[Matropolis]

What comic series have you read that ended without warning leaving you disappointed?

Mine was Bucky O

[The Australian Panther]

Oh, there have been quite a few. But what has been occurring to me lately is just how frustrating it must have been for the artists and writers who created a new character and story line and then only got less than 10 issues (if they were lucky) to develop the idea before the company when out of business or the book got cancelled.The Atlas Comics Line of the 1970's is just one example.
https://www.pinterest.com.au/loranskinkisart/atlas-comics-1970s/
Mind you, in that case there was nothing that was not highly derivative. And Dull.
To answer your question my first choices would be Kirby's fiftys characters, Bullseye, Stuntman, Boys Ranch, Fighting American and Gunmaster in particular.
Jack copped it this way all the way through his career. 
We could go on.
Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur for Marvel, Kamandi, the Demon, Witchboy and Omac for DC, the PACIFIC characters, The TOPPS characters and right at the end of his career, 'Phantom Force' one of the weirdest things he ever did and only went two issues. And all of these gave clear evidence of a well-thought out storyline and world for the characters to function in, which he was never able to develop.
But the one that really frustrated me was the cancelling of Steve Gerber's,Omega the Unknown for Marvel.
Cheers!       

[misappear]

My all time regret is that Russ Manning stopped doing Magnus Robot Fighter. After that was probably DC

[positronic1]

In my experience (at least so far as American comics are concerned, as well as numerous others worldwide) very, very few comic books come to any sort of satisfactory conclusion. Or at least that's been the case historically until recent decades. But that was always part of the design, as they were always intended as ongoing periodicals for as long as the public bought them. The Watchmen type story that is planned out in advance with a beginning, middle and ending is by far the exception to the rule (although often not the case with Japanese manga, which runs to varying lengths but often does end with some kind of closure).

So I guess I'd have to say MOST of them. Spider-Man may still be going on and on as a comic book title, but Stan Lee's run as author (i.e. "the Stan Lee Spider-Man", as I like to think of it, as separate from "Spider-Man sui generis") came to an abrupt end, just as any particular artist or writer's run on a comic does, eventually, whether the comic itself ceases publication or not. Rarely a comic series will end with a bang, sometimes it will fade out with a whimper, but most often it just ends abruptly due to poor sales. Those comics that linger in memory are the flames that burned but briefly the brightest, but shortest. It does bring to mind many a comic book series from Marvel in the Bronze Age that ended in the midst of a story, only to have those plot threads concluded with the character's appearance as a guest star in someone else's comic, or an issue of Marvel Team-Up or Marvel Two-In-One or something along those lines.

I've been reading a lot of reprints of the Timely/Marvel titles from the 1940s recently, and you come across these characters that just seemed to start out with a great premise or a great visual concept, but they'd only last maybe one to four episodes or so and then be gone. One that stands out as a good example in that regard is Underground Secret Agent ROCKMAN, which ran in USA Comics -- the first two installments of which were done by the great Basil Wolverton. Such a great visual design, and the character could have been the equivalent of Namor the Sub-Mariner if given a chance to develop (instead it was followed by only 2 more weak episodes by lesser artists, then unceremoniously discontinued). Rockman was the king of the subterranean empire Abyssia, travelled around underground in a superscience mole machine, could call on his subjects in caverns below ground for help, and of course had your basic prerequisite superstrength. Doesn't sound like much in bald text, but when Wolverton put his own idiosyncractic spin on things, it was head-and-shoulders above most of the features Timely was publishing across about 10 titles or so, excepting the Big 3 and perhaps one or two others. As far as I am aware, this was Wolverton's only other (non-humorous) superhero strip besides the well-known Spacehawk in Target Comics. Another great idea was Harry Sahl's original Black Widow, basically an indentured servant to Satan who sent her as a debt collector for evil souls whose time was up. Unfortunately, the feature lasted only four episodes. Both of these characters later reappeared in J. Michael Straczynski's THE TWELVE, but as far as I can tell, neither has been seen again since.

