The Final ’90s Countdown, Part Eighteen.

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Oh, hello there! It’s been a while! I promise to get back into the swing of things re: the Final ’90s Countdown, where I discuss your picks for your favorite indie comics series that began sometime within the 1990 to 1999 time frame. Still going through the entries that received single votes…and as I always remind you, that’s no reflection of the quality of the comic, but a result of so many good comics being released that decade.

And awaaaaay we go:

Soulsearchers and Company (Claypool, 1993-2007)

Well, once again I find myself in the tricky position of having to write semi-knowledgeably about a comic book series that I did not read. And embarrassingly enough, it’s a series written by the prolific and popular funnybook scribe Peter David, whose work I normally followed but somehow I managed to bounce off this particular endeavor.

I’m not sure why…I know I at least tried it for a few of its early issues, but either it just didn’t grab me or I was going through one of my not-infrequent financially-necessitated cutbacks on the books I was following. But despite my lack of readership, you can see from the header above that the comic lasted a good, long while…82 issues, to be exact, which ain’t bad for a small press black and white book. The publisher, Claypool Comics, also put out Deadbeats, which also ran 82 issues, and the licensed Elvira Mistress of the Dark comic, which ran a boggling 166 issues. And these might have all run even more issues if Diamond Comic Distributors didn’t drop the publisher from their catalog in order to make room for, I don’t know, more Sexy Anime Statues.

Anyway, the book was written by Peter David, occasionally with Richard Howell. Art was by a number of folks, including Amanda Conner, Dave Cockrum, Gordon Purcell, Joe Staton, John Heebink, Chris Marrinan, and several others. The premise itself revolves around a group of paranormal investigators…by which I mean, the investigators themselves are paranormal, including, like, a fire demon, a shapechanger, a witch, a centaur, and a once-human-now-magically-transformed prairie dog. They would go up against magical menaces and misdemeanors, all told with the David flair for mixing humor with melodrama.

There were six omnibuses reprinting the series up through issue #71. Two trade paperbacks reprinting through #12 were released earlier. The omnibuses appear readily available via Amazon.

A Claypool Comics website exists, but it’s mostly descriptions of their main two series (this one and Deadbeats) plus reviews.

So, a real blind spot in my Peter David reading, I’m afraid. And in a lot of people’s, apparently, judging by David’s comment at the end of that post.

19 thoughts on “The Final ’90s Countdown, Part Eighteen.”

  2. He says it’s “one of his favourites”. I’d always heard that Scorpio Rose was his personal favourite.

    I haven’t heard of either of those series, even though I went through a period of buying all of Englehart’s back catalogue of writing, and used to always at least sample David’s comic work. Soulsearchers even lasted for 82 issues (as mentioned). The comic store I most frequented during the ‘90s usually didn’t carry much in the way of indy books though (Dark Horse, Image, Caliber, Cerebus, that was about the extent), which probably explains why I missed it. When I would venture to other local shops, it was mainly for back-issues, not to peruse their new stock.

  3. For series that listed such a long time, I feel I haven’t encountered seeing many (any?) issues of the comics Claypool published in the wild. Maybe there are just some rabid Elvira fans who snap up the issues whenever they come across them.

    Mike, do you see these comics in collections that people sell to your store?

  4. I have seen some of the Elvira issues at the store I now frequent. The owner had the back-issues in storage and was getting them out to put on EBay. I’m not sure what that says about the Elvira comics. He had them in storage rather than in the store’s boxes…so, they don’t sell great? He was putting them on EBay though…so, they sell well to a niche market, or appeal to an Elvira fanbase who wouldn’t normally purchase comic books?

  5. According to the Claypool Comics website, it looks like Deadbeats still exists as an ongoing online only comic book or comic strip.

    I know I picked up a few old Claypool Comics in dollar boxes over the last few years–probably because they had some cool art by Dave Cockrum, Amanda Conner, and/or Jim Mooney–but I haven’t read them yet.

    It would be interesting to know what the average print run was on Claypool Comics titles.

    It seems odd that the omnibuses would only reprint the series up through issue 71–why not just reprint the last 11 issues as well?

  6. Matthew – I almost *never* see them in collections. Can’t remember the last time we had. I’m pretty sure my previous place of employment was the only shop in the area carrying Claypool, and we weren’t selling a whole lot of them. There may just not be that many in the wild around here.

    I have had copies of the Elvira comics around here, mostly selling on consignment for my former boss out of his personal collection. They can be a little pricey, I’ve noticed.

  7. I took a look at the sales estimates listed on Comichron and found about 20 times that Elvira showed up on with estimated sales between a low of 778 copies (#141, 2005-01) and a high of 1968 copies (#100, 2001-08). The one time Soulsearchers appeared (#46, 2001-01) it had estimated sales of 674.

    So I guess the reason we haven’t encountered these issues that often is because…there aren’t many copies of them out there.

    (Honestly, I’m kind of more surprised that Diamond distributed them for as long as they did with sales that low.)

    I looked around a bit more and didn’t find anything else, but did discover that Catherine Yronwode worked for Claypool for like a decade and still has a very old school looking website.

  8. Interestingly, the first six issues of Deadbeats also have an Eclipse Comics logo on them–so, I guess they were co-published by Claypool and Eclipse? That would explain the Cat Yronwode angle.

