Since the 1990s, the term has been used to describe promotional materials produced in large print runs and made available for mass consumption.
In the film and television industries, the term "ashcan copy" has been adopted for low-grade material created to preserve a claim to licensed property rights.
[4] Interior artwork ranged from previously published material in full color[3][4] to unfinished pencils without word balloons.
[8] Clerks at the office would accept the hastily produced material as legitimate, granting the submitting publisher a trademark to the title.
[3][8][13] For each issue, Burden had magazine-sized prototype editions printed and shared them with friends and people who assisted with production.
[3] In 1992, comic creator Rob Liefeld applied the term to two digest-sized prototype versions of Youngblood #1, but this ashcan was created for mass release.
[18] The term has been appropriated by the film and television industries to refer to low-quality material made specifically to preserve rights to a licensed character, which often expire if unused for a set period of time.
[19] Other prominent examples include the unreleased Fantastic Four film from 1994,[20] the low-budget sequels Porky's Pimpin' Pee Wee (2009) and Hellraiser: Revelations (2011), and a TV pilot adaptation of The Wheel of Time (2015).