(Except for the Donnas, they got dropped because of the DualDisc fiasco)

Dan Ozzi's book "Sellout", about bands from the punk underground who signed with major labels in the '90s and aughts is full of stories like that. Pretty much every band in the book either had their A&R headhunted or lost to mergers and then either got dropped or had to ask to be dropped.

Just checked wikipedia: the D-Plan also got awarded 50k, so this is probably the best case scenario, seeing as they could release the record on an indie and didn't have to worry about paying back Interscope!

And actually I just remembered that the Dismemberment Plan did record their album "Emergency & I" on the label's dime, but I think they got dropped before they could schedule the release.

In the end they got a free album, which Travis, the singer, acknowledged as being a pretty good deal all told.

I think I first heard of Kerbdog a few months ago, I think it was a video playing in the background of a Guitar World article. I still have yet to check them out.

If memory serves the Dismemberment Plan got dropped by their label before they even recorded their album, all because of that merger.

I also found out about this recently while reading an interview with the Dismemberment Plan's Travis Morrison.

Ah, yes, JCK Kpby, my favorite silver age artist.

And then Turok throws a spear through Tony's chest and says "Say hello to my BIG friend".

I don't know what's funniest, the fact that the blurb implies that Turok will be fighting cocaine smugglers in this issue or the rather… phallic monster that seems to be in their employ.

Already seen it a couple times and yeah, it is great!

I know Marvel movies tend to feel formulaic and like they were made in an assembly-line (the bad ones, anyway), but these biopics are literally all just the same movie with the names changed. Get ready for a million shitty Bohemian Rhapsody rip-offs, people!

Actually, when I think about it the The Authority #1 is remarkably similar in structure to the first issue of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's JLA, and JLA famously kicked off with a four issue-arc in which the first three issues end on cliffhangers…

I mean, hell, if we're looking for a patient zero for decompression, I think you could argue latter day Sandman (it gets really bad circa Brief Lives) or some other Vertigo series.

…and get a brief action scene as the Authority arrives in London to foil Gamorra's attack.

The first issue of Ultimate Spider-Man on the other hand, if memory serves, is double-sized and ends with Peter having just realized he had powers.