TSR WAS PLANNING TO LAUNCH A COMIC BOOK COMPANY IN 1992!

TSR first foray in comic book publishing was in 1987 when it published Dragonlance Saga: Book One that adapted in graphic novel form the first half of the very successful Dragons of Autumn Twilight novel. Four more GNs were published before TSR stopped comic book publication, licensing its properties to DC Comics instead: so from 1988 to 1991 the House of Superman published Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, DragonLamnce and Spelljammer. However DC Comics stopped publishing TSR licensed comic books because TSR formed TSR West, a California based division charged to pursue TV and movie deals, that launched the 'comic module' lines. Comic modules were comic books but, to honour the letter (but not the spirit) of DC Comics' license, TSR added four pages of gaming material. DC Comics was not fooled by any of this and so the comic lines (which had been quite successful) stopped and new projects were shelved. 

Unfortunately for TSR, the comic modules did not fare well. TSR West produced Assassin 13, Buck Rogers, Intruder, The Last Warhawk and RIP lines as miniseries but the publication was stopped in1991. An article on The Comics Journal magazine announces that all the comic module lines have been cancelled because they "did not sell well" and so the entire staff of TSR West was sacked except for Elliott S. Maggin (editor of the comic module lines, a DC Comics veteran) and 'one associate' that almost surely is Flint Dille (brother of Lorraine Dille Williams...) that worked at TSR West at the time. Very intriguingly, the article says that Maggin has been asked to produce a business plan for creating "a comic book company" to be launched "in spring of 1992". "The books did not sell" Maggin is quoted saying"they want me to come up with books that will sell". Of course, nothing happened and the next involvement of TSR worlds with comic books would have been in 2000, when the Italian company 21st Century Games launched The Forbidden Sands of Anauroch miniseries, lasting just two issues. Another sad example of sometimes poor TSR business decisions, torpedoing a successful licensee (as it happened for Grenadier's TSR license) and losing a lot of money in producing unpopular products.