[Andrew999]

It's very irritating when a series stops prematurely. As an aside, besides comic books, that's one of the reasons I prefer not to watch American TV series - I hate the way each series ends on a cliffhanger in the hope of getting funding for the next series and then if that doesn't happen, you are left high and dry. I wonder if producers know how badly some viewers (ie ME) respond to that scenario?

Of course, we can always make up our own stories (either on our own or collectively). There was an excellent Russian TV series I watched (Anna, Detective) available on Youtube if you are interested, where I didn't like the last episode so I jotted down in my trusty notebook an additional episode that tied up the loose ends - set a year later in St Petersburg, if you are interested.

Rockman sounds a brilliant concept - I wouldn't mind exploring that world with a few new scenarii.

[Matropolis]

Oh, there have been quite a few. But what has been occurring to me lately is just how frustrating it must have been for the artists and writers who created a new character and story line and then only got less than 10 issues (if they were lucky) to develop the idea before the company when out of business or the book got cancelled.The Atlas Comics Line of the 1970's is just one example.
https://www.pinterest.com.au/loranskinkisart/atlas-comics-1970s/
Mind you, in that case there was nothing that was not highly derivative. And Dull.
To answer your question my first choices would be Kirby's fiftys characters, Bullseye, Stuntman, Boys Ranch, Fighting American and Gunmaster in particular.
Jack copped it this way all the way through his career. 
We could go on.
Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur for Marvel, Kamandi, the Demon, Witchboy and Omac for DC, the PACIFIC characters, The TOPPS characters and right at the end of his career, 'Phantom Force' one of the weirdest things he ever did and only went two issues. And all of these gave clear evidence of a well-thought out storyline and world for the characters to function in, which he was never able to develop.
But the one that really frustrated me was the cancelling of Steve Gerber's,Omega the Unknown for Marvel.
Cheers!       

Yeah that

[Matropolis]

It isn

[Robb_K]

I was very disappointed that Floyd Gottfriedson's Mickey Mouse newspaper strip continuation long stories stopped being printed in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories near the end of the 1940s, because I didn't keep the newspaper pages, and wanted to have those stories in the more permanent comic books.  And I was unhappy that the continued printing of his later stories, during the early 1950s were re-drawn by lesser artists.  I was further disappointed as the early 1950s progressed, when the Gottfriedson stories were stopped altogether, and Paul Murry took over drawing "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" '  Mickey Mouse serialised long adventure stories.  I was frustrated in 1950, when Carl Barks was taken off the Donald Duck 10-page lead stories in "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories", to work on special other books.  I was again heavily disappointed when Carl Barks retired in 1966, and the last long Uncle Scrooge adventure story he wrote and storyboarded was drawn by an artist whose work was very inferior to that of Barks. 

I was disgusted at the end of 1962, when Whitman/Western Publishing ended their printing/distribution deal with Dell Comics, and they printed their comic books under their own imprint, "Gold Key Comics". which had much more advertising, and so, less comics pages, and poorer quality paper, and the colouring became atrocious, with panels coloured randomly (as far from realistic/natural as possible).  And the bulk of the artwork and story quality seemed to be produced by people who didn't care about the quality of the product.  The same things happened to the quality of the Dutch Donald Duck Weekly and related comic books at that time.  At least there was a "revival" of Disney comics in The Netherlands, starting in the early 1970s, and lasting through the 1990s, when fans from the 1950s (who really cared about making a good product) took over the editorship and production.  I'm proud to say that I worked on stories during much of that period.

During the 1980s we had a Mickey Mouse book ("Micky Maandblad"(Monthly)) which printed Floyd Gottfredson's long adventure stories, from the 1930s through early 1950s for the first time in Dutch comic books, and in full colour.  I was very disappointed in 1987, when they abruptly stopped publishing that series, before having finished re-printing Gottfriedson's stories (never printing about 20% of them, - none of which were printed in US comic books, to that time, and only finally printed in a black and white collection a few years ago).

