I find it unbelievable that DC asked Bob Haney to write a new Super-Sons story the very same year that they turned down Elliot S! Maggin's Krypto story for being what they thought was too silly an idea
Tell me more. I haven't heard about this.
Elliot used to write Superman (as I'm sure we all know). Then Crisis/Byrne happened - Elliot was no longer on Superman. He still did the occasional story for DC (but
not on Superman, which was off-limits to him) and then later some editing. One of the books he edited was
Challengers of the Unknown. In one issue of
Challengers, he
ignored Mike Carlin's rules about Superman (who was making a guest appearance) in order to follow his own conscience about the character. I would surmise that he felt he know more about Superman than Carlin did.
So Elliot was fired from DC for not following Carlin's orders.
A few years later, Mark Waid asked Elliot to write the
Kingdom Come novel. At first Elliot said no, then he changed his mind when (A) he discovered that Waid had dedicated the series to him and (B) DC told him that they would reprint his earlier Superman novels in a boxed set with extra stuff included.
He was now talking with the folks at DC again. Joey Cavalieri was the new Superman editor, and Joey asked Elliot, "Have you got any story ideas?"
In response, Elliot basically made
this pitch - his story about Krypto.
At which point, "The Powers That Be" at DC burst out laughing and said, "no, seriously Elliot, do you have any story ideas?"
I'm pretty sure the Kingdom Come novel was the last work he did for them.