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Copper age Independants you may have never heard of...

Started by 50 Cent #II (1st),

540 posts in this topic

blutobc

blutobc

Posted
Posted
Here is one of the better done independents - Fish Police:

 

fish1.jpg

 

Yeah, that was a good book. I hate how it got lumped in with all of the other

B&W "failure" books when the bottom dropped out. Of course the later cartoon series

didn't exactly help its' image either.

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That Ron Dude

That Ron Dude

Posted
Posted

I lettered those Adventurers. They were my first paid jobs. I actually learned how to letter doing the first several issues, seeing my work in print and noting all the mistakes. Adventurers One with the special cover was on the wall of the local comic shops for about $100 right after it came out. You couldn't give it away now. The Mr. X's had a significant collectable value at one point too.

 

Almost all the comics that I have seen here had a certain freshness but little staying power. I have dozens of Trollords. I wonder where Paul Fricke and the other guy are now.

 

One friend, an independent publisher told me that people quit their jobs to draw those comics. By the time the market crashed they had caught "the bug" and really enjoyed signing autographs at conventions and going to pro parties. They scrambled and scrambled to get onto colour books but there just wasn't room for all of them.

 

I hope someday, someone writes the definive history of the black and white boom. They would have to interview the hustlers, sleazeballs and honest businessmen that called themselves publishers as well as the artists who churned those things out and became popular for a year or a few. Some of them were Class A designers, painters and story tellers. An interview with a man who paid $100 for an Adventurers #1 or a Quadrant #1 would be a treat too. As well as an interview with a comic store manager who had to figure out what to buy each month, wondering if one that he missed might be the next TMNT.

 

 

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That Ron Dude

That Ron Dude

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RE: THE MASKED MAN. I had all of those comics and I really liked them. When I started selling my stash at conventions someone else bought all the Masked Mans. They were great stories. The fellow who wrote and drew them was not a polished illustrator but he was a really good story teller.

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50 Cent #II (1st)

50 Cent #II (1st)

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Here is an interesting item not seen by many collectors.

 

Hellrazor Hardcover 1983 (Reprints Quadrant 1- 8) - Signed and Numbered (Limited to 1500)

*Not listed in Overstreet

 

scan0051-2.jpg

 

This is interesting to me. You say it came out in 1983, but the Quadrant series came out from 1983-1989? So was the comic either already written or was HellRazor just #1 in Hard Cover? Also, was there a non-limited Hard Cover version as well as a Soft Cover version of HellRazor?

 

Here is my Quadrant (signed and numbered Limited Edition) Hard Cover from 1990 (# 0285, anyone know how many of these there were?) that includes "Travesty" that has never before been published, as well as "Goddess" that has been reworked and expanded to incorporate previously censored material. I know there was a (not limited) Hard Cover and Soft Cover version of Quadrant also.

 

 

 

53523-Quadranthc.jpg.1ac97cce16713a931fc01e7f543b907d.jpg

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That Ron Dude

That Ron Dude

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I didn't know there was a colour cover version of Quandrant hardcover. I do know that when Peter Hsu published the Quadrant hardcover, it was after he had printed the series of comics. When he did the comic series he would glue drawings of rocks, candlesticks or fruit bowls over "key" parts of females anatomy. He peeled them off when he published the hardcover version. The book sold well and its collectable value was at least $100 about 20 years ago. Peter then sold publishing rights to someone else. This is just a wild guess, but the colour version might be one printed by the second company.

 

 

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50 Cent #II (1st)

50 Cent #II (1st)

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This is the confusing thing, that the B&W hardcover came out in 1983. Quadrant #1 came out in 1983. I don't think the whole series came out in 1983 (my Underground Price Guide states 1983-1989). So how could the B&W hardcover "HellRazor" from 1983 have come out after issues #1-8 if issue #1 came out in 1983? Either "HellRazor" came out about the time #1 came out or my guide is wrong and the whole series came out in 1983 and my Guide is wrong. ComicsPriceGuide.com shows it came out from 1983-1986, and I'm fairly sure the whole series did not come out before "HellRazor". Was "HellRazor" censored also? I suspect so...

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That Ron Dude

That Ron Dude

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The B&W just didn't come out in 1983. It came out the summer I went to the San Diego convention. I can date that trip because when I came home my son was sitting on the porch with my wife. He was born in 1984. Peter must have put down copyright 1983 because that was the year the first comic book came out.

 

HellRazor was not censored. Peter Hsu was the publisher,editor, writer and artist. He was from South Africa and came to Canada at about age 19. He told me that his soft core pornography was strongly influenced by the level of pornography that was tolerated in South Africa.

 

After he put together this book that compiling Quadrant, he had to find a printer. The local printers didn't want to handle it. Sometimes the workers themselves found the book disgusting and didn't want to work on it. Eventually he found a printer that would accept it so there was no censuring there either.

 

That is how I remember it.

 

 

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juggernaut

juggernaut

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Thanks Ron, I was hoping you can clear that up for everyone. There was a few other collectors who didn't understand it either. So, now I can refer them to this thread for some answers. I remeber you telling me the story at the Toronto Comicon.

 

Here are a few picks. (I took a page with no nudity!!)

 

Front page - Indicating Copyright in 1983

 

th_scan0028-3.jpg

 

Page from Hardcover

 

th_scan0027-2.jpg

 

Page from Quadrant #5

 

th_scan0029-3.jpg

 

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gernblanston

gernblanston

Posted
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Here is one of the better done independents - Fish Police:

 

fish1.jpg

 

Yeah, that was a good book. I hate how it got lumped in with all of the other

B&W "failure" books when the bottom dropped out. Of course the later cartoon series

didn't exactly help its' image either.

 

What are those books going for now anyway? I wouldn't mind picking a #1 up as it is a pretty cool cover.

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