Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, looks back to 1987 for a rare ad promoting what was supposed to be the first appearance of Youngblood, by a 19-year-old Rob Liefeld and Hank Kanalz. However, as Megaton Comics Publisher Carlson related on his blog, Megaton Special #1 Starring Youngblood received only about 1,200 orders -- "the independent comic market was glutted back then," he writes -- and the issue was never printed.

Sad story, sure, but I hear Liefeld did pretty well for himself, and a slightly different version of Youngblood finally saw the light of day about five years later, as the first title published by Image Comics. Kanalz turned out OK, too, serving as the longtime general manager of WildStorm and, now, senior vice president of Vertigo and integrated publishing for DC Comics.

In a related posted, Howe also has a 1991 ad for Liefeld's The Executioners -- "“rebel mutants from the future come to destroy their past”" -- accompanied by an excerpt from Marvel Comics: The Untold Story detailing how the House of Ideas threatened to sue ... for pretty obvious reasons.