Welcome to the finale edition of my part 3 retrospective of Lost Media for the month of May that is a cover for why I didn’t do this in March and April, so apologies for the absences. For this closure for May before getting back on track in June we look at the 12 pieces of comic strips that was lost through the years or left unconfirmed as of this writing, so let’s dive in.
12. Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland
(one of the few panels of Little Nemo)
Starting off the entry is a comic strip made by one of animation’s important figures: Windsor McKay. It’s no secret Windsor McKay is one of the forefathers for Walt Disney, Walter Lantz and Don Bluth to popularize animation as we know it, but he too has a lot of lost pieces of media. Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland was a comic piece about a boy who goes on adventures he dreams during his sleep sometimes misadventures with a character named Flip I don’t know if he is related to Flip Gordon to at first becomes a villain then friend, and also a Princess because of course and at the end of each comic he would wake up when something bad happens.
My only recollection of “Little Nemo” was the classic animated film released in 1989 that involved many talents people like Brad Bird, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson one of the famous Disney’s nine old men and of course Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli. Will I review the film? Maybe but if I have too, I would mostly talk about the behind the scenes turmoil that happened during production, but back to the strip. Windsor McKay created this strip when he worked with the New York Herald each with going from 1905 to 1911, another with 1911-1914 and a ten-year hiatus ending with 1924 to 1926. The comics today is considered lost, while some exist within the Library of Congress but not accessible to the public.
11. Gnorm Gnat
(One of the surviving issue panels of “Gnorm Gnat”)
Jim Davis is known to all to have created everybody’s favorite cat who hates Mondays and Lasagna in general: Garfield in 1978 and becoming a successful franchise throughout the years but did you know before Garfield he created a not-so well-known character? Meet Gnorm Gnat whom he created in 1972 unfortunately for this comic adaptation however this was not successful, mostly people found it unfunny and unrelatable considering the Gnat hanged out with other insects and the last comic strip of our titular character died when a human foot stepping on him ala Monty Python.
The availability of this obscure character and his line of comic strips hasn’t seen the light of day since the seventies and his creator Jim Davis had no interest to ever use him again. Though the comic strips starring the fly is of course lost, however an author from the fan-site “Square Root of Minus Garfield” several scans of the character have been seen in Indiana that dated back from that decade. Will he make a return? Who knows, if Bubsy can come back then maybe he can.
10. Superman
(the surviving top cover of “Reign of the Superman”)
On April 18th of 1938 American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster created one of DC’s iconic superhero characters of all time: Superman a hero born of Krypton then flies to Earth as a baby due to the destruction of his home planet and now older as Clark Kent he becomes the famed superhero mostly clashing with Lex Luthor, General Zod as his main arch-enemies to protect the Earth. Not bad for an immigrant kid from another world. Superman has seen it all the highs and the embarrassing lows but manages to maintain status as an icon. However, very few people know that even the famous of heroes have some missing pieces of his past.
Years before on June 1933 Jerry and Joe had a earlier comic adaptation but this one had Superman as a villain in a short story called “The reign of Superman” though this adaptation is extremely rare other than a front cover surviving this one was lost to time mostly from their creators when Siegel and Shuster contrary to rumors wanted to change Superman from being a villain to hero, the company that published their earlier comic strips Consolidated Book Publishing pulled out and Siegel threw them out in a fire in complete anger. Sounds reasonable I mean I would be very upset too.
Then there was another adaptation created by Jack Kirby from the early 1970’s, at this time Jack Kirby creator of Captain Marvel and the Fantastic Four had a falling out with Marvel led him to quit and then join DC comics he then would create his debut comic: “The Fourth World” that was a four-part series that was infamous when Jack Kirby created his own Superman. However the DC heads were not thrilled and called artists Al Plastino and Murphy Anderson to draw over Jack Kirby’s design of Superman, the original comic panels has been lost however Mark Evanier and Marv Wolfman who would create the “New Teen Titans” and “Crisis on Infinite Earth” viewed the original cells that exist today though the rest is still lost.
9. Nymphet
(the title of”Kodomo no Jikan”)
Hello anime Manga, welcome to the limelight. Nymphet or “Kodomo no Jikan” in Japanese is an adult oriented manga series created by Kaworu Watashiya is about a teacher is being hit on by one of his students. That’s not utterly strange whatsoever but its not the only thing I have noticed when researching this entry, this one also included a controversial subject matter of pedophilia. I am not kidding.
In July of 2006 Seven Seas Entertainment they were planning to release the first volume of “Nyphet” but was delayed until 2007 and due to that subject matter alone that I previously stated, that’s reasonably why it got eventually pulled. Jason DeAngelis the president of Seven Seas in a release stated that the manga was “not appropriate for Seven Stars to publish ‘Nymphet.’” Although there are a few limited copies of the manga available on Amazon of all things “Out of print – limited availably”.
8. The Best and the Worst – Eddsworld
(one of the surviving Best of the Worst web comics made by Edd Gould)
If one is unfamiliar of the Eddsworld internet series, here goes to explain it to people unfamiliar. The series was created by Edd Gould in 2004 as a web comic then later became the internet sensation when the full series was released on YouTube as Edd and his friends, Tom, Matt and Tord in zany adventures to many mystical lands in and around the neighborhood.