A similar disappointment came in 1989, when the Dutch collection of Carl Barks' Disney Comics work "Alle Klassieke Donald Duck Verhalen" (black and white only), came to an abrupt end due to lack of enough buyers, short of finishing all of Barks' stories.

I didn't have any US comic book series stop being printed during my collecting period, but I stopped collecting ALL of the series' I collected, because the original good artists, and the early good writers' work stopped, and the later stories and artwork wasn't worth collecting, or even reading.  I quit reading "Super Duck" around 1956, when original artist, Al Fagaly started cutting way down on his number of stories, and most of the stories were then drawn by other, very inferior artists, and the story writing was also much weaker.  I was also disappointed that Walt Kelly's Pogo Comic books came to an abrupt stop in 1954, so he could concentrate fully on his newspaper strip (their runs had overlapped for 2 years).

I WOULD have been bitter that some of my favourite series just stopped abruptly during the early to mid 1950s when comic books in USA/Canada were under fire for being non-educational and a corrupting influence on children, IF I had known these books existed, containing the great artwork from Ben Sangor's comic story shop, staffed with moonlighting or ex-animators.  I would have been a big fan of, and collected Creston/ACG's "Giggle", "Ha Ha", and "Funny Films", as well as Nedor/Standard's "Barnyard/"Dizzy Duck", "Coo Coo", "Goofy", and "Happy" Comics.  And I would have been very disappointed that they just stopped abruptly (my favourite Standard series in 1953, and ACG in 1955).

[positronic1]

@ Robb_K -- There has NEVER been a better time to be a fan of Disney comics than right NOW. You can literally have it all, the complete newspaper run of Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse, the Carl Barks Disney Ducks Library, the Don Rosa Library, and the some of the best work of the European artists from both Fantagraphics (older material) and IDW (more recent European comic book material and the rest of the Disney newspaper strip library). Even Dark Horse has some original Disney "Classics Illustrated"-type graphic novels. I have never seen so much good Disney comics material in print in the 50 years I've been reading comics. I'm having a hard time keeping up, it's coming out so frequently now.

[Robb_K]

@ Robb_K -- There has NEVER been a better time to be a fan of Disney comics than right NOW. You can literally have it all, the complete newspaper run of Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse, the Carl Barks Disney Ducks Library, the Don Rosa Library, and the some of the best work of the European artists from both Fantagraphics (older material) and IDW (more recent European comic book material and the rest of the Disney newspaper strip library). Even Dark Horse has some original Disney "Classics Illustrated"-type graphic novels. I have never seen so much good Disney comics material in print in the 50 years I've been reading comics. I'm having a hard time keeping up, it's coming out so frequently now.

Yes.  I know all about those.  I have all the Gottfredson books, and I have the German Carl Barks Collected works (I, myself contributed articles to both The German and Scandinavian collections of Barks' work, and I am buying The US Fantagraphics Barks Collection.  I have bought some of the Fantagraphics European collections (Daan Jippes and Freddy Milton, Mau Heijmans, Romano Scarpa).  I don't like Don Rosa's artwork, and don't like much of his story writing.  I would like to see a collection of Mickey Mouse Sunday Strips drawn by Manuel Gonzales, and a collection of Daniel Branca's Duck stories.  If I had more storage room and money, I would also buy the John Stanley Little Lulu, Tubby, Nancy & Sluggo, Peterkin Pottle (but, I have scans of almost all those pages (probably 97-99%). 

