Cancelled comics that resumed publication and lasted another year or more

[Jim Kelly]

Note also that around 1972 and 1973, DC was putting out a lot of regular price books with all reprints--maybe to keep up with Marvel who were flooding the racks with such titles. So DC brought back books like DOOM PATROL, INFERIOR 5, CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, but only for a few reprint issues. However, CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN did come back again in 1977/78 for six more issues of new material.

[MRP]

Another candidate-DC Special. Cancelled with #15 in Dec '71, revived with #16 in Spring of '75 and ran to #29 published in Sept. '77.

-M

[MRP]

House of Secret was cancelled with issue 80 in Oct 1966, revived with 81 in Sept. 1969 and ran to issue #154 in 1978.

-M

[Jim Kelly]

Beat me to it on HOS. AQUAMAN came back after a six year hiatus--not as successfully as HOS.

[DevilBat66]

Warlord was actually cancelled after its second issue. The third issue came out six months after the second issue.

Wow. Did not know that.

[Osiris-Rex]

Supposedly Supergirl was cancelled in June 2018 issue #20 but resumed publication in October 2018 with issue #21 and is currently at issue #31.

[Jim Kelly]

If you're someone who was kept waiting for these comics to come back, it's not something you forget. I remember waiting for WARLORD and wondering if it ever would come back. When DC launched SUPERMAN FAMILY in 1974--which was a continuation of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN--that supposedly brought an end to SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE and SUPERGIRL as they were rolled into SUPERMAN FAMILY--yet those two women's titles came back about half a year later with another issue for each. The belated SUPERGIRL 10 (September-October 1974) featured a crossover with Prez--which was bad timing for the beleaguered president, whose administration had been impeached six months earlier.

[Lee Stone]

Did you want to include books that ceased publication for a time because they were placed on hiatus for a publishing agenda rather than cancelled? I am thinking of Action Comics and Superman/Adventures of Superman that ceased publication between Sept 1986 and January 1987 while the Man of Steel mini was published and then resumed publication and continued the numbering (Action 583 to 584, Superman 423 to Adventures of Superman 424). It's not exactly the same as you were looking for, but it's close.

-M

Probably not.
That could be a lot.
I know Wonder Woman, JLI and JLE all had a month break during the ends of their original Post-Crisis runs.

[Lee Stone]

House of Secret was cancelled with issue 80 in Oct 1966, revived with 81 in Sept. 1969 and ran to issue #154 in 1978.

-M

I was thinking that one of the House books did it, but couldn't recall.
Thanks!

[Jim Kelly]

TEEN TITANS is another one that got axed in the early '70s, then came back briefly in the later '70s. Also MISTER MIRACLE and NEW GODS. It seems like there was a great culling of titles in the early '70s, with attempts to bring them back later, but most of them failed.

MYSTERY IN SPACE ended its run in 1966, but returned in 1980, resuming the numbering with 111 and having eight more issues. DC's revival of PLASTIC MAN in 1966 didn't continue the old numbering from the Quality title, but it began at 1 and went for ten issues before being cancelled; however, it was brought back for another ten issues (beginning with 11) at the end of 1975.

There have been many titles brought back for one last issue, while using the same old numbering. One of these dear to my heart is the issue 99 for SUGAR & SPIKE. The title had ended in 1971, because Sheldon Mayer was losing his eyesight. However, he later had surgery that allowed him to see well enough to resume drawing Plumm and Wilson--but those comics were done for the foreign market (and some later appeared in digests). And then in 1992, when DC ended its contract with the older printing press in Sparta, they published SILVER AGE CLASSICS and one of those issues was SUGAR & SPIKE 99.

[MRP]

It's also important to understand that a year did not equal 12 issues for most DC titles in the 60s and 70s. Most books, even key titles like Superman, Justice League of America and such had a publishing frequency of 8 issues a year. More had bi-monthly status. Only a very few were monthlies, like Action Comics. So many revived titles lasted for a year or more, but not for 12 issues because they weren't monthlies. In the later 70s and into the 80s, monthly became the norm, but prior to that, only the best selling or flagship titles were monthly, most took a few months off each year (usually the summer months when kids were out of school and doing things outside, at camp, etc, and not buying comics as sales slumped during the summer months during that period.

So the OP needs to determine if he wants to include books that came back and lasted a year, or books that came back and lasted 12 issues, because in many cases, they won't be the same thing.

-M

[Jim Kelly]

Yep, six issues was a year for most comics. It was a good system, because it allowed more titles to get published and so DC had a variety of stuff every year, but only a few titles were actually monthly. You always knew which titles were bi-monthly, because the date on the cover was put in a rectangular box--so for instance if an issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD had [MAR] on the cover, you knew that meant February-March as the actual issue date.

[Air Wave]

I'm kind of disappointed that everyone has already named most of the ones that I would have said. But I think I have one that no one else is likely to mention. LEAVE IT TO BINKY--began in 1948 (actually the very end of 1947) and ran for 60 issues before it faded away in 1957/58--issue 58 was dated January-February 1957, then 59 was dated October 1957, then 60 was dated October 1958. Then LEAVE IT TO BINKY came back with issue 61 in 1968 and kept going through 1970 when with issue 72 the name was shortened to just BINKY, and 81 being almost the final issue in 1971. But wait, BINKY came back for issue 82 in Summer 1977.

And that seems to be the last of the title, although Binky himself returned for some of the DC digests in the 1980s. There was also a companion title called BINKY'S BUDDIES that lasted for 12 issues in 1969 and 1970.

I have that single issue of Binky from 1977. I've been trying to sell it but nobody wants it lol.

[Digifiend]

Supposedly Supergirl was cancelled in June 2018 issue #20 but resumed publication in October 2018 with issue #21 and is currently at issue #31.

Yeah, it was retooled as part of Bendis's Super line relaunch.

[Lee Stone]

It's also important to understand that a year did not equal 12 issues for most DC titles in the 60s and 70s. Most books, even key titles like Superman, Justice League of America and such had a publishing frequency of 8 issues a year. More had bi-monthly status. Only a very few were monthlies, like Action Comics. So many revived titles lasted for a year or more, but not for 12 issues because they weren't monthlies. In the later 70s and into the 80s, monthly became the norm, but prior to that, only the best selling or flagship titles were monthly, most took a few months off each year (usually the summer months when kids were out of school and doing things outside, at camp, etc, and not buying comics as sales slumped during the summer months during that period.

So the OP needs to determine if he wants to include books that came back and lasted a year, or books that came back and lasted 12 issues, because in many cases, they won't be the same thing.

-M

A year sounds good.