The ones that we know of so far is “The Best of the Worst #1 and #2” web comics the first one is about Edd shouting his hair on fire to which Tom then sees a lone squirrel that both it and Edd give him an unamused look. The second part is about Tom planning costumes for Halloween to make the scariest thing ever as the next panel revealed Tom and Edd making masks as Tom makes an Edd mask and Edd makes a Tom mask. Hilarious.
However, the rest of Edd Gould’s earlier comics hasn’t been released and there is a likely explanation why. Edd Gould was working the animations for Eddsworld he didn’t want to continue on the webcomic while at the same time not upload any remaining complete comics, the other explanation when Eddsworld was being made Edd encountered many computer issues which likely erased his hard drives and likely his completed web comics to become lost.
7. Overwatch
(Overwatch title)
I’ll come clean on this: I never played nor got into Overwatch when it first came out, but I can see how it became immediately popular. Dark Horse Comics was assigned to create a 100-page comic adaptation of Overwatch called “Overwatch: First Strike” and was written by Micky Neilson and illustrated by Ludo Lullabi, the comic was planned for a release in November of 2016 but was never mentioned outside its announcement then on November of 2016 Michael Chu a lead writer of the comic posted this on their BattleNet Forums
“Hey everyone,
I wanted to let you know that we have decided to cancel the release of the Overwatch: First Strike graphic novel. While we are grateful to the team for the fantastic work they put into it, we’ve ultimately decided to take the story in a different direction.
The original idea for the graphic novel dates back to the early days of the game’s development and came from our desire to tell the story of the founding of Overwatch during the Omnic Crisis. In the years since First Strike’s conception, we have done a lot of development on the universe and its stories. While the core of this story remains, we have changed and expanded upon how we see the events that took place during the first days of Overwatch.
So, for now, the early adventures of Gabriel Reyes, Jack Morrison, Ana Amari, Reinhardt Wilhelm, Torbjörn Lindholm (and more!) wait for another day. But we know that this is a story that you are excited about, and it’s one we still plan to tell.
I’d like to thank everyone for the enthusiasm, passion, and support you’ve shown towards the Overwatch universe. We have a number of stories in development that will delve deeper into the world and its heroes, and we can’t wait to share them with you in the coming months.
Michael”
Three pieces of the cancelled Overwatch comic was released to the public on November 20th, 2016 but with no official text on the panels.
6. What ever Happened to Moxy?
(One of the surviving images of the lost Moxy comic)
Remember way back at Blameitonjorge’s video of lost Cartoon Network shows and Moxy was brought up? If those who don’t remember “The Moxy Show” is the first ever CGI series produced by the fame animation studio Hanna-Barbera who made the classic cartoon characters of its time mostly used as a bumper slot for the other programs, though Moxy was unpopular by the younger viewers and didn’t last long on the network. So, this is where our subject comes into play.
In the final year of the show’s airing on Cartoon Network’s own website a webcomic called “Whatever happened to Moxy?” was released and was considered missing so the viewers had to decide by voting before September 14th, 2000. However, the final episode came on the same date and nothing really came out of it because it was a link that didn’t work at first. The Wayback Machine has the first fifteen-page comic archived on their site and the rest leaving it unknown. So, we may never know what really happened to Moxy.
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(The current issue of “Forever Wars” from TMNTentity.blogspot.com)
There are two pieces of Lost Media connected to the famous Ninja Turtles. The first was a Mexican adaptation of the TMNT’s called La Tortugas Ninja published by Division though nothing has really come from it other than being obscure outside of its Mexican fans.
Second is a cancelled issue called “The Forever Wars” which was to feature the final battle between the Turtles and Shredder including reuniting previous characters of the franchise, however this did not come to be because this caused some strife between Steve Murphy, Victor Gorelick and Michael Silberkleit who thought the datk and adult themes went a bit far. Like I said with Superman tell it to DC and Marvel. Attempts were made to revive this idea in 2005 and 2007 but when Nickelodeon bought the rights in 2009 the release was cancelled; panels of the purposed story arcs exist today but the rest is considered lost.
4. Peanuts
(One of Charles M. Schutz surviving issues from 1955)
This one is the most sought after. This lost Peanuts comic issue was released in 1955 where it features Linus one of the Peanuts characters attempt and fail kicking a placed football then in complete anger, he would throw it to a random kid holding it then deflates in his hands. Hilarious.
Why this and some of Charles M. Schutz’ collection of larger panels a lot of them were removed, while several of them were eventually released years later in 2004 at the
“The Complete Peanuts” books that was released at that year and towards November of 2016. However, the unpublished panels of Schultz were lost but since its lost media and sometimes it can be found again like “Clock Man” or other found pieces of media we have found over the years.
3. Sonic the Hedgehog
(One of the original surviving Cover Art of the “Endangered Species” issues of Sonic)
Sonic, we must stop meeting up like these in future entries, but both were tied to a sudden event and to be a bit complicated.
