History
The genesis of the limited series may be traced to anthology series and back-up stories in series featuring the title character. Publishers would often experiment with new characters and stories. If proven popular, these characters were quickly spun off to their own titles. This was a particularly common strategy of comics in the 1960s and 1970s, which saw a comics sales boom (many times, new titles were launched despite uncertainty about whether a character or team could carry a new series for more than a few issues).
Nowhere was this seen more than with DC Comics, which released many titles between 1975 and 1978, reaching close to 60 monthly ongoing titles. Eventually, DC was forced to scale back and cancel more than half of its titles (see the so-called DC Implosion). Aside from suffering financially, DC Comics was also criticized for straining itself creatively and editorially, affecting the quality of their comics.
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—D.H. (David Herbert)
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—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)