Sugar and Spike and Spike" series...is the most charming thing I've ever seen in comics." DC attempted to license "Sugar and Spike" as a syndicated newspaper strip but was unsuccessful. Sales on the "Sugar and Spike" issues of "The Best of DC" were strong enough that DC announced plans for a new ongoing series featuring the characters. The project was never launched for unknown reasons. Mayer had an agreement with DC that no one else could write Sugar and Spike. However, they have occasionally made cameo appearances in modern comic books. They are rescued by the underwater heroine Dolphin in "Showcase" #100. They
Bronze Age of Comic Books early Marvel crossovers. The popularity of those early books also opened up a market for specialty shops. The existence of these shops made it possible for small-press publishers to reach an audience, and some comic book artists began self-publishing their own work. Notable titles of this type included Dave Sim's "Cerebus" and Wendy and Richard Pini's "Elfquest" series. Other small-press publishers came in to take advantage of this growing market: Pacific Comics introduced in 1981 a line of books by comic-book veterans such as Jack Kirby, Mike Grell and Sergio Aragonés, for which the artists retained copyright and shared in