Hate (1990)

Hate is a comic book by writer-artist Peter Bagge. First published by Fantagraphics in 1990 it ran for 30 issues, and was one of the best-selling alternative comics of the 1990s, at its height selling 30,000 copies an issue. In 2000 Bagge revived the series in Hate Annual, a yearly comic that continues the story after Hate in short stories, and includes writings on libertarianism, culture, and topical cartoons.

Hate follows the life of Buddy Bradley, in a continuation of events from Bagge’s strip “The Bradleys” from former publications Neat Stuff. It is set for the first half in Seattle and later in suburban New Jersey. Buddy has to deal with the end of adolescence, reluctantly growing up, his relationships with a host of unpleasant acquaintances he has to class as friends, working in dead-end jobs and having no direction in life. Bagge used memories of events from his own life as material.

Wolverine – Mini Series (1982)

The first Wolverine series was a limited series written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Frank Miller, inks by Joe Rubinstein, letters by Tom Orzechowski, and colors by Glynis WeinMarvel Comics published the series from September to December 1982. This story arc covers the events leading up to Wolverine’s engagement to Mariko Yashida.

G.I. Joe V2 (2001)

In July 2001, Devil’s Due acquired the rights to G.I. Joe, and released a four-issue limited series through Image Comics, written by Josh Blaylock with John Larter and Steve Kurth as the artists. The title quickly became known to the fans as A Real American Hero vol. 2 (following from Marvel’s original series), or G.I. Joe Reinstated (the title of the first four-issue arc). Strong sales on the limited series led to it being upgraded to an ongoing series, with the publication of a fifth issue and a monthly schedule.

Ghost Rider 2099 (1994)

The series is set in the year 2099, in a dystopian possible future of the Marvel Universe, and features Kenshiro “Zero” Cochrane, a hacker who was killed but resurrected as the Ghost Rider — his mind controlling a powerful and well-armed robot. As with most of the Marvel 2099 titles, the protagonist was a futuristic version of a commercially successful Marvel Universe character. The series was heavily influenced by cyberpunk science fiction.

Propeller Man (1993)

The future. A tired world of economic collapse and ecological disaster. In this corporate-dominated world, a living weapon escapes to blaze a trail of destruction as it searches for its creator. A solitary figure watches from the rooftops. Propellerman. Does the creature provide some clues to his missing memory?

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2016)

The character was created by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare and Natacha Bustos and first appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 (January 2016).

The genesis of the character came from Mark Paniccia and Emily Shaw who were a fans of the character Devil Dinosaur and had hired Montclare and Reeder to pen the basis for a new series that involved the character ending up in modern day. They came up with the idea of Devil Dinosaur interacting with a girl and fell in love with the idea of working with a hero who wasn’t a “regular cape-and-tights superhero”.

They also viewed the series as a direct sequel to the Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur series from Jack Kirby hence the first villains that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur face are the Killer-Folk.

Artist Natacha Bustos found the character a relief from the norm of other typical superheroes. She was primarily inspired by the clear diversity that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur promoted, further comparing the character Lunella to herself. She compared her story to a “Ghibli one” due to the immense relationship between the title characters.

Smax the Adventurer (2003)

The story deals with Smax and Toybox returning, via magical teleportation, to Jeff’s magically enchanted homeworld. Smax, now a city dweller, seems embarrassed by his unsophisticated, sword-and-sorcery roots. They attend Smax’s uncle’s funeral where Jeff introduces Robyn as his wife, though no such relationship exists. At this point Jeff’s sister Rexa Macksun is introduced, dressed in the typical garb of a female fantasy barbarian such as Red Sonja and just as tall and physically impressive as her brother with the same blue skin and white hair.

Savage Dragon (1992)

In 1992, when Larsen left Marvel to co-found Image Comics, he reworked the character for the new publication venture. This time, the Dragon was a massively muscled green amnesiac, who joined the Chicago police department after being discovered in a burning field. Initially debuting in a three-issue miniseries (with the first issue cover-dated July 1992), the Savage Dragon comic book met with enough success to justify a monthly series, launched in June 1993. To this day, Larsen continues to write and illustrate the series entirely by himself, and has maintained a reasonably consistent monthly schedule (save for occasional lapses) in comparison with the other original Image Comics titles.

Super-Villain Team-Up (1975)

The first series started in 1975 with two giant-size issues before starting as a regular series, and was mostly bi-monthly during its existence. It initially teamed up Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner, who had lost his own series, from which it picked up the unresolved plots, especially that of the comatose Atlanteans. After a succession of writers and artists and a crossover with The Avengers, the plot gets resolved in issue #13 when Dr. Doom revives the Atlanteans, thus dissolving his alliance with the Sub-Mariner.

Issue #14 (Oct. 1977), which featured Magneto and Dr. Doom, was billed as the final issue of the series, and its plotline was resolved in The Champions #16. The following year, SVTU continued with issue #15 (Nov. 1978), a reprint of Astonishing Tales #4-5. Issues #16 (May 1979) and #17 (June 1980) featured the Red Skull and the Hate-Monger. The irregular publishing frequency of the final three issues was due to a legal maneuver to prevent DC Comics from trademarking the term “super-villain”.

The series saw the death of the Sub-Mariner’s 1940s sweetheart Betty Dean and the death of her murderer, Dr. Dorcas. Steve Englehart created The Shroud, a character partly inspired by Batman, shortly before he started to work for DC Comics on Detective Comics.

Hillbilly (2016)

Hillbilly is a fantasy adventure series by Eric Powell (creator of The Goon), set in a fantasy realm drawing less from Tolkien and more from the myths and folklore of rural Appalachia. Unlike The Goon, it’s more-or-less kid-friendly, if still reasonably dark. Rondel is a wanderer, travelling from place to place.