Eerie was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. Each issue’s stories were introduced by the host character, Cousin Eerie. Its sister publications were Creepy and Vampirella.
The first issue, in early 1966, had only a 200-issue run of an “ashcan” edition. With a logo by Ben Oda, it was created overnight by editor Archie Goodwin and letterer Gaspar Saladino to establish publisher Jim Warren’s ownership of the title when it was discovered that a rival publisher would be using the name.Warren explained, “We launched Eeriebecause we thought Creepy ought to have an adversary. The Laurel and Hardy syndrome always appealed to me. Creepy and Eerie are like Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.”
The 1989 Catwoman limited series, written by Mindy Newell and with art by J.J. Birch, expanded upon Miller’s Year One origin. This storyline, known as “Her Sister’s Keeper”, explores Selina’s early life as a dominatrix and the start of her career as Catwoman. The story culminates with Selina’s former pimp, Stan, abducting and beating her sister Maggie, who, in contrast to Selina, is a nun. Selina kills Stan to save her sister, and gets away with it. Most of this is revealed in the former series, but is expanded upon in “Her Sister’s Keeper”.
The series featured two or more Marvel characters in one story. The series was originally published from March 1972 through February 1985, and featured Spider-Man as the lead “team-up” character in all but ten of its 150 issues, and in six of its seven Annuals. It was the first major ongoing spin-off series for Spider-Man, being preceded only by the short-lived The Spectacular Spider-Man magazine.
The first story titled “Tin Men of War”, follows Carin Taylor, a mutant otherwise known as Velocity as she attempts to escape the forces of Cyberdata, a corrupt mega-corporation. Her attempts to evade Cyberdata’s task force, led by her sister, Cassandra Taylor a.k.a. “Ballistic” bring her into contact with the Cyber Force, a group of cybernetically enhanced mutant escapees from Cyberdata, consisting of Stryker, Cyblade, Heatwave, Impact and Ripclaw. After Velocity is rescued, the team explains to her that they were created by Cyberdata to enhance their mutant abilities, turning them into super-soldiers known as S.H.O.C.s (Special Hazardous Operation Cyborgs), but they escaped and formed Cyber Force, making it their mission to bring down Cyberdata for good.
Cyber Force – Mini #1 NM $5Cyber Force – Mini #3 NM $4Cyber Force – Mini #4 NM $4
The Next Men characters made a prototypical appearance as “Freaks” in a lithography plate that was published within the History of the DC Universe Portfolio in 1986. Byrne had originally pitched the series to DC Comics, but the series never surfaced there. With some changes, Byrne changed the concept to fit in with his work on the graphic novel2112, to become the John Byrne’s Next Men series. Two characters from the “Freaks” artwork somewhat retained their physical looks and became the lead characters of the Next Men series: heroine Jasmine and villain Aldus Hilltop.
Next Men #0 NM $4Next Men #1 NM $4Next Men #8 NM $8Next Men #9 NM $4Next Men #10 NM $4Next Men #12 NM $4Next Men #16 NM $4
The series was published for 85 issues from February–March 1969 to October 1978. Its tagline was “It’s 12 o’clock… The Witching Hour!” and was changed to “It’s midnight…” from issue #14 onwards. The series was originally edited by Dick Giordano, who was replaced by Murray Boltinoff with issue #14.Nick Cardy was the cover artist for The Witching Hour for issues #1–6, 11–12, 15–16, 18–52, and 60. Stories in the comic were “hosted” and introduced by three witches, Morded, Mildred, and Cynthia.
During the 80’s Frank Miller was hired to continue the title and did so in a similar vein to previous writer Roger McKenzie. Resuming the drastic metamorphosis the previous writer had begun, Miller took the step of essentially ignoring all of Daredevil’s continuity prior to his run on the series; on the occasions where older villains and supporting cast were used, their characterizations and history with Daredevil were reworked or overwritten. Most prominently, dedicated and loving father Jack Murdock was reimagined as a drunkard who physically abused his son Matt, entirely revising Daredevil’s reasons for becoming a lawyer. Spider-Man villain Kingpin was introduced as Daredevil’s new nemesis, displacing most of his large rogues gallery. Daredevil himself was gradually developed into an antihero. In issue #181 (April 1982), he attempts to murder one of his arch-enemies by throwing him off a tall building; when the villain survives as a quadriplegic, he breaks into his hospital room and tries to scare him to death by playing a two-man variation on Russian roulette with a secretly unloaded gun.Comics historian Les Daniels noted that “Almost immediately, [Miller] began to attract attention with his terse tales of urban crime.” Miller’s revamping of the title was controversial among fans, but it clicked with new readers, and sales began soaring, the comic returning to monthly status just three issues after Miller came on as writer.
The Grendel ongoing series published by Comico started in 1986 and lasted 40 issues. It was written by Matt Wagner and drawn by a variety of artists, including the Pander Brothers, Bernie Mireault, Tim Sale, John K. Snyder III and others. It began with a story set in the near future, with Christine Spar, Hunter’s posthumous biographer, taking on the identity of Grendel to pursue a mission of revenge. The identity passed briefly, and tragically, to her deluded boyfriend Brian Li Sung. After a brief return to stories of Hunter Rose (actually two in-universe fictional novels written by Captain Wiggins, a supporting character from the Christine Spar arc), Wagner then spun the series further into the future, with the Grendel identity affecting a variety of people. The name “Grendel” took on several meanings as the stories portrayed a dystopian future. Grendel became a synonym for The Devil with the title held by the emperor of the world, (Grendel-Khan) and members of a warrior society identical to samurai.
After helping Barry Allen—the speedster superhero The Flash—restore the timeline back to its original state,Thomas Wayne—the vigilante Batman—finds himself once again in the aberrant timeline known as the Flashpoint, whose existence Batman is determined to change and replace with another version of the DC Universe (DCU), all for the sole purpose of erasing the death of his son Bruce.
JIm Starlin took over as writer with issue #34 after several fill-in issues, and incorporated Thanos, Adam Warlock, and Drax the Destroyer into the series. Under Starlin and later Ron Marz, the series would receive acclaim and sales boost due to Silver Surfer’s involvement with Starlin’s Infinity Trilogy, with George Pérez and J. M. DeMatteis also having brief writing stints on the series as well. Additional artists included Tom Grindberg, Ron Garney, and Jon J. Muth, as well as periodic guest spots by John Buscema. The title experienced great initial success which allowed Marvel to push the character into other media, including a 1990 video game, 1992 trading card set, and 1998 animated series, as well as spinning off a variety of other comics series including Cosmic Powers, Cosmic Powers Unlimited, Captain Marvel vol. 2, and Star Masters. It ran 146 issues, through 1998.
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