Interview with the Vampire (1992)

Innovation Comics published a twelve-issue comic book adaptation of Interview with the Vampire in 1992, following up on adaptations of The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned.

Steed, Peel and John Drake – Silver Age

In 1968 Gold Key reprinted a couple of TV Comic Avengers strips as a one-shot comic for the US market. For trademark reasons, since Marvel had the Avengers comic trademark in the USA, the comic was titled after the featured characters, John Steed and Emma Peel.

The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series created in the 1960s. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) and his assistant John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. Steed’s most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and later Tara King (Linda Thorson). Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity. The Avengers ran from 1961 until 1969, screening as one-hour episodes its entire run.

In 1966, Gold Key Comics published two issues of a Secret Agent comic book based upon the series Danger Man (titled Secret Agent in the United States), a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake.

Prisoner fans frequently debate whether John Drake of Danger Man and Number Six in The Prisoner are the same person. Like John Drake, Number Six is evidently a secret agent, but one who has resigned from his job. Moreover, in the surreal Prisoner episode “The Girl Who Was Death“, Number Six meets “Potter”, John Drake’s Danger Man contact. Christopher Benjamin portrayed the character in both series.

 

BRZRKR (2021)

BRZRKR is a comic book series created and written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt and drawn by Ron Garney. The comic follows an immortal warrior, known as Berzerker, as he fights his way through the ages. The first issue of the 12-issue limited series was published on March 3, 2021, by Boom! Studios. It raised more than $1.4 million USD in its funding campaign on Kickstarter.

Jughead: The Hunger (2017)

Jughead: The Hunger launched on March 29, 2017 as a one-shot comic alongside the New Riverdale “pilot” lineup. It was written by Frank Tieri with art by Michael Walsh. Due to positive critical and fan reception, the book was picked up as an ongoing series.

It is the first title to debut under the Archie Horror imprint and is its third title overall behind Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which released issues before the imprint was created. The series returned with its first official issue on October 25, 2017, with Pat & Tim Kennedy taking over as artists.

 

American Flagg! (1983)

American Flagg, which ran 50 issues (Oct. 1983 – March 1988), was one of the first titles to be published by First Comics, an early alternative press comics company founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1983. Unusually for the time, the company offered its freelance writers and artists creator rights, including ownership of their creations.Regardless, writer-artist Howard Chaykin, then living in New York City, felt trepidation when First Comics approached him to do a project. He recalled in 2010,

        “My concern had all and everything to do with the fact that this was a brand new company, located in [a suburb of] Chicago. I’d always worked for companies I’d visited and had day-to-day-dealings with. [But they talked about a financial plan that would make it possible for me to get out from under the debt I had accrued working for [publisher] Byron Preiss[illustrating early graphic novels]. It was encouraging, so I went home and concocted a scenario, a pitch document, and that was it.”

Chaykin devised a series set in 2031, a high-tech but spiritually empty, consumerist world in which the American government has relocated to Mars, leaving what remains of the U.S. to be governed by the all-encompassing corporation the Plex. The series star is Reuben Flagg, a former TV star drafted into the Plexus Rangers and posted as a deputy in Chicago, Illinois.

The first 12 issues, running through cover-date September 1984, consisted of four interlocking, three-issue story arcs. Chaykin recalled his difficulty in producing 28 pages of art and script monthly. “I was still a smoker and a drinker at the time. And [the output was such that] I’d never done anything like that before, and it was insane. It just devoured my life I had no assistants. I didn’t how to work with an assistant at that point, and it was a very difficult process. … I was trying to do a fairly high-quality product and I didn’t want to slough it off.”

Trailer Park Boys (2021)

Devil’s Due Comics and Trailer Park Boys have inked a big fancy partnership to debut the Canadian trio from Sunnyvale Trailer Park in their debut comic book series! Featuring a a sh** ton of creators and short stories personally approved by “the boys.” This wicked anthology series stars Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles in a mix of original shorts that feel plucked right from the TV show, as well as some fantastical tales that can’t be done on TV.

Evil Ernie V3 (2021)

After Ernest Gleckman is mortally wounded, he discovers he must “pay down his new lease on life” by serving as a part time fixer for a death cult. Each time he manifests his dark side as Evil Ernie it becomes harder to maintain his tenuous grip on his inherently good humanity.

Ernest Gleckman is a good kid with exceptional grades in his senior year at college…his only quirk is the rock band he sings in every Saturday night. He enjoys the rock esthetic and “dressing the role” if not acting like a nihilistic punk.

All that is changed when he assumes the role of… Evil Ernie who is the polar opposite of Ernest. Ernie is vicious and cruel and sadistic as he employs all manner of torture or murder (or oft-times both!) against his targets.

Dune: The Waters of Kanley (2022)

Go deeper into the Dune universe with this lore-expanding story set during the events of the Frank Herbert classic! In the aftermath of the battle of Arrakeen, legendary House Atreides warmaster Gurney Halleck takes refuge with spice smugglers, vowing revenge against the Harkonnens no matter the cost.

 

1984 (1978)

1984 was an American black and white science-fiction comic magazine published in New York City by Warren Publishing from 1978 to 19831984 was edited by Bill Dubay. The title of the magazine was changed to 1994 starting with issue #11 in February, 1980 based on a request by the estate of George Orwell. The magazine ceased publication with issue #29 in February, 1983 due to the bankruptcy of Warren Publishing.

Similar to its sister publications Eerie and Vampirella1984 featured numerous recurring series and characters. This included the following:

  • Mutant World (Artist: Richard Corben; Writer; Jan Strnad)
  • Ghita of Alizarr (Drawn and written by Frank Thorne)
  • Idi Amin (Artist: Esteban Maroto; Writer: Bill Dubay)
  • Rex Havoc (Artist: Abel Laxamana; Writer: Jim Stenstrum)
  • The Starfire Saga (Artist: Rudy Nebres; Writer: Bill Dubay)
  • Young Sigmond Pavlov (Artist: Alex Niño; Writer: Bill Dubay)

Andy Panda (1953)

Life Begins for Andy Panda is a 1939 American short subject cartoon created by Walter Lantz, as the very first Andy Panda film. The short capitalized on public interest surrounding the United States’ first captive pandaSu Lin, who had been donated to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago three years earlier and whose arrival created a consumer desire for panda-related products.

Andy led a major part of his career in comic books, in Dell Comics‘ Crackajack Comics and New Funnies and his own series. One early Andy Panda comic book adventure was drawn by Carl Barks (New Funnies #76, 1943). John Stanley also did Andy Panda comic book work.