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Starting in the [[Dark Age]] of comics, an "ashcan" copy of a comic, often black and white and limited in distribution, would sometimes be distributed as a promotional item. These comics were called "ashcans" for marketing reasons (i.e. to imply rarity and value like the Golden Age versions) but really had little to do with [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] ashcans.
{{examples|Examples of titles that had their origin in Ashcan situations:}}
== Comic Books ==
* The most widely-known example is ''Flash Comics'', the title that introduced [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]] (then called Captain Thunder). ''Whiz Comics'' #2 was the first actual issue; #1 was an ashcan edition and was never publicly released.
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* ''[[Chaos! Comics]]'' were known for creating limited Ashcan versions of their comics for collectors. Due to their bankruptcy their final comic, ''Purgatori: Ravenous'', was only released as an Ashcan.
** Pulido's newest company ''[[Coffin Comics (publisher)|Coffin Comics]]'' continues this tradition, offering a limited number of Ashcans to backers on their crowdfunding drives.
== Film ==
* While most prevalent in comics, other entertainment fields have done similar things, including the infamous 1994 ''[[The Fantastic Four (film)|The Fantastic Four]]'' movie. The flick was made on the cheap, and never intended for wide-release. The studio was given a certain number of years to make the film, and would lose the rights if no film was produced. By the term of the contract, they had to make a film. No one specified it had to be a good one.
* ''The [[Evil Dead]]'' has the short film Within the Woods, a cut down prototype of ''The [[Evil Dead]]'' made to convince filmmakers to finance the project.
* The 1966 adaptation of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' was this. Producer [[Bill Snyder]] bought the rights to make a film from [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s estate on the cheap, and just before it was set to expire the popularity of Tolkien's ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' books skyrocketed. Realizing he could make serious cash selling the rights, he decided to get it extended. However a film had to be made and released in order for that to happen. With the contract set to expire in one month, he got [[Gene Deitch]] to hastily produce a 12 minute film using still drawings and got it finished in 30 days, which was then screened in a Manhattan theater on the day the contract expired. The deal being fulfilled, the contract was extended and Snyder sold the rights for $100,000 (in 1960s money). In 2012 the film finally resurfaced when Snyder's son [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnVL1Y2src uploaded it on YouTube].
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory]]'', an adaptation made in 2017 of [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' with [[Tom and Jerry]] half-heartedly tacked on to it, was widely reviled as a [[Mockbuster]] and a cheap ashcan cash-grab made mostly so that Warner Brothers could hog the rights to produce ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' adaptations even further.
==Video Games==
* It was widely speculated that ''[[Tony Hawk's Pro Skater]] 5'' was rushed so that [[Activision]] could churn out one last game before their contract with pro skater [[Tony Hawk]] expired in 2015.
{{reflist}}
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