    Also, Deadbeats no. 5 has a cover by Richard Howell which is beautifully inked by the late, great Nick Cardy. As it was published in 2001, I wonder if it is Nick Cardy’s last published cover art–or did that Teen Titans reto-’60s one-shot special get published at DC after 2001?

    And, checking the CGC census, it looks like only 1 copy of Soulsearchers no. 1, and a couple of issues of Deadbeats midway through the run have been CGC slabbed.
    So, yeah, I guess there aren’t a lot of Claypool Comics out there–and they are probably worth scooping up if found in decent condition in dollar boxes–just to rescue them for posterity.

  10. I see some of the early issues of Soulsearchers, Deadbeats, Phantom of Fear City going for pretty cheap on some internet retailer sites I won’t mention, and some early issues of Elvira for…well, quite a bit less cheap. Later issues of Claypool’s publications seem almost impossible to find though. The print runs obviously kept dropping as the series continued. It looks like 2001 is around the cut-off point.

  11. Okay, so I double checked and that Teen Titans the Lost Annual was published in 2008, so that is most likely the last time new Nick Cardy art was featured on the cover of a comic book (and I always found it amusing that Cardy gave the character he drew in the right bottom corner the face of Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones). But, anyway, Deadbeats no. 50 also has a great cover with Nick Cardy inking, and is probably the second to last time that new Cardy art appeared on a comic book cover. Cardy passed away in 2013, and my understanding is that he left comics by the late ’70s for more lucrative commercial art work including creating posters for various late ’70s and ’80s films.

  12. Oh man, I’m gonna die laughing. I was the one who nominated Soulsearchers for this list. At the time I hadn’t read a single issue either. Mr. Sterling is the most knowledgeable comic geek I know and I figured there would be nothing so obscure that HE couldn’t find something to say about it. I thought wrong! LOL!

    This entire talkback thread is about how no one knows anything about this book! Double LOL!

    I’ve been looking for this title for a long time and no trace has ever turned up, and now I guess I know why. HOWEVER…a miracle recently happened. At last year’s local comic con there was a booth with many rarities for sale, including…the first Soulsearchers trade paperback. I bought it, obvi. And I’m pleased to report for such a long wait it didn’t disappoint; the cocktail of David’s wit and Conner’s art made it a winner. And I am the only one who will ever know.

    I don’t know what would drive David to continue laboring on a book with such little support. That was a lie — I DO know. He didn’t make it for money. He did it for the love of it. He did it because he simply wanted it to exist. Simply for the love of comics and his original characters. And that, above all else, makes me want to continue tracking down Soulsearchers.

    @ChrisF “going for pretty cheap on some internet retailer sites I won’t mention.” Are you implying the only place to find copies of this comic is the Dark Web?

    I guess it’s a half-truth. I may never find the series physically but I have it now digitally…via torrent.

  13. Nah, totally reputable sites that I’m sure most here know about. I just don’t want to step on any toes at Mike’s web-site by naming his competition.

  14. Nick Cardy did a few other late period covers after 2001, Tellos, Bat Lash, The Spirit, and one I just heard about the other day, SILVER COMICS #3 from 2004. The Spirit one appears to be the last published. I think his last story pages were a pair of pages for a 2001 issue of TITANS #25.

    I was a fan of SOULSEARCHERS, have about half the run. Became hard to find at some point and I’d dropped almost all my other regular buys at the time. Did at some point pick up some later issues, including the last seven (where Joe Staton is the artist). Never see many issues while flipping through back issues, if I did I’d pick up the ones I’m missing. It was a pretty fun book, which kind of surprised me since I find the humour in Peter David’s straight comics hits with me less than half the time.

    Didn’t know about the reprints. I’ll have to take a look at those some day. I know Dynamite collected a lot of the Elivra stuff not that long ago.

    One interesting thing, it was mentioned in an early issue that the book started as a pitch David and Howell did for a Marvel book, and a regular thing in the letter column was people guessing who the corresponding Marvel characters would have been. There’s a pretty likely Agatha Harkness / Scarlet Witch pair, possibly a Daimon Hellstorm, maybe a Patsy (Hellcat) Walker. Don’t know if they ever confirmed what the pitch was (and obviously it changed much in the transition).

    Also got the impression that the line was pretty much subsidized by the publisher Ed Via, and searching just now I see a few references to him as an “art patron”, and there’s a private medical school named after an “Edward Via”, no clue if it’s the same guy, but the wikipedia article about the school does mention Edward and his brother inherited their mother’s estate in 1993, around the time Claypool launched. But might be a completely different guy…

  17. And as for the Deadbeats webcomic, it appears to have stopped in 2023 after 1614 pages. It’s no longer on the Claypool Comics site as far as I can tell, but it is still online at https://richardhowellsdeadbeats.com/. (What appears to be the first strip has a comment by Paul Chadwick!)

    That site also has a three part essay/blog post from 2023 titled “The End of Deadbeats?” that does discuss a little of the creation and history of Claypool Comics.

  18. Your web search skills are better than mine, it seems, Matthew. Thanks for confirming what amounted to red string conspiracy board connections I made from various half-remembered comments. I couldn’t even find that link to Howell’s Deadbeats archives when I looked a while back, I was thinking about resorting to wayback machine links to read it.

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