Michael Netzer
Michael Netzer is an American-Israeli artist best known for his comic book work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics in the 1970s, as well as for his online presence. Michael Nasser was born in Detroit, Michigan, U. S, his father was Adel Nasser a-Din, a Druze doctor of philosophy who worked most of his life in a Ford factory. His mother, Adele Ghazali, is a daughter to a Druze-Lebanese father and a Jewish-Lebanese mother who settled in New York in the 1920s, he contracted polio at the age of eight months which paralyzed his left hip and leg. After two years of medical treatment, he was sent with his mother and siblings to his father's Druze