the Vertigo imprint launch and it was uncertain A) if it would sell enough to justify a second trade and B) if an additional trade would be competing with or synergistic with the monthly series after Morrison left. In order to keep this edition self-contained, five pages from the last four issues were deleted because they were entirely foreshadowing of the next story arc. Presumably a second trade would relocate the pages to its front as an introduction, but years later the question became moot.


• [M1]TP "CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE" (revised 2nd edition) reprinting Doom Patrol #19(02/89)- #25(08/89). ISBN# [978] 1-56389-034-8 [-5]. April, 2000. The deleted pages were restored (see above). Also, following "Totems" and the belated acceptance of graphic novels and comics in bookstores and Hollywood there was a renewed interest in putting pre-Vertigo materials back into print. Eventually complete runs of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and Animal Man and both Alan Moore's and Rick Veitch's Swamp Thing became collected for the first time but retroactively under the Vertigo imprint. Ironically most actual Vertigo issues for those titles, as of this writing over fifteen years later, have still never been collected.


• [O1]HC "DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES" Vol.1 reprinting My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63)- #85(02/64) and Doom Patrol #86(03/64)- 89(08/64), except for the non-DP back-up stories that appear that appear in #'s 81-86. ISBN# [978] 1-56389-795-4 [-5]. April, 2002.


• [O1]HC "DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES" Vol.2 reprinting Doom Patrol #90(09/64)- #97(08/65). ISBN# [978] 1-40120-150-4 [-0]. August, 2004.


• [M2]TP "THE PAINTING THAT ATE PARIS" reprinting Doom Patrol #26(09/89)- #34(07/90). ISBN# [978] 1-40120-342-6 [-9]. October, 2004.


• [M3]TP "DOWN PARADISE WAY" reprinting Doom Patrol #35(08/90)- #41(02/91). ISBN# [978] 1-40120-726-X [-7]. November, 2005.


• [O3]HC "DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES" Vol.3 reprinting Doom Patrol #98(09/65)- #105(08/66). ISBN# [978] 1-40120766-9 [-3]. February, 2006.


• [M4]TP "MUSCLEBOUND" reprinting Doom Patrol #42(03/91)- #50(12/91). ISBN# [978] 1-40120-999-8 [-5]. August, 2006.


• [M5]TP "MAGIC BUS" reprinting Doom Patrol #51(01/92)- #57(07/92). ISBN# [978] 1-40121-202-6 [-5]. January, 2007.


• [M6]TP "PLANET LOVE" reprinting Doom Patrol #58(08/92)- #63(01/93) and Doom Force Special #1(07/92). ISBN# [978]1-40121-624-2 [-5]. January, 2008. This is the end of the Morrison run.


• [O4]HC "DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES" Vol.4 reprinting Doom Patrol #106(09/66)- #113(08/67). ISBN# [978] 1-40121-646-3 [-7]. February, 2008.


• [O5]HC "DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES" Vol.5 reprinting Doom Patrol #114(09/67)- #121(09-10/68). ISBN# [978] 1-40121-720-6 [-4]. August, 2008. This is the end of the Original run.


• [B&W]TP "SHOWCASE PRESENTS DOOM PATROL" Vol.1 reprinting My Greatest Adventure #80(06/63)- #85(02/64) and Doom Patrol #86(03/64)- #101(02/66). ISBN# [978] 1-40122-182-3 [-9]. April, 2009. {Omits six non-DP back-up stories from #'s 81-86; was originally solicited to include Challengers Of The Unknown #48(02-03/66) but shipped without it}
• [G1]TP Vol.1 "WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE" reprinting (?) ISBN# [978] 1-40122-751-1 [-7]. June, 2010. {All information tentative}
• [B&W]TP "SHOWCASE PRESENTS DOOM PATROL" Vol.2 reprinting Brave And The Bold #65(04-05/66), Challengers Of The Unknown #48(02-03/66) and Doom Patrol #102(03/66)- #121(09-10/68). ISBN# [978] 1-40122-770-8 [-8]. August, 2010. {All information tentative}

.....With further digging I hope to find out if trades were ever solicited for Flex Mentallo or the Arcudi or Byrne Periods. I am reasonably certain that none were published.