A lawsuit between SEGA’s long running writer and artist Ken Penders and Archie Comics because of Ken wanted to return his old contacts from the rights of Archie but found out they were already done to begin with which led Penders to think that there was either no contact, an intert destroyed his contract or a fire destroyed them, which led Archie to retain the rights and gain any added payments which sounds like some screwing around with Penders even though in the past he butted heads with previous associates.
Penders would copyright his own Sonic characters but Archie sued in return at first people thought Ken had nothing however he did have some fuel to the fire and Ken won the legal lawsuit which saw the cancellation of a huge crossover story involving Sonic and Megaman called “When Worlds Collide” and another story called “Chaotix Quest” were planned to release in 2013. Many artworks of both “Worlds Collide” and “Choatix Quest” have been known to exist of the planned issues. Boy Sonic sure likes to have bad luck with these things.
2. Batman
(The infamous issue “Death in the Family”)
In 1988 DC Comics made the decision to kill Jason Todd (the new Robin after the last guy quit to become Nightwing) and he was hated amongst fans including the people behind the scenes of DC Comics. The garner some interest DC did a clever idea and set up a 1-800 line to call and voice their opinion the fate of the boy wonder as his fate was to be sealed with an explosion set by one of the greatest comic book villains the Joker. Told you these things would get dark.
Jason Todd in the DC comics was a more rebellious version of Dick Greyson and it was the DC readers were not fans off, so DC with many different claims had the intent to kill off Jason Todd no matter what the result was on what the fans decided since he was unpopular but at the dawn of the new century in 2000 Jason Todd returned out of now where and the sudden confusion of DC readers. The only evidence of supposed fate of Jason Todd was Batman Annual #25 from the final comic of his appearance “A Death in the Family” leaving the entire thing in a mess.
1. Carl Banks
(The Golden Christmas Tree issue made by Cark Barks)
This is one is considered best for last. Carl Banks was an American artist best for his comic adaptations of many of Disney’s iconic characters like Scrooge McDuck, The Beagle Boys, Donald Duck and some to big to mention as they are still being used today in other Disney properties including the recent reboot of DuckTales and recognized as the creator by Disney themselves as his last work was a Scrooge comic in 1994 and passing away in 2000. However even though a very long and linear career he has a long list of lost original comics and missing material that I will be brief, but you can check out yourself later.
“Lifeguard Daze” (original artwork)
The Comic strip “Lifeguard Daze” released in June of 1943 on the issue “Walt Disney Comics and Stories #33” where Donald Duck tries to impress a female with his young nephews setting up a fake shark but what they fail to notice a real shark arrives. Originally the female what Donald was trying to impress had a large chest Banks had to fix out, the original artwork is considered lost.
The firebug (original ending)
The comic strip “Firebug” was released on July 19th, 1945 on the issue “One Shots” #108 where Donald turns up his inner Cornholio and sets fire everywhere, his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louis try to figure out the mystery and it turns out to be a firebug. The original ending Had Donald Duck in bars but was redrawn to have a happy ending with the firebug arrested but turns out to be a dream ala Super Mario 2. This ending is considered lost.
The Golden Christmas Tree (original ending)
“The Golden Christmas Tree” released in December of 1948 for the issue “One Shots” #203 focused on Donald and the boys, searching for a Christmas Tree, but they encounter a witch. The original idea when Carl Banks planned was this to be a knock on how Christmas is commercialized but was forced to change it. Also, originally the witch dies but it was too dark (just you wait Marvel and DC had up in store) so it was changed for the witch to turn into a gasoline can and Donald knocking it off the hill. These different endings is considered lost as Banks long forgot them.
The Money Stairs (first ending)
Lastly “The Money Stairs” released on October of 1953 for the issue “Walt Disney Comics and Stories” #221 was about Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck that the billionaire duck tells Donald that he can do anything with money, so they climb up the mountain in a race but Scrooge wins. An original ending was made when Scrooge makes fun of Donald on the way back after the race to the mountain, in 1973 from a fan mail Carl Banks said “I recall looking at the panel of Uncle Scrooge’s money ramp and deciding it looked too IMPOSSIBLE to be real” which is obvious considering Scrooge would make Bill Gates blush on his investment in money, and the new ending was Donald waking up as no shock to anybody was a dream. Go figure. The first panel of the ending has survived but the remaining two is considered lost.
These are just examples of the long list of lost Carl Banks’ artwork of his comic panels, but it just goes to show you on how committed he was willing to do.
And that is it for this month’s three-part Lost Media month saga, all I can say this was fun road to catch up on lost time that I haven’t done in a while. In June’s edition will head back into the video game territory and cover part 3 of Lost or Cancelled video games since E3 is knocking our doors once again and at the end of June’s entry I’ll reveal what will be on tap for the 2nd anniversary edition of the Lost Media Files in July.
Follow me on Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/MauriceBear21
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/C/MauriceBear
Check out the Lost Media Wiki: https://lostmediawiki.com/home
Support them on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lostmediawiki
The Maurice Bear Times 