I would also get the Walt Kelly non-Pogo Comic Book stories, and The Pogo Newspaper Strip Collections, and probably Peanuts, as well.  I would get The Popeye collections, too.  I'd like to get them all in paper book form, but I don't have the storage space, and spending all that money on them might be a problem as well.  I wish someone would publish a collection of Ken Hultgren's "The Duke and The Dope", and all the rest of his comic book work, and the same for all of Jack Bradbury's(both Disney and non-Disney), Gil Turner(both Disney and non-Disney) Paul Murray's, Tony Strobl's pre-1960 work, Bill Wright's, Dick Moores' funny animal comic books and newspaper strip work (with Gasoline Alley separate), maybe a Sangor Shop collection of the not-as-prolific artists (Lyn Karp, Don Aar Christensen, Bob Wickersham, Al Hubbard, etc).

[The Australian Panther]

I too am a huge fan of Gottfredson, Barks and Don Rosa. But not quire to the extent that you are I think! Thank you for sharing that. My hat is off to you sir. There are non-Pogo Walt Kelly books on this site, as it happens. Which won't cost you anything. And there is work by other creators of that ilk here that are worth searching out.
Cheers!     

[Robb_K]

I too am a huge fan of Gottfredson, Barks and Don Rosa. But not quire to the extent that you are I think! Thank you for sharing that. My hat is off to you sir. There are non-Pogo Walt Kelly books on this site, as it happens. Which won't cost you anything. And there is work by other creators of that ilk here that are worth searching out.  Cheers!

Yes, thanks for the tip.  I already have scans of all the Walt Kelly comic book pages available on CB+, except for a few Peter Wheat books, which I will download eventually.  I have higher downloading priorities.  I have all Kelly's Fairy Tale books, The Brownies, Mother Goose, Raggedy Ann & Andy, Santa Claus Funnies, etc.  I have all the "Walt Scott's Little People", all the fairy tales comic from Ziff-Davis, those on "Dell Junior Treasury", Prize's "Wonderland Comics", Famous Funnies' "Jingle Jangle Comics", EC's "Animal Fables", and "Land of the Lost", Novelty and Star's "Frisky Fables", and scattered fairy tale comics series from other publishers.  I will search for more on CB+.  I like the "homemade compilations of newspaper comic strips, such as "The Captain and The Kids".  I made one, myself for Matt Curzon's "Dickie Duck", from Chesler's "Funny Pages(The Comics Magazine)", and for "Pudgy Pig" from "Catholic Comics".

Speaking of downloading priorities, I remember reading that downloading on this website is NOT unlimited - that there is a limit of bytes that can be downloaded each month, and once that limit is reached, we will be blocked from downloading, until the next download period starts.  Did I understand that correctly?  If SO, about how many 52 to 60-page books can be downloaded in that memory size allowance?

[positronic1]

The funny animal comic series I would most like to see reprinted is Jim Davis' The Fox and the Crow. Alas, between DC and Columbia Pictures (Sony) owning the rights to the material, there seems little hope of those stories ever seeing the light of day again.

[narfstar]

DP7 the only New Universe Book that I liked. The original run of Secret Six. Brother Power the Geek, boy did I want to see what happened to him, it. NEUTRO man what a cliffhanger. Fortunately InDELLible has the rest of the story coming out soon.

[crashryan]

Neutro was one of the most peculiar comics I ever read. 32 pages of build-up: what will Neutro do? Who will Neutro serve? What if Neutro went nuts? And then the comic ends. I can't believe an editor bought this script, especially since Dell was in financial trouble and chances of the series ever seeing light were very slim. Maybe they figured, "What the heck, we have it so we may as well run it."

[Robb_K]

I too am a huge fan of Gottfredson, Barks and Don Rosa. But not quite to the extent that you are I think! Thank you for sharing that. My hat is off to you sir. There are non-Pogo Walt Kelly books on this site, as it happens. Which won't cost you anything. And there is work by other creators of that ilk here that are worth searching out.  Cheers!

I am neither a fan of Don Rosa's artwork, nor his storywriting.  I prefer hundreds of Donald Duck artist's artwork to Rosa's stiff, crowded, non-traditional drawing.  I didn't want to see Robert Crumb or Basil Wolverton draw Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge.  He uses way too much shading.  His figures are much too stiff.  His perspectives are too systematic, looking as if he drew everything with a straight-edge (which he has admitted, that he indeed, does).  I like my own drawing much better than his.  My Forum avatar and my signature drawing (below my posts) were drawn by me.

