History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / ComicBooks

* The Brazilian distributor of ComicBook/DisneyComics released in 2000 a special celebrating the 50th anniversary of their WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck magazine. The description of the first issue listed all that could be found weird: differences in language/spelling (apart from the 1950s version being quite formal, Portuguese underwent several orthographic reforms) and character names (biggest one was WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} being called Dippy - though the story has him being called "a goofy guy"; in one story, Goofy was discovered by talent scouts after they didn't like his original name, ''Dippy Dawg''), unfinished stories (it was published across 3 issues as movie serials were popular in those days), only eight pages in color, and a trivia section filled with ValuesDissonance (telling stories of animals suffering accidents, such as "jiraffes"''[sic]'' being decapitated by telegraphic wires). 10 years later, the collection released to celebrate the 60th anniversary had its first issue come with [[EmbeddedPrecursor a facsimile of ''Donald Duck'' #1]], letting readers experience Early Installment Weirdness firsthand.

Many superheroes during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks:

This can be applied era to era in comics but especially UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} which generally has the silliest and most over the top plots and really sticks out from the other eras with many of the most popular characters of today being invented or taking on their most recognizable forms in that era.

* Creator/ImageComics' early days in TheNineties where they codified the NinetiesAntiHero and had a ClicheStorm that embodied UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks could be seen as this. Since then, they've [[GrowingTheBeard greatly diversified their lineup]] with hits such as ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'', and ''ComicBook/{{Saga}}'', among many others. While DarkerAndEdgier compared to Marvel and DC, it isn't to the over-the-top extreme like it was in the '90s. This also had the effect of making series introduced back then, such as ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Witchblade}}'', ''ComicBook/YoungbloodImageComics'', and ''ComicBook/SavageDragon'', look rather [[TheArtifact out of place]] today.

* Before Creator/ECComics made its iconic horror, crime, war and science fiction classics like ''Tales From The Crypt'' and ''Weird Science'', and later satirical comics like MAD magazine, its first three years were as a fairly standard comic label called Educational Comics, which had wholesome fare like ''Picture Stories From The Bible'' and ''Animal Fables'', the total antithesis of the kind of stories and art that would put EC on the map from 1949 and on.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
*** The early comics were very comedic and often even stranger than what came later, with lots of [[NoFourthWall fourth wall demolition]], BetterThanABareBulb, and HurricaneOfPuns. This was more due to following the tone of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' and using a few [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 video game stages]] in the early days. Also, Dave Manak and Michael Gallagher were the primary artist and writer respectively, both of whom had a more zany cartoonish style than their successors. Roboticization was shown differently with people with hypnotized eyes instead of out and out robots. The series wouldn't reach the ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAm'' levels until Dulcy showed up in issue 28. Once other artists and writers began to take over (although Gallagher and Manak never fully left), the art style and overall tone became [[CerebusSyndrome comparatively more serious]] for the most part.
*** The lore for Chaos Emeralds was subject to some changes over the course of the series prior to the ContinuityReboot. In the earliest comics, there were much more than seven Chaos Emeralds. While Sonic could achieve his Super Sonic state with seven Emeralds, there were still more around Mobius, all of which were green. Other planets had Chaos Emeralds of their own, including the red Chaos Emeralds of Thoraxia, the blue Emeralds of Xorda, and so forth. It wouldn't be until Issue #170 in 2006 when the Emeralds took on a form more in-line with how they appear in the games: every Chaos Emerald in the known universe would disappear into the Zone of Silence, where the godlike entity Feist condensed them into seven Emeralds, one of each color from their world of origin, and rewards them to the heroes for completing trials within his "[[BonusStage Special Zone]]".
*** This also extends to its video game tie-ins. Prior to the ContinuityReboot, video game events were done in BroadStrokes; for instance, ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3'' was translated in issue #13 as Robotnik and Snively stranded on the Floating Island, stealing its singular Chaos Emerald without the Death Egg showing up at all (it wouldn't show up for another two years). After the ContinuityReboot, WordOfGod states that ''all'' video games, with the exceptions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles'' are canon and happened the way they did in the games.
** ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'':
*** For a while it was full of one-shots that barely related to each other (often featuring OffModel drawings). It took several issues for it to become plot-orientated, and even afterwards it took a while for it to drop the one-shot routine.
*** The comic itself was also set up more lika a magazine full of game previews and strips featuring characters from other games than Sonic, which (with the notable exception of one based on VideoGame/DecapAttack) slowly got phased at as the comic progressed.
*** The first few issues didn't include Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis alongside Sonic and Tails. They were characters, but not Freedom Fighters. Amy, Tekno, and Shortfuse also didn't appear for several issues.
*** Early strips written by Creator/MarkMillar place Sonic's home as the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Green Hill Zone]], while from the eighth issue onwards, Nigel Kitching placed it as [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 the Emerald Hill Zone]]. Millar's strips published after the change have been edited to also use the Emerald Hill Zone, as evidenced by a strip involving Sonic running around the planet in five seconds listing the Spring Yard Zone and Marble Zone as being on his path to the Emerald Hill Zone.

