Memories: DC Heroes Products That Never Made It
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Dec 05, 2024 at 04:17:47 PM
DC Heroes fans,
We are closing in on unlocking the 3rd edition book… almost there! We know the middle part of Kickstarters can be a bit slow, but we still have new backers joining us everyday and we really appreciate everyone here.
Today, Ray Winninger tells us a little bit about DC Heroes products that never made it across the finish line. Check it out!
The DC Heroes That Never Was
Lots of people are asking about various DC HEROES products that were in the pipeline—perhaps even announced—but never published. Here is what I know.
Who’s Who #4.DC published a third version of the “Who’s Who” reference guide from August of 1990 to February of 1992. This version consisted of 16 issues, each comprised of 24 loose-leaf pages describing an important denizen of the DCU. The Mayfair “Who’s Who” line (Bundle 7) was conceived as a companion to this series. Each of the Mayfair products covered four issues of the DC series and matched each DC entry with a corresponding page containing DC HEROES game info. The idea was that players could place the Mayfair pages in the same three-ring binder as the DC pages to form a comprehensive reference to all of DC’s most important characters.
Unfortunately, Mayfair and DC decided to end the DC HEROES product line just as work on Mayfair’s Who’s Who (covering issues 13-16 of DC’s series) was beginning. I wrote maybe twenty entries for WW4. Nothing made it to editorial or layout.
The Flash Sourcebook.Former Mayfair editor Jack Barker completed a first draft of a 96-page Flash sourcebook covering all the various Flashes, their friends and foes, the Speed Force, and Keystone and Central Cities. This manuscript was completed a year or two before the DCH Line ended, but by that point, sales were already on the decline as the comics market was undergoing a downward swing of its own. Before the Flash SB could move into editorial, Mayfair decided that it could no longer afford to produce DC products dedicated to a single character. The logic is that something like the Flash SB appeals only to Flash fans, while books like THE DC TECHNICAL MANUAL or Who’s Who appeal to all DC Comics fans, broadening their sales potential.
The Sandman Sourcebook. I put several weeks of work into a DC HEROES adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. This would have been in the same format as THE SWAMP THING SOURCEBOOK (Bundle 6)—a 32 page sourcebook accompanied by a 32 page solo adventure. There were a couple of early conversations with Gaiman and Kelly Jones created a cover. This project, too, came right about the time that Mayfair lost interest in products dedicated to a single character. As I was working, the relationship between the Sandman comics and the DCU was becoming murkier, which was another factor that played a role in suspending the project.
The Killing Joke and V For Vendetta.I had fun working with Alan Moore on Watchmen and we spoke about RPG adaptations of his Batman graphic novel The Killing Joke and his series V for Vendetta. Both were extensively outlined but didn’t get much further than that. TKJ was conceived as a Match-Play between Batman and the Joker with some brand new “sanity” rules. V was in the sourcebook/solo adventure format.
Before you ask, as far as I know, nothing from any of these projects still exists. ☹
Ray Winninger is the co-designer of the DC Heroes RPG and former Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons.
Thanks for backing,
The Cryptozoic Team