A Minor Mystery Solved

The Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex volume kicked epic amounts of ass, yes, but it also ended on a curious note. Rather than continue the stories of the bounty hunter, the book concluded instead with six stories from The Outlaw, a dull, run-of-the-mill western.

But why? Why cut off the fine flow of Hex stories in the volume, especially as the book was just heading into the legendary Michael Fleisher run?

At last: an answer.

C. Elam of the blog Earth-B gives us the skinny. According to a discussion site thread, former DC Collections Editor Bob Greenberg wrote:

DC pays a royalty based on a percentage of the cover price to writers, pencillers,and inkers to all material published prior to 1976 and after 1997. For the period in between, the vouchers that were in use called for a set reprint fee to be paid. In some cases, the amount of contractually obligated reprint fees makes the budget for a proposed collection unprofitable. In those cases, DC will either scrap the project or ask the talent involved to waive the reprint fee in lieu of the standard royalty arrangement. If the parties agree, then everyone benefits.

Reprint royalties for books published between '76 and '97 are sticky? Hm...What's the last issue of Weird Western Tales included in the Hex book? Issue #33, cover-dated March 1976.

Figuring on the traditional three-to-four month gap in cover dates versus printing dates and the bi-monthly schedule of the series, that marks Weird Western Tales #33 as the last Jonah Hex story published in 1975. Thus, it was the last issue they could reprint in the Showcase Presents volume without coughing up a lot more dough or entering into contract negotiations.

Throwing in the brief story of The Outlaw was a way to get the book to sufficient size. Why pick such an underwhelming story? The Outlaw had a couple of elements in its favor. It was a western too. The story arc began and ended in six issues. It had excellent art in a few of the stories, courtesy of Comic Art God Gil Kane. And it ran in All-Star Western, the very comic that Jonah Hex came from. The Outlaw ran in All-Star Western #2-7; Hex first appeared in #10. When searching the archives for more western material to fill out the book, The Outlaw must have seemed the obvious choice. It was already in front of them.

That reprint royalties issue also explains why DC hasn't put out collections of Warlord, either. The series was a huge seller in its day and was just revived; ideal reprint material. But the series began in late '75. Oops.

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