Wait, Comico published those Art Adams Gumby comics, that makes them #1.
So a discussion attempting to rank some of the recently-discussed-here comic book publishers broke out in the last post’s comments, so I thought I’d chime in with my own experiences and opinions and such. Since, you know, it’s my blog an’ all.
I’m just sticking to these four: Comico, First, Eclipse, and Pacific, since they’re all defunct (or at least the “classic” original 1970s-1990s versions of there are. I’m aware there have been newer revivals of sorts of a couple of these companies, but those aren’t being included here.
Anyway, #4 on the list is…
…Pacific Comics. I suppose now is as good time as any to say “I liked the output from all these companies,” so being #4 on the list isn’t a bad thing. It’s only here because, personally, my interaction with the publisher while it was extant was minimal. I told you recently that the first book I bought from them new off the stands was the first issue of Berni Wrightson: Master of the Macabre #1, and I bought one or two other comics new from them as well.
Aside from that, my interaction with their publications mostly happened after the fact, fishing various titles out of back issue bins. Rog 2000 (pictured above), a reprinting of some of John Byrne’s work, was an early get. I bought a single issue each of Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales new, and picked up the rest as back issues later. And as I said before, my first Groo was the Eclipse one-shot and I went back and picked up the Pacific Groos later.
I will give Pacific this…I still have distinct memories of the newsstand I attended having, like, Captain Victory and other Pacific books on their spinner racks. Why this newsstand was getting direct-sales stuff, I don’t know (I also bought my Don Rosa’s Comics & Stories there, as well as the last few issue of Comic Reader), but that was one of the ways I began to realize “oh wait, there’s more than Marvel and DC out there.”
Onto #3, which is…
…Comico, where I bough stuff like Grendel, Mage, Jonny Quest and other old favorites new off the rack. I certainly enjoyed what I got from them, and they put out quality product, but the #3 ranking is mostly a numbers game, in that I bought more from the next two companies than I did from Comico.
Speaking of which, #2 is…
…Eclipse, where I picked up a lot of books, mostly new off the shelf, with the occasional after-the-fact-er (like that Stewart the Rat grapic novel I mail ordered from Eclipse honcho cat yronwode post the company’s fall.
This is where Zot! lived. And Mr. Monster. And the early issues of Ms. Tree. And of course Miracleman, the initial U.S. release of Alan Moore’s Marvelman, came from here, too. They also continued some of the Pacific Comics titles that were interrupted mid-stream, like the aforementioned Berni Wrightson: Master of the Macabre. This company gave me so many wonderful, innovative, influential and memorable comics that I still love even today.
Which is why the #1 company of these four only made the top spot by the slimmest of margins…
…First Comics. Which is probably at he top for the same reason Pacific is at the “bottom” — just the sheer quantity of it all. Not necessarily saying “more is better,” but I felt like I was in there near the ground floor of the company’s start, and I picked up so much from them over the years that I enjoyed. First was such a consistent presence in my new comics purchases for so long, a dependable provider of entertainment, that (as I think someone said in my comments) may not have been the most groundbreaking work, but it was certainly fun work.
Nexus, Badger, Grimjack, Jon Sable Freelance, American Flagg!, Dreadstar, a bunch of their wonderful CLassics Illustrateds…they didn’t have quite the number of titles Eclipse did, but it was nice to have such long runs on these books to watch the characters and situations grow and develop.
Though I have to be honest…ask me on a different day and I may say Eclipse is #1 for the sheer variety of content they provided. I’m just more in a First Comics mood as I write this, I guess.
Besides, First Comics had Teddy Q as their mascot:
…and that’s hard to beat, you have to admit.