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3* The comics business is always changing, with cancelled series, editorial changes, and ExecutiveMeddling all frequent. As a result, a number of comics stories are commissioned and completed (or nearly so), without ever seeing print. This includes "inventory stories", which are intended to be published only if the regular team is late. After a while, unused inventory stories tend to "go stale" due to subsequent changes in continuity. Some examples:
4** One of Creator/DCComics' rarest titles fits, even though it ''was'' published... technically. DC cancelled a large number of books in the "DC Implosion" of 1978, so suddenly that a large number of completed stories remained. ''Cancelled Comics Cavalcade'' put many of these stories into publication for copyright purposes, but the series "ran" for only two issues, each with a print run of only 35 issues. A few of these stories eventually saw publication in "regular" DC titles, but most remain effectively "lost" to this day.
5** The Marvel/DC crossover title ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' was first scheduled for publication in 1983. The story was plotted, and George Perez completed 21 penciled pages of art. Due to editorial disagreements between the two companies, the project was canceled. In subsequent years, as editorial regimes changed, there was occasional talk of reviving the project, but to no avail (likely due to, among other reasons, changes in the teams' rosters during the intervening years). Eventually, the project ''was'' revived, but with a new story and completely new art by Perez, in 2005.
6* Some [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] comic books have been entirely lost to time, due to poor quality paper, limited print runs and nobody saving them for posterity. Many were lost in the paper drives of World War 2, with the first thing to go being the old comic books that been gathering dust. This is also why copies of ''Action Comics'' #1 have sold at auction for over a million dollars; only 50-100 copies are thought to exist today.
7* Many comics that feature licensed non-Marvel/DC Universe characters (for example, Marvel's ''Star Trek'', ''Ren and Stimpy'' and ''Tiny Toons'' comics, and DC's own ''Star Trek'' comics) are not reissued most of the time [[ExiledFromContinuity due to licensing disputes with the character owners]] (these types of comics had licenses that expired at a certain point in time; the publishers and/or artists still hold the comics' copyrights, but they do not own the characters themselves). Some may never be published again (Marvel couldn't reissue ''Tiny Toons'' comics due to Marvel's rivalry with DC) unless the character owners reach a deal with the publishers. Star Wars was formally not reissued by Marvel until they got the rights back from their current parent Disney when they bought Lucasfilm (the comics themselves were reprinted by Dark Horse during their ownership of the license).
8* Patricia Highsmith's comic book work. It almost certainly still exists in some form, but the comics she was published in never credited the writer, so it's impossible to know which stories in which issues are hers. Since both Highsmith and the editors she worked for are long dead, we'll probably never know.
9* "The Trial of Yellowjacket" is another out of print trade and one of the most infamous ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' stories ever reprinted. Adding to the annoyance for those who did not buy the book, before it went out of print, is that it would have been the subject of the 10th volume of the Essential Avengers line. But the Essential line has been cancelled and no one knows when or if the book will be reprinted.
10* ''ComicBook/TheBeano'': Any cover from 1938 to 1947 will now be edited if reprinted to remove Peanut, a character who appeared on the comics's masthead who is an offensive racial stereotype - he's a black boy eating a melon. Any reprints of issue 1 will usually lose four pages as well: one of them is a feature page which uses Peanut. During World War II, some stories were abandoned early due to the comic's page count being reduced because of paper rationing (this also affected ''ComicBook/TheDandy'') - most of these have never seen the light of day and are probably lost forever.
11* With Joe Books' GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion of Boom's ''ComicBook/DarkwingDuck'' comics, Dangerous Currency stands out as the only one not being reprinted ''or'' rewritten. It's even been declared CanonDiscontinuity. Some sources say that the story wasn't approved by Disney. If you didn't get it when it was first released, hope you like spending lots of money.
12* ''Gotham Knights'' #12 was originally supposed to have an {{Elseworlds}}-style story by Devin Grayson about Mr. Zsasz killing Franchise/{{Batman}}, but it was changed at the last minute after being deemed too graphic for an all-ages book. You can read about it [[https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-122/2/ here.]] It eventually saw the light of day as part of a Zsasz-centric trade released to tie-in with ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020''.
13* The ''ComicBook/{{Grendel}}'' spin-off mini-series featuring the origin of The Wolf, Argent is apparently unlikely to be collected, as the original artwork has deteriorated too much.
14* Similarly, there was an issue of the Creator/WarrenEllis run of ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' that was set to be published during the days when school shootings were the latest panic... and implied that some students, due to the rundown nature of modern life and teenage pressures, ''wanted'' to be shot. When UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} occurred, that one hit the bin quickly. The story has since seen the light of day as a black and white version in various Hellblazer [=TPBs=] in the 2010s.
15* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Issues #296-297 were only partially reprinted, due to the issues featuring [[ComicBook/ROMSpaceKnight ROM the Space Knight]]. They would have been skipped entirely if not for the fact that they had major plot advancement that was required reading, hence them appearing in TPB form in severely redacted form.
16* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' had the infamous "Hamburger War" arc of the "Cursed Earth" story arc. Published during the late TheSeventies, it involved Dredd stumbling across a literal fast food war between the Burger King Creeps from Burgerville and the [=McDonald's=] Marauders from [=McDonald City=]. Another arc has him facing a Colonel Sanders lookalike MadScientist and his army of sentient corporate mascots including a staggeringly tall Jolly Green Giant. Surprising no one, the owners of these trademarked characters did not take kindly to their inclusion in this tale. The publisher IPC decided to settle the copyright issue out of court and retract the two storylines from later reprinted editions of "The Cursed Earth" before things got out of control. However, the year 2014 brought a change to UK copyright law allowing these comic to be printed again.
17* Marvel seems to have largely disowned the infamous "ComicBook/ThePunisher [[BlackLikeMe Goes Black]]" storyline from the 90s, as Marvel Unlimited skips it entirely. It is available in TPB however, in the Essential line.
18* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
19** It appears that Archie is attempting to do this with issue #50, the final part of the "End Game" storyline, as recent reprints replace the original 22-page cut with the superior version from ''Sonic Super Special'' issue #6. Other stories not being reprinted include "The Last Game Cartridge Hero" from ''Sonic Live''[[labelnote:†]] (for a plethora of reasons – including being universally hated, the usage of caricatures of real children, and the idea that the characters are just from a video game)[[/labelnote]], the entirety of ''Sonic Super Special'' issue #7 (a crossover with Creator/ImageComics)[[labelnote:†]] (not only because of the usage of Image heroes, but also because it used characters from a failed comic series writer Ken Penders was pushing)[[/labelnote]], the story "Ghost Busted" from issue #8 (which was an adaptation of one of the ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' episodes[[labelnote:†]] (due to its questionable art style)[[/labelnote]], and both parts of "Some Enchantra Evening" from issue #10, the first part of which started over in ''ComicBook/{{Sabrina|TheTeenageWitch}}''.
20** Archie's ''Sonic'' series has been heavily compromised due to problems with a previous artist and writer, Ken Penders. His claims of copyright forced Archie to file a claim against him, which they eventually had to settle. The actual damage remains to be seen, but Archie went ahead and wrote all characters created by Penders out of the book. As of issue #252, the comic underwent a soft reboot via CosmicRetcon - the comic leans more heavily on the games than it did [=SatAM=] and the only people who remember the old universe are the main heroes and Dr. Eggman.
21*** This may or may not have been tied to Archie losing the license and IDW picking it up, relaunching the book with the same writer in a new continuity.
22* The maligned 90s ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' arc ''"ComicBook/TheCloneSaga"'' has become this. Reprinted in twelve volumes costing around $35/40 apiece, the books (titled ''"The Complete Clone Saga"'' and ''"The Complete Ben Reilly Saga"'') quickly fell out of print and go for over $100 apiece.
23* The original ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'' series had a number of stories that were exclusive to [[ComicBook/MarvelUK the UK prints]], including a handful of especially {{Mind Screw}}y ones by the legendary Creator/AlanMoore, and all of which were notoriously difficult to find for a long time. Rarer still were the two comic strips that were exclusive to the short-lived '70s Marvel magazine ''Pizzazz'' and three prose short stories created for the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' comic, these again being exclusive to the UK. In TheNewTens, however, all of these have been reprinted anew in omnibuses, with the ''Ewoks'' stories being the last, in 2016; up until this point they had been the ''only'' ''Star Wars'' comic media to ever have been printed only once.
24* While the '80s ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' is finally getting reprinted due to the [[Film/SuicideSquad2016 2016 movie]], several side stories from the original series remain lost. These include Firestorm #60-64 and Annual #5 (of which #63-64 and Annual #5 feature the very first fight between the Justice League and Suicide Squad and explain what exactly happened to Parasite after he's seen in Suicide Squad #1), Spectre #10/Captain Atom #11/Firestorm #68 (which tie into Suicide Squad #9, as far as the three issues, plus Detective Comics #582 and Suicide Squad #9 all take place at the exact same time frame and explain critical plot points that are critical to the Suicide Squad story but are never explained in the book) and Nightshade's origin story from Secret Origins #2.
25* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
26** Creator/JerrySiegelAndJoeShuster produced the first full-length ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' comic in 1933, five years before his official debut in Action Comics #1. When the publisher pulled out, Shuster threw the whole thing in the fire out of frustration. The only part that survived was [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thesuperman.jpg the cover]].
27** ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' #712 was scheduled to contain a team-up between the Man of Steel and a young Muslim superhero named Sharif (actually a revival of an obscure young hero from the '90s who went by the name "Sinbad", now several years older), but the story was pulled after ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #900 (which featured Superman renouncing his U.S. citizenship) drew unexpected controversy from the media concern that DC was trying to make Superman "un-American". The Sharif story had some early editorially-mandated changes, such as the vetoing of the original idea that Sharif would wear Superman's "S" shield, but with the Arabic letter, before the entire story was nixed. Amusingly, DC tried to claim (through leaks to [[http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/22/superman-712-not-changed-over-muslim-content-but-over-kitten-content/ comics gossip blogger Rich Johnston]]) that it had nothing to do with religious issues. Instead, the supposed rationale was the fact that Superman rescues a kitten from a tree in the story. Supposedly this story element was "too corny and heavy-handed" for DC Editorial. Can you guess what [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/13/superman-rescues-cat-kitten/ the very first thing Superman does]] in ''Superman'' #713 was?