After Carl Barks, whose artwork and storywriting is miles above all the other "Duck artists", I like the combination of Daan Jippes, Freddy Milton, and Ben Verhagen, who worked on stories together from 1976-1981 for Dutch Disney.  Daan and Freddy wrote stories together(mostly starting with Freddy's idea), and Daan would draw up the storyboards.  Then, Freddy would draw the pencils, and Ben would ink them.  As a team, the best talents of each would make the end product best possible.  Freddy's pencils would rein in Daan's tendency to use too many drastic poses.  Ben's inking tended to also help with making the poses more on model to Barks' classic late 1940s style.  Daan, on his own, later was still 2nd best, after Barks, with Argentinian/Spanish artist Daniel Branca (who worked for Danish Disney, a distant 3rd). He emulated Barks' 1959-62 style.  After him, I would pick yet another Dutch Disney colleague of mine, Mau Heijmans, who emulated Barks' 1945-47 style.  None of the other Duck artists, US or "foreign" come close to that group, in my estimation.  But, most of all the rest, I like better than Rosa's work.

I also don't like most of Rosa's stories, firstly, because he fills them with way too much information (back story and history, and scientific explanations) that the storylines are difficult to follow.  Secondly, he wrote so many sequels to Barks' stories that were filled with things from the original stories to provide the tie-ins.  Reading them was like doing research for a school class examination, the reader feels pressured to study to  pass the exam.  I couldn't just "live in the story, as one likes to do to enjoy the entertainment when one sees a film, or reads a book/story.  The few stories of Rosa's which I have enjoyed reading were those that had simple storylines, and often were gag-driven (like the one in which The Ducks walked sideways on buildings, or his story with "The Universal Solvent".  Incidentally, I wrote a story (also for Danish Disney) fully 2 years before, in which inventor, Gyro Gearloose invented a universal solvent.  I, myself have written stories about Uncle Scrooge's youth and history following along with what Barks had portrayed or implied in his body of work, that were rejected, because they had elements that conflicted with small details that Rosa had placed in his "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck".  I don't like the fact that Scrooge's "history" is "complete", there are few gaps for us other writers to "exploit".

I would say that I'm a comedy fan first, then a fan of comic art, both on paper and film.  I feel lucky to have worked in the field that brought me so much pleasure as a child, and to help bring that pleasure to kids today.

[crashryan]

Robb, I'm not as unhappy with Don Rosa as you are. I found much to like in his work. However I must agree with your larger point concerning his stories. In my opinion Rosa steered Duck comics in the direction that other creators took superhero comics in the 1980s, turning away from free-standing stories aimed at a general audience toward to a "universe" approach aimed at connoisseurs. In the case of superhero comics the trend was embodied by John Byrne during his heyday. I'm sure his obsession with referencing and explaining the most obscure Marvel trivia baffled many potential new readers, though fans with the inside knowledge loved it. In the USA, at least, comics are largely irrelevant now, so I don't know if this closed-universe thing affects sales. I do believe that when American comics readership was shrinking in the 80s and 90s it might have helped for comics to have been more accessible to non-fans. With your deep knowledge of the field, maybe you would know whether Rosa's approach narrowed readership.

[Robb_K]

Robb, I'm not as unhappy with Don Rosa as you are. I found much to like in his work. However I must agree with your larger point concerning his stories. In my opinion Rosa steered Duck comics in the direction that other creators took superhero comics in the 1980s, turning away from free-standing stories aimed at a general audience toward to a "universe" approach aimed at connoisseurs. In the case of superhero comics the trend was embodied by John Byrne during his heyday. I'm sure his obsession with referencing and explaining the most obscure Marvel trivia baffled many potential new readers, though fans with the inside knowledge loved it. In the USA, at least, comics are largely irrelevant now, so I don't know if this closed-universe thing affects sales. I do believe that when American comics readership was shrinking in the 80s and 90s it might have helped for comics to have been more accessible to non-fans. With your deep knowledge of the field, maybe you would know whether Rosa's approach narrowed readership.