* Before ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' was on the air, its spiritual predecessor ''ComicBook/TheIntertidalZone'' featured a prototype version of the character called Bob the Sponge. Unlike the later show, it was an edutainment comic.
* The first two ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' stories - ''Terror Tube'' and ''Killer Watt'' - refer to Torquemada as chief of Tube Police, while later he is referred to as "Grand Master of Termight". Nemesis spends both stories inside his ship, with no clue about his identity or appearance, saying nothing but his CatchPhrase ''Credo!'', which he tends to use at odd moments. A lot implies it wasn't even established that Nemesis is even an alien back then, with narration referring to him as "not an ordinary man" at best. The FantasticRacism of Torquemada would only be added later as well.
* While people often note the various changes that came about when the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles changed from being merely a comic book to a multimedia franchise, the original [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Mirage comics]] were also subject to quite a bit of this. Most notable is the Creator/FrankMiller-esque narration, which was gone by the series' second issue; the idea that the turtles had grown to look like their present-day selves in the space of a year, which was ignored when the writers decided to write stories featuring younger versions of the characters; and the bit where Splinter expressly trained the turtles so they would kill The Shredder for him, which was glossed over with time. The Shredder himself was originally a TokenMotivationalNemesis and StarterVillain who died in the end of issue one. He did kill Hamato Yoshi, yes, but he was pretty much the [[ComicBook/SpiderMan crook who shot Uncle Ben]] but with a cooler outfit.

* The first three issues of ''ComicBook/NinjaHighSchool'' were drawn in a somewhat different style from the rest of the series.

* In early issues of ''ComicBook/TheBeano'', pretty much all the comic's most iconic characters had yet to appear. The only strip in the first issue to survive into TheFifties was Lord Snooty. Early issues also included text stories and adventure strips unlike later ones which only featured humourous comic strips.
** When [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis the Menace]] first appeared in 1951 he lacked his red and black stripey jumper and instead wore a tie.
* Early issues of ComicBook/TheDandy featured Desperate Dan as a bit of a bad guy (a Desperado, hence the strip's name) instead of the nice but dumb guy who DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength.

* The series ''La parejita'' started in 1993 as "Emilia-o", the story of a 18-year-old couple who had to serve in the Spanish military service. Emilia, the girl, disguised herself as a man to stay with her boyfriend during that time instead of being sent to different destinations. After a year of military jokes, author Manel Fontdevila decided to put the couple back in the city and write a story about their day-to-day life, which he described as "putting the same actors in a different set".

* In ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'', Will was a major ButtMonkey and it seemed all she existed for, beyond being leader, was having something horrible happen to her. She lampshades this when her dormouse is run over after she and her friends save her family's livelihood from her JerkAss, gambling-addicted father.
* Creator/ImageComics' early days in TheNineties where they codified the NinetiesAntiHero and had a ClicheStorm that embodied UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks could be seen as this. Since then, they've [[GrowingTheBeard greatly diversified their lineup]] with hits such as ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'', and ''ComicBook/{{Saga}}'', among many others. While DarkerAndEdgier compared to Marvel and DC, it isn't to the over-the-top extreme like it was in the '90s. This also had the effect of making series introduced back then, such as ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Witchblade}}'', ''ComicBook/YoungbloodImageComics'', and ''ComicBook/SavageDragon'', look rather [[TheArtifact out of place]] today.
* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': The early albums look nothing like the series today. Kiekeboe is long and thin, Charlotte is a DamselInDistress, and most of the comedy is more like a typical children's comic strip of that time, with a lot of unneccessary exposition and puns that weren't as clever as they are in later stories.
* ''ComicBook/TomPoes'': Tom Poes was a lot taller in the early stories and looked more like a real cat than in later albums.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' was originally set in New York City (although the second issue did mention it was part of Mega-City One), the judges were "elected by the people" and regular police still appeared. Dredd's build was disturbingly lanky, he looked more like a teenager that his usual burly self.
* In the first of the ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' comics, Nate Timely was portrayed as more of an UnluckyEverydude rather than the gluttonous ditz with occasional moments of genius he would be established as by later issues, and Patrice Blazing, compared to her OnlySaneWoman portrayal in future issues, was written as somewhat of a maverick. The first issue was also the only issue where Crazy Dave was ever given proper dialogue that wasn't entirely in gibberish that only Patrice understands, and it's also the only issue where Dr. Zomboss doesn't have dialogue (evil laughter notwithstanding).
* ''ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'':
** The original incarnation of Sabrina from [[http://www.themarysue.com/archie-sabrina-50th/2/ the original five page comic]] was a VillainProtagonist. She also couldn't cry and would float in water, which is old witch lore. Early comics had a witch head known as "Della" who disappeared randomly.
** Sabrina's two aunts were originally her mothers who created her through magic. Later on, they became her biological aunts, with Sabrina being half-human/half-witch.
** Salem started out black in the original short comic before becoming red in the finalized comic. He was changed back to black ([[DependingOnTheArtist sometimes]] tuxedo) in the 1990s and that's since stuck. Originally, Salem was just Sabrina's {{familiar}} and was a normal cat that couldn't speak. The 1990s [[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch show]] changed him so that he was a warlock cursed into a cat form, which [[RetCanon the comic later canonized]].
* In the second issue of Marvel's ''Franchise/StarWars'', the scene between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt (or Hut here) is included, but Jabba looks absolutely nothing like the familiar character as seen in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. The character depicted is one of the background aliens from the Cantina scene, who was eventually given the name Mosep Binneed and, as a DiscontinuityNod, was revealed to be one of Jabba's executive staff.
** Though this persisted for much of the comic series, as another story about Han and Jabba uses the same humanoid design as the adaptation of ''A New Hope''. It wasn't until ''Return of the Jedi'' came out that Jabba was depicted as he is now.
** Jabba's humanoid design was from a scene that was originally deleted, and it was said that it wasn't the final version. At the time, they couldn't do what they wanted to, so it ended up deleted. When the "Special Edition" version of ''A New Hope'' came out, the Jabba from ''Return'' was inserted in as a CGI model.
* ''ComicBook/CloneWarsAdventures'': One of the few times Plo Koon appears before the other ''Clone Wars'' series is in ''One Battle'' and shows him [[TheUnintelligible only speaking (or only capable of speaking) his native Kel Dor language]]. The lead clone in charge seems to have trouble understanding him at first. Later works have him speaking plain Basic just fine.
* ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'' started out under the name ''She's Josie''. Josie's hairstyle was a bouffant, rather than a bob, and she had an AlliterativeName ("Josie Jones" rather than "Josie [=McCoy=]"). Instead of Valerie, they had a friend named Pepper, who was a DeadpanSnarker and a SoapboxSadie (she was PutOnTheBus for decades before reappearing in the 2010s). Instead of Alan, we have Albert, who was also a folk singer (though it wasn't a trait of his until the seventh issue). Albert was later phased out for Clyde Didit, a guitarist whose RunningGag was being hit by something he was singing about. When Alan finally made his debut, he had his own band called "Alan & the Jesters", but that didn't last beyond that particular issue. Alexandra was lacking her streaked hair, did not have witchcraft or her cat Sebastian, and was much less of a hothead initially. And of course, the Pussycat band itself did not exist until issue 45.

