In 1976, Thomas encouraged Gerry Conway, then an editor at DC, to revive the All Star Comics title, which had originally run from 1940-1951. Thomas was working at Marvel at the time and couldn’t take a creative role, but he talked Conway into the revival to present an updated version of the Justice Society of America, with wartime characters like Wildcat, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and the Flash (Jay Garrick) helping to mentor newer heroes like Power Girl and the Huntress. When Conway moved to DC in 1981, he co-created the series All-Star Squadron, set in 1941 and featuring numerous golden-age characters, many of whom hadn’t been in print for decades. In the letter column of issue #20 of that series, Thomas may have been the first the use the term “retcon”, which all by itself would be notable.
Ah, cool; thanks.
And yeah, there are countless stories about lone champion dj’s. I’m a huge fan of Chris Isaak, who was popular locally until a DJ in the South, I think, started playing Wicked Game on rotation. That led to the video with Helena Christisnsen, and he got his big break. His lead guitarist at the time, James Calvin Wilsey was sublime. Such tasty licks.
Not really applicable, but I always think of Flight of the Conchords when this thread pops up. A running gag is that they have a single fan, Mel.
Murray: Item one, fan base. Ways to increase the American fan base.
Jemaine: What fan base?
M: The fan base of the band.
Bret: Oh, you mean Mel.
J: That’s not a fan base, that’s just a woman.
M: Yeah, but I’m calling it fan base from now on. It’s just easier when I call. Cause, you know, you say “oh, the fan’ll be there,” you know, they can tell there’s only one person.
Bryan Ekers:
And that’s in addition to having written the “Invaders” series at Marvel, which presented adventures of Marvel’s 1940’s heroes, and, and to having used obscure 1940’s heroes as part of the conclusion of the “Kree-Skrull War”, an Avengers story which might well be considered the first comics mega-event.
Did he unpack that portmanteau, or do I have to spend the rest of my life just assuming it means something like “to rewrite the particular universe’s history in order to resolve a plot hole”?
“Retroactive continuity”. Basically, any time they change the previously established story. This can take various forms, including: “Now here’s what you didn’t see…”, or presenting a subtly altered “recap” as if it’s an accurate retelling, or just flat out ignoring any aspects of the previous story that contradict the current one. This is pretty common in superhero comics, as the same characters can be passed from one creative team to another for decades, and the new writers won’t necessarily want to be constrained by what came before. But it’s also not unheard of for creators to retcon their own work.
As you can see from that last sentence, “retcon” can be used as a verb, meaning roughly “to overturn by application of retroactive continuity”. When used as a noun, I’d usually say “a retcon”. E.g., “Captain America being stuck in a block of ice since the '40s was a retcon. They retconned it that the anti-communist Cap from the '50s was a different guy.”
It doesn’t really count (in my mind at least) if it was a reveal planned all along, or if it’s explained in-universe that the past was actually changed (e.g., time travel).