The Rocketeer! Captain Victory! Ms. Mystic! And MUCH MORE!
More news on the TwoMorrows front, Bronze Age fans! In addition to all the news on Back Issue, Alter Ego and RetroFan, there are a couple of new books in the offing that might catch your eye: Working With Ditko, a memoir by Jack C. Harris (click here) and a history of Pacific Comics (below).
Dig this official description of The Pacific Comics Companion, by Stephan Friedt with Jon B. Cooke:
THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION
Author Stephan Friedt shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint Pacific Comics, which published such legends as Jack Kirby, Sergio Aragonés, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Bernie Wrightson, and Dave Stevens. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, The Pacific Comics Companion reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by Bill and Steve Schanes, David Scroggy, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including The Rocketeer, Captain Victory, Ms. Mystic, Groo the Wanderer, Starslayer, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian Jon B. Cooke, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by Dave Stevens.
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A couple thoughts:
— The 160-page, full-color trade paperback is due Nov. 15, 2023, and lists for $29.95.
— I remember being so excited when Ms. Mystic came out in 1982. New Neal Adams!
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MORE
— BATMAN’s Unsung Artists to Take Center Stage in Landmark BACK ISSUE #150. Click here.
— LONG LIVE THE LEGION: Edmond Hamilton to Get ALTER EGO Spotlight. Click here.
April 6, 2023
Before Pacific Comics was a comic company, they were a comic STORE (a pair of stores, actually). I shopped at Their Clairemont/Kearny Mesa store as a kid. Bought my first back issue there! (Amazing Spider-Man 32, no less!) Both stores were great. Sadly, they closed the stores when they started the comic company. I supported PC and bought several of their comics before they went under.
April 6, 2023
A must buy for me. I loved Pacific Comics and had my run of Alien Worlds & Twisted Tales bound into a volume. The Rocketeer, Groo the Wanderer, Somerset Holmes, Kirby, Ditko, Bruce Jones, Dave Stevens…great stuff!
April 6, 2023
I’ve thought for a while it would be a fun project to collect Pacific’s entire output. One of the few publishers that it would be possible to do so, logistically as well as financially.
April 21, 2023
Will they tell everything? No one has contacted me and I created one of their earliest books, The Art of Al Williamson. I also know stories like what Bill Schanes told me at the time they had Neal Adams draw the Ms. Mystic comic book.
April 29, 2023
Really looking forward to this.
I remember Getting Captain Victory 2 (I had missed issue 1 at the time) & Starslayer 1 It was kind of being a big deal because it was the first time I purchased some comics that were not from the “Big 2” too bad Pacific Comics folded so quickly.
Be cool to see TwoMorrows do a book on Comico comics or Atlas Seaboard.