Category: Independent Iron Age

Deadline USA (1992)

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You’ve seen him on MTVs Liquid Television–Richard Sala continues his all-new, ultraterrifying 13 O’clock! He’s harder than hard-boiled, he’s Johnny Nemo by the ultrascientific Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins! It’s sex, it’s rock n’ roll, but is it drugs? It’s Doe, the latest graphic vortex from Harvey Award ultranominee Ho Che Anderson! They play the game, God makes the rules! They’re the A-Men by the ultraconservative Shaky Kane! Plus work by Julie Hollings, Philip Bond, Alec Stevens, D’Israeli and never forget GWAR, puny human! And an ultraspecial music feature! And another ultraschizophrenic cover painting from the corkscrewed psyche of Mitch O’Connell!

World of Wood (1986)

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Color anthology reprint series of Wally Wood stories that included the following and more:

The Curse: Originally published in Vampirella Magazine #9 (Harris, 1971)
Overworked: Originally published in Eerie Magazine #131 (Warren, 1966)
The Misfits: Originally published in Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon #1 (self published, 1969)
ME – 262!: Originally published in Blazing Combat #4 (Warren, 1966)
Prelude To Armageddon: Originally presented in Creepy #41 (Warren, 1971)
The Battle Of Britain!: Originally presented in Blazing Combat #3 (Warren, 1966)
The Manhunters: Originally presented in Eerie #60 (Warren, 1974)

Miracleman – Eclipse (1980’s)

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In August 1985, Eclipse began reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior, colored, and re-sized. They were renamed and re-lettered throughout as Miracleman to avoid further problems with Marvel Comics. Issues 1-6 reprinted all the Warrior content, after which Eclipse began publishing new Miracleman stories from Alan Moore and new artist Chuck Beckum (now better known as Chuck Austen), soon replaced by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben. Eclipse split the rights to the character, with 2/3 going to Eclipse and 1/3 split between the current writer and artist of the series. Moore wrote the series until issue 16.

Writer Neil Gaiman picked up the series at #17 and developed it further in the 1990s, working with artist Mark Buckingham. He planned three books, consisting of six issues each; they would be titled “The Golden Age”, “The Silver Age” and “The Dark Age”.

Night of the Living Dead (2007) Avatar Press

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Night of the Living Dead co-creator John Russo brings you a new tale of terror set during the night that changed the world forever. The eastern United States is in chaos as hordes of the undead wage war against the living, and increasingly frantic television transmissions are the only source of information available to a terrified populace. But there is no escape from the living dead and no safe place to hide, not even the WIIC-TV studio where original Night of the Living Dead news anchorman Chuck Blaine has some difficult decisions to make: Should his heroic news crew continue their emergency public broadcasts, or run from the army of ghouls amassing outside the station? More importantly, should he continue to disseminate questionable government recommendations that could be luring viewers into inescapable death traps? This special bonus-sized tale features appearances by some of the original film’s most memorable characters, including the recently deceased Johnny, Barbra, and little Karen Cooper!

The Puma Blues (1986)

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The Puma Blues was a comic book written by Stephen Murphy and drawn by Michael Zulli. It ran from June 1986 to the beginning of 1989, stretching over 23 regular issues and a single “half-issue” minicomic.

Published first by Aardvark One International and later by Mirage Studios, the story is set around the millennium. and follows Gavia Immer, a governmental fauna agent, as he goes through an existential dilemma while watching videos his father left for him after his death.

The comic book’s detailed artwork by Michael Zulli, which focused primarily on wildlife and nature, was superposed to a loose narrative with a druggy, dreamy, new age apocalyptic atmosphere. This de-structuralizing of the main narrative increased dramatically in later issues, with the second half of the series often taking the form of illustrated prose poetry within an associative narrative.

Caliber Presents (1989)

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The original Caliber Presents anthology title was one of Caliber Comic’s inaugural releases in the 1990s and featured predominantly new creators, many of which went onto successful careers in the comics’ industry.

Optic Nerve (1995)

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Optic Nerve is a series by cartoonist Adrian Tomine. Originally self-published by Tomine in 1991 as a series of mini-comics (which have later been collected in a single volume,32 Stories), the series has been published by Drawn and Quarterly since 1995.

Tomine’s style and subject matter are restrained and realistic. Many are set in Northern California. Many of his stories for Optic Nerve feature Asian American characters, including “Hawaiian Getaway,” “Six-Day Cold,” “Layover,” and “Shortcomings.” Adrian Tomine is Asian American and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Many topics of his stories are at least partly autobiographical.

In the initial self-published issues, as well as the first eight Drawn & Quarterly issues (1995-2001), Optic Nerve was typically a collection of short stories. After an extended hiatus, Tomine resumed the comic in fall of 2004 and began his first multi-issue storyline, “Shortcomings,” with #9. The most recent issue, #13, was published in July 2013.

The Prisoner – Titan Comics (2018)

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In the modern day, MI5 agent Breen is tasked with breaking into The Village in order to extricate a fellow spy. The information she possesses is too valuable to fall into the hands of the mysterious Village, so Breen must engineer his own defection and capture, reduced to a mere number. Yet nothing can prepare the new Number 6 for the bizarreness that awaits him inside the Village…

Rai – V1 (1992)

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Rai (pronounced “rye”) appeared in books published by Valiant Comics. Rai was the first original hero created by Valiant and had its beginning as a flipbook back-up feature in Magnus Robot Fighter issues #5-8. The popularity of the flipbook back-up story later led to an ongoing series. Valiant Entertainment is the current owner of Rai and the rest of the original Valiant Comics characters.

In his original incarnation, Rai is the spirit guardian that protects the nation of Japan in the 41st century. It is a mantle passed down from father to son through the generations. As such, the series chronicled a number of protagonists.

A new Rai ongoing series was launched in April 2014 by the creative team of writer Matt Kindt and artist Clayton Crain, selling out of its initial print run.

Magnus Robot Fighter – Valiant

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In 1991, Jim Shooter obtained rights to three Gold Key characters: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; Turok, Son of Stone; and Magnus, Robot Fighter. He intended to use those characters to launch his new comic book line, Valiant Comics. Several months later, the company launched Magnus, Robot Fighter.

The series began where the original one left off. The artists took great care to replicate the setting and trappings of the original stories. But as the new series progressed, it began to deviate from the original concept.The term “Freewills” appeared in the Valiant run, introducing the concept that the rogue robots seen previously were not simply the product of random malfunctions, but were the result of a common phenomenon which allowed robots to become sentient. While some of them are malevolent, others merely want to be free. It was also learned that 1A is a freewill. With Magnus’s help, a colony of benevolent Freewills is established called the “Steel Nation.” At the same time, Magnus becomes disgusted with North Am’s elite. He journeys to the lower levels of North Am and befriends a group of social outcasts known as Gophs.