Crisis on Infinite Earths; The Untold Chapters

The date was 1985; the place was DC Comics. DC had the largest comics library ever through the acquisition of several competitors (the Marvel Family, Charlton Comics, etc.) and for convenience's sake had constructed this elaborate series of "parallel Earths" where each set of heroes resided. Even the original versions of Superman, Batman, et al had their own "Earth-2" where they were grown, had children of their own, and had (mostly) retired.

Unfortunately, it was awkward as hell. It took me five minutes just to write the paragraph above on general sweep of the concept. Try explaining how Black Canary was actually originally from Earth-2 but had "emigrated" to Earth-1 while possessed by the spirit of her dead mother.

Just-too-Freaky!

The most-remembered (and most-parodied as well) cover of the CRISIS is #7's "Death of Supergirl".

However, most people don't recall that the CRISIS was industry wide, and many more comics were affected than just DC comics properties. The Comic Buyer's Guide did a series of cartoons by Johnny Lowe in the fall of 1985 that aptly illustrated the fring-effects of the CRISIS. Oft remembered (but rarely collected), these comics are cute, even priceless -- but worth the effort to scan them in for posterity.

So, without further ado . . . . (Click the comics for an enlarged view)





With Ziggy here, I think Lowe has completely captured the spirit of the character.



And The Far Side, as well (man, how I miss The Far Side!)





This Bloom County strip always cracks me up. Note the picture over the boy's bed of Christopher Reeve as Superman (whom I originally mistook for Jim Shooter, whom many blame for the "parallel worlds" concept):



This final comic shows the aforementioned Peanuts, Bloom County, Cathy, & Hagar the Horrible casts assembled together, along with Garfield, Shoe, (possibly) Krazy Kat, and the snake from B.C. in the penultimate scene -- which is itself a riff from a controversy of the day; how editors in newspapers were shrinking the size of comic strips. )Doonesbury was particularly loud on the subject -- even negotiating for his strips to stay the original size -- which is why Doonesbury to this day is 50% bigger than most comic strips in newspapers.)

And I don't know about you -- but that potential hook-up between Cathy and Steve Dallas just has "Rape Charges" written all over it . . . .



These next two appeared during CRISIS in Calvin and Hobbes by comics fan Bill Watterson. While they do not tie into the previous "Cross-Over" exactly, they do reflect nicely the zeitgeist of the times . . . .



Or, this:



And this actual "Far Side" appeared during the cross-over as well; showing an "alternate version" of Marvel Comics Thor:



Finally, these last two show some possible variants of DC's Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century. First, how Doctor Who REALLY got his start:



And finally, this one, where apparently one too many Earths got merged . . .



~~JD~~