Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
It's debatable the extent to which the New Gods/Fourth World characters can be described as "marketable."


Well, Jim, as far as marketability, I'll grant you, they're not a huge franchise for DC.

But Darkseid and the other New Gods characters appear frequently in DC's books, and have been in a number of the DC cartoons, such as Superman and Super Friends.
Darkseid is comparable to being DC's equivalent of Dr Doom in popularity as a villain.

 Quote:
G-man said:
I would be more inclined to think it a coincidence. Several years passed between the books' cancellation and return. Furthermore, at the time of the return, DC was in the midst of their "explosion" where they were reviving old titles left and right, not just Kirby ones.


Regarding the revival of many old DC titles in the 1976-1978 period, there were far more new titles being produced ( KONG, STALKER, BLITZKRIEG, MANBAT, STEEL, DYNAMIC CLASSICS, WARLORD, BEOWULF, JUSTICE INC, THE SHADOW, GHOST CASTLE, KOBRA, SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE, JONAH HEX...) But few former DC titles I can think of that were revived.
Aside from NEW GODS and MISTER MIRACLE, the only other I can think of is SHOWCASE.

SHAZAM was re-launched in 1973, and had been a great disappointment for DC. It was cancelled in 1978 during the "DC Implosion", immediately after it had a big change in story approach. (As were NEW GODS and MISTER MIRACLE, also cancelled during the Implosion)

Kirby's last published book for DC, KAMANDI 40, was dated April 1976.

The first NEW GODS revival was the same month he left DC !


( FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL 13, April 1976, "Return of the New Gods" by Dennis O'Neil and Mike Vosberg). Presumably, it sold pretty well, since...

Their revival in NEW GODS 12 is cover dated July 1977. ( cover linked in my above post)

The MISTER MIRACLE revival, with issue 19, is cover dated September 1977. ( Again, cover linked in my above post. Great work by Englehart/Rogers, by the way)

If these books were cancelled due to low sales, as DC management gave as the reason (NEW GODS cancelled in Nov 1972, and MISTER MIRACLE in March 1974, the latter cancelled barely three years before the series was revived) then the sudden confidence of DC in a new series doesn't make sense, so soon after cancellation.

It's my conspiracy theory, and I'm stickin' to it !