Note: The term “ashcan” comes from the very beginnings of comic books as we know them, in the late 1930s. In order to secure copyright for a new title, a publisher would mock-up a “dummy” copy of the proposed title, consisting of cover artwork and blank pages. Once copyright registration was achieved, these dummy copies were meant to be tossed into the trash – the ashcan. In modern times these little pamphlets — this one is a little more than half the size of a regular comic book — are used for promotional purposes instead, but they retain the name.