28** Creator/OrsonScottCard was supposed to write an issue of ''Adventures of Superman'', but the story was shelved indefinitely after the backlash DC received over hiring a writer known for homophobic political activism. The issue's artist even walked away from the project after the initial controversy began.
29* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': The story "De Gekalibreerde Kwibus" is missing from the regular series and only available in the separate "Suske en Wiske klassiek" series.
30* In 1989, as part of a time travel storyline, ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' was going to meet UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} of Nazareth in issue #88 of his title. Writer Rick Veitch wrote the script, penciller Michael Zulli at least partially completed the artwork, and the story was approved by editorial, but then DC's publisher killed the story. Allegedly it was due to the fact that DC was terrified of being targeted by the religious right, who at the time were engaged in a major PR war against Martin Scorcese over "The Last Temptation of Christ" and DC felt that Veitch's story (which implied Jesus's powers were described by Swamp Thing as magic based and where the Three Wise Men were actually demonically possessed assassins from Hell) would garner a similar PR shitstorm. Veitch quit the book on the spot, forcing the series to go on a brief hiatus while DC scrambled to find a replacement writer (Doug Wheeler), who quickly churned out a replacement script that saw Swamp Thing returned to his proper time. While DC has attempted in recent years to court Veitch back to the company, and even started to work towards reprinting Veitch's Swamp Thing run, it all fell apart when DC told Veitch that they would not reprint the original version of #88 in his final trade (resulting in the planned trade for #80-87 to be cancelled, leaving the issues to this day not collected). The script and existing artwork for the story, "Morning of the Magician", can be seen [[http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/morning-of-magician-swamp-thing-meets.html here]].
31* The original run of ''ComicBook/{{Teen Titans}}'' had its twentieth issue rewritten and redrawn after Carmine Infantino objected to its story's heavy-handed messages about racism, fearing that they'd lose potential buyers in the South. The original writers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman wound up in trouble over the controversy and found themselves blacklisted from DC for about two years (though Wolfman was at least given the chance to write Donna's first origin story in a later issue). The original story included the debut of a black superhero named Jericho, who was changed to a white man named Joshua in the version that saw print. Wolfman would later reuse the Jericho name for a character he'd create in the '80s Titans. Although some pages of the original artwork have been posted online, the entire original issue may never be found.
32* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
33** ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2'' has become this, with IDW refusing to collect it (aside from the arc in ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' that served as a PoorlyDisguisedPilot, which was reprinted in volume one of ''G.I. Joe/Transformers'' along with the ''G.I. Joe'' comic's previous crossover with ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'') and the UK exclusive [=TPBs=] long out of print.
34** A large chunk of the Dreamwave comics haven't been reprinted by IDW, with the only existing reprints being most of the ''Anime/UnicronTrilogy'' tie-in comic (with the last seven published issues of the ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' phase unaccounted for), reissues of the trade paperbacks of the ''Prime Directive'' and ''War and Peace'' miniseries that serve as the start of ''ComicBook/TransformersGenerationOne'' and an omnibus of the first two ''War Within'' miniseries. In addition to a lack of reprints of the ''Micromasters'' miniseries, the abruptly cancelled ''The War Within: The Age of Wrath'' miniseries, the ''Generation One'' ongoing and ''ComicBook/TransformersGIJoe'', to name a few, IDW has also refused to finish the issues of the comics that were unpublished as a result of Dreamwave's bankruptcy because of legal issues resulting from the likelihood that the writers and artists involved with the unpublished comics were not paid for their work.
35* Francis Manpul was scheduled to do a three-issue arc beginning in ''Trinity'' #7, which would've seen Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman trying to defend a bigoted hate speaker from angry rioters. DC pulled the storyline due to the increasingly volatile political climate in the U.S. following the 2016 presidential race.
36* ''ComicBook/WildCATsWildStorm[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' has become this again. It was omitted from the first round of Stormwatch [=TPBs=], then was licensed for the second printings, but was omitted from the recent hardcover collection. Worse, the text summary from the first printing of the final Stormwatch trade was omitted from the hardcover. It has been recently reprinted in the ''DC Comics vs. Aliens'' TPB
37* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
38** The graphic novel ''Hand of the Gods'' was supposed to come out in late 2011. Perhaps it would have been shelved anyway due to inconsistencies with DC's ComicBook/{{New 52}} relaunch, but the arrest of artist Josue Rivera (who works under the pen name Justiniano) on child pornography charges probably makes that permanent.
39** A crossover between Franchise/WonderWoman and Series/XenaWarriorPrincess was written and illustrated in the 90's, but for one reason or another, it's never been released.
40* Creator/ScottLobdell and Aaron Lopresti completed an ''ComicBook/XMen'' mini-series about the original Thunderbird back in 2000, but thanks to a host of unforeseen circumstances, it was shelved indefinitely.
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