* In his first appearance, obscure Golden Age hero ComicBook/TheSteelFist only had a cowl on his head. He got a Domino Mask added immediately afterwards.

* In terms of comic book creators, some of their work was much different early in their careers. Creator/BillSienkiewicz's artwork was very similar to Creator/NealAdams' before he took on a more expressionistic style. Creator/BryanHitch's art was closer to Creator/AlanDavis' before becoming more distinctly his own. Creator/AlanMoore started off as both a writer "and" an artist.

* In his first appearance, obscure Golden Age Western hero ComicBook/{{Gunsmoke}} is summoned by Pedro via smoke signals. This element never appears again.
* In the very first ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' comic book, Lord Zedd is shown using Rita Repulsa's mannerisms, such as throwing his staff to Earth to MakeMyMonsterGrow and an affinity for headaches. The editors admitted in a later letter column that they had no idea how Zedd acted then, thus they had to wing it.
* The opening mini-series of IDW's ''[[ComicBook/GodzillaIDWPublishing Godzilla]]'' comics -- ''[[ComicBook/GodzillaKingdomOfMonsters Kingdom of Monsters]]'' -- is so markedly different from the subsequent two-part [[ComicBook/GodzillaOngoing ongoing]] [[ComicBook/GodzillaRulersOfEarth series]] that it's fully possible to skip it completely ([[FanonDiscontinuity which most fans do]]) and fully understand the rest of the story. The tone is much darker with the {{Kaiju}} portrayed as basically evil monsters, lots of aversions of NoEndorHolocaust (up to and including [[DeathOfAChild kids dying]]), very few (and very brief) fight scenes, and there is a big focus on mean-spirited ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''-esque social commentary and then-current pop cultural references, complete with a lot of the cast being [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed obvious stand-ins for real people]]. The ongoing proper is [[ReverseCerebusSyndrome vastly more lighthearted and idealistic]], being a pulpy and [[ActionizedSequel action-packed]] GenreThrowback to old-school {{Toku}} series and superhero comics, most of the Kaiju are more heroic, and the celebrity/pop culture parodies are thrown out completely in favor of purely original characters or characters from [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} the source material]] and a semi-timeless BMovie vibe. Pretty much all of this can be chalked up to ''KOM'' being written by a completely different writer who was not asked to return for subsequent issues.
* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' had a bit of unevenness in the beginning: in addition to being a bit more violent than it is now, non-mammals and humans are seen in crowd shots and two human/oids have speaking roles (they're both villains). Currently the only non-mammal characters are Lord Hebi, a giant snake, and his human boss Lord Hikiji, [[TheFaceless whose face hasn't been seen in ages.]] We can only speculate what foreigners could look like since [[MisplacedWildLife lions, tigers, and rhinos]] already live in Japan. Stan Sakai has stated that he regrets having made Hikiji human.

* ''Comics/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' had some of these while Creator/LarryHama was still figuring out the details of the setting.