Jaguar God (1995)

Inspired by a Frank Frazetta painting, Glenn Danzig’s powerful and violent story of a prehistoric hero is brought to life by Mark Morales & team’s artwork. The Jaguar God is the protector of the land and the people of Yagua. He takes on prisoners, and destroys anyone or anything that dares to venture in with bad intent. Powerful story and beautiful color illustrations make this 4 in a series a treat for action buff in the vein of Conan the Barbarian.

Den (1988)

Among the stories Richard Corben had drawn for Heavy Metal he continued the saga of his most famous creation, Den which had begun in the short film Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman used the same title, Neverwhere, later, but the two creations have nothing in common) and a short story in the underground publication Grim Wit No. 2. The saga of Den is a fantasy series about the adventures of a young underweight nerd who travels to Neverwhere, a universe taking inspirational nods from Robert E. Howard‘s Hyborian AgeEdgar Rice Burroughs‘s Barsoom and H. P. Lovecraft‘s horror dimensions. There, the boy becomes an enormously endowed nude muscleman who has erotic adventures in a world of outrageous dangers, hideous monsters, and buxom nude women who lustfully throw themselves at him. This story was adapted in a highly abridged form in the animated film Heavy Metal, where Den was voiced by John Candy in an abbreviated adaptation that involved Corben himself that he felt was satisfactory.

From 1986–1994 Corben operated his own publishing imprint, Fantagor Press. Among the titles Fantagor published were DenDen SagaHorror in the DarkRip in Time, and Son of Mutant World. Fantagor went out of business after the 1994 contraction of the comics industry.

Grimjack (1984)

Grimjack is the main character of a comic book originally published by the American company First ComicsJohn Ostrander and Timothy Truman are credited as co-creators of the character, although Ostrander had been developing Grimjack with artist Lenin Delsol before Truman’s arrival on the project according to Ostrander’s own text piece in Grimjack #75. In that same essay, the writer also revealed having initially conceived the character to be the star of a series of prose stories, set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago.

Lady Death: Between Heaven and Hell (1995)

Lady Death has reigned in Hell for 400 years when an unseen attacker torments her dreams and twists her realm while she is  awake. He foe is the demonic Purgatori and she has a thrist for the blood of gods and immortals. She is a master deceiver and it take all lady Death’s cunning to bring out her foe so that they might battle face to face. But things are not as they seem and the pair are in fact puppets of a greater deceiver. Old friends and and enemies clash in this epic tale.

Doomsday Squad (1986)

All six original Doomsday + 1 stories plus the two-part Charlton Bullseye story were reprinted as the Fantagraphics comic-book series The Doomsday Squad #1–7 (Aug. 1986 – June 1987), with new covers by Byrne (#1–2), Neal Adams (#4), and Gil Kane (the remainder). This series included a new backup feature each issue, including “Dalgoda” by writer Jan Strnad and artist Dennis Fujitake, “Keif Llama” by writer-artist Matt Howarth, “Captain Jack” by writer Mike Kazaleh and artist Marc Schirmeister as well as Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai and Lloyd Llewellyn by Daniel Clowes.

THB (1994)

Paul Pope introduced THB in 1994, the same year he began work for Kodansha, Japan’s best-known manga publisher. Pope eventually developed the manga Supertrouble for Kodansha, which mined the “cutie-pie” girl adventure vein that THB exists in. Pope has self-published some of his work through his own Horse Press, with other work such as One-Trick Ripoff coming from Dark Horse Comics and Heavy Liquid and 100% published under DC ComicsVertigo imprint.

Pope’s work combines the precision and romance of the European artists he studies with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. His storytelling narratives continue to mature with well-paced, deftly-shaded combinations of science fiction, hardboiled crime stories and the Romeo and Juliet archetype. Pope’s two protagonist types are the silent, lanky outsider male of One-Trick Ripoff, Escapo and Heavy Liquid, or the resourceful, aggressive, humorous young teenage girls of THB.

Harbinger V1 (1992)

Harbinger is a series published by Valiant Comics about a group of teenage super-powered outcasts known as Harbingers.

Harbinger initially featured writing and art by Jim Shooter and David Lapham. After Acclaim Entertainment purchased the rights to the Valiant catalog for $65 million in 1994, the characters were rebooted in Harbinger: Acts of God to make them more easily adaptable to video games. They continued to appear in many Valiant titles, most prominently the Unity 2000 series. Harbinger was one of the best selling Valiant titles with total sales in all languages of over five million comics.

Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell (1995)

Evil Ernie has lost contact with his love the Lady Death. Distracted from his mission of Megadeath he goes in search of his missing mistress and will move all of Hell and Earth in order to find her. Read as old friends are reunited and Ernie makes bargains with his oldest enemies in order to be reunited with his one true love.

Birthright: The Serpent’s Eye (1996)

The Serpent‘s Eye is a limited edition Birthright comic book that is set in the Khinasi land of Khourane and on the Isle of the Serpent. The story, written by Ed Stark, revolves around Jehan, the new emir of KhouraneMarlae Roesone baroness of Roesone, Khalil El-Faran, Jehan’s uncle, who is half Masetian, and a mysterious woman named Corina who escaped from the Isle of the Serpent with a tale of an artifact called The Serpent’s Eye.

The Serpent’s Eye is said to provide the Serpent with his power. The group sets off on the dangerous mission to the Isle of the Serpent in an attempt to recover the artifact and end the Serpent’s tyranny.

Lady Death: A Medieval Tale (CrossGen)

Into the darkness of a medieval world comes the ghost-haired woman bearing the sword of vengeance–Lady Death. This popular comic book series has been re-created as a Young Adult sword and sorcery fantasy, where Lady Death is caught in a war between humanity and the Eldritch races.