No.  I don't think Rosa's approach narrowed readership.  I think it helped bring some new, young readers into Disney Duck fandom that was a continuously shrinking part of the market, losing new potential readers to Manga (if they go to comic books, at all, and mainly losing them to other media (mostly electronic interactive gaming, but others to animation.  Disney comics in USA are now only a small, hard core group of collector-hobbyists.  The books have ever since Whitman started putting several books in bargain bags in toy stores in the 1970s, no longer available on newstand and store shelves to the general public, but only at special comic book stores.  Now, they are only available at a few comic book stores who still have a few books for small children.  In Europe, where sales were much stronger throughout the 1970s till today. they are still sold in mass markets in the grocery stores and discount stores and department stores, but sales are dropping in all countries.

When I complained about Rosa's "Duck History" filling in most of the history timeline, leaving less area to write new stories about what happened in "The Ducks' Past", I meant that that was a problem for the writers to show their creativity.  NOT that that scared away readers.  They can't know what they are missing.  They only know what is offered.  And Rosa offered many readers something new, which was appealing to many of them.  Each new medium has its own heyday, with creative people rushing to express themselves in it.  After a long while it stagnates, and much of the new talent moves to the newer technology which hasn't yet been fully taken advantage by energetic, inspired, creative artists. 

I grew up before TV, when comic books were the primary "passive entertainment".  If there was a blinding blizzard outside, and I couldn't play hockey, or it was nighttime, and I couldn't play hockey, I read comic books.  They brought a world of colour, action, great stories that we could "live in" when we couldn't be outside playing, or couldn't be seeing moving pictures in the cinema (which was expensive, and could only be seen certain days and hours.  So, I grew up loving that entertainment, and making a hobby of it, for part of my free time.  I never dreamed I would become a creator, especially of my favourite strip.  That happened by accident, late in life (my 40s), and I had to go to art school at that advanced age, and work very hard to do so.  I was an environmental scientist and economist working on UN projects in 3rd World countries for the first 20 years of my working life (1968-88).

[The Australian Panther]

I, myself have written stories about Uncle Scrooge's youth and history following along with what Barks had portrayed or implied in his body of work, that were rejected, because they had elements that conflicted with small details that Rosa had placed in his "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck".  I don't like the fact that Scrooge's "history" is "complete", there are few gaps for us other writers to "exploit".

In which case I understand and sympathize with your point of view, although I don't entirely share it. From my perspective I do find that Rosa can and does insert creative things into  his work, without which it would be very dry indeed. He's definitely too wordy tho. I'm one for letting the art tell the story and keep the words to a minimum.

the direction that other creators took superhero comics in the 1980s, turning away from free-standing stories aimed at a general audience toward to a "universe" approach aimed at connoisseurs.

 
crashryan, This 'making the universe coherent' element is a fan thing and started with Uberfan Roy Thomas. I think (happy to be  proved wrong) that Stan was the first one to insert footnotes into his writing, But Roy, being a teacher by profession took it to a whole other level. (When he was the editor every marvel writer did it) Which was a shame because Roy can be a really good writer and the footnotes broke up the flow of his writing. Doesn't work anyway, Both Marvel and DC are a continuity mess and getting worse everyday. It seems Disney editors are more stringent in continuity control that Marvel or DC have been with theirs, Creators who have alternate ideas just create alternative or 'pocket' universes and create what they want. Marvel (Under Roy I think) even created 'WHAT IF' to accomodate them.
I think tho, that creators working on characters that are not owned by them are always working under some  degree of restriction.  I wouid think it likely that  Gottfriedson and Barks had ideas that they were not able to bring to fruitition. Very likely. And now Gottfriedson's Micky Mouse is being censored in reprints because of 'racism'   
I myself gained a fine arts degree at an advanced age,(my major was Photography) so I can relate. Full marks to you for having what it takes to make that transition late in life.  I understand your frustration.
Cheers!   

[Robb_K]

I understand and sympathize with your point of view, although I don't entirely share it. From my perspective I do find that Rosa can and does insert creative things into  his work, without which it would be very dry indeed. He's definitely too wordy tho. I'm one for letting the art tell the story and keep the words to a minimum.

I didn't mean to imply that Don Rosa didn't put any creativity into his work.  His stories just provide wayyyyy tooo much background and incidental information in both narrative and dialogues, as well as written on items in  panel pictures. Trying to read all that, much of which isn't necessary to know to follow the story, makes it very difficult to stay in the story flow and follow the action.  His stories seem to me like what fanfiction stories made by a superfan like a "Trekkie" of "Barksism" would want to read.  But, I'm guessing that it doesn't make for a pleasant reading experience for a reader new to the series.  It puts pressure on the reader to learn all that, while still following the story.  So, it makes some people have to read pages over and
over before moving on, or to ignore a lot of the extras, to follow the story flow, and go back after finishing, to concentrate on all the extra information.

[positronic1]

Creators who have alternate ideas just create alternative or 'pocket' universes and create what they want. Marvel (Under Roy I think) even created 'WHAT IF' to accomodate them.

WHAT IF had nothing to do with creators' preferences. The idea was to isolate some key event in Marvel continuity and then show how the story could have played out if the flow of time had been changed by some minor difference. The rest of the story would then show the consequences of that change, which in the case of a major event would often result in a drastically different timeline branching off one crucial change. Not like some later parallel universes in the Marvel multiverse (some of which have been labeled 'Alterniverse'). WHAT IF required some very logical thinking about the sequence of events in the original timeline to branch off into a tangent. Even the framing device of having the Watcher (of the mainstream Marvel Universe) narrate the stories because only he had the technology to observe events unfolding in another timeline made sense.

There were some occasional mis-steps in that editorial policy, resulting in some whoppers like "What If Sgt. Fury Fought WWII in Outer Space" (there was no possibility any existing Sgt. Fury story could have led to that result), or "What If the Invaders Stayed Together After WWII" (which as it turned out, actually did happen in the mainstream Marvel Universe) but generally speaking they stuck pretty close to the original concept.

It was definitely a title aimed at an audience of hardcore Marvel fans though, who would have been very familiar with the original stories that What If was providing a science-fictional alternate history to. Anyway, these were always intended to be one-shot stories, and not some forerunner of any ongoing (or even limited) series, so it wasn't going provide a platform for any creators looking to explore their own preferred version of the Marvel Universe. It was a way for them to pick up some extra work now and then, though.

[Drahken]

re download limits:
The sister site digital comics museum has (had?) such a download limit, but the last I knew cb+ doesn't (which is one of the reasons I abandoned dcm in favor of cb+, whatever code they use to manage the download limit has always been plagued with endless bugs, things like saying you've used your monthly limit when you haven't downloaded anything in a year).

Back on topic:
There isn't much in american comics where I've had that problem. As previously mentioned, american comics rarely end (intentionally or otherwise), they just keep going on open-ended. I think the only ones I encountered that ended annoyingly soon were a few licensed properties from the 80s/90s, like biker mice from mars and the dreamwave transformers comics (technically 2000s in that case, but based on an 80s property).

In japanese manga however, I run into that problem constantly. A series will suddenly get cancelled & either leave you on a cliffhanger or give some slapdash "ending" where the jump from the middle of a huge battle to some narator saying "the good guys won, good night". The worst such ending I've seen is one where the author tells the readers to "please think about the clues" and that's it. Simply saying "the butler did it" would have been a less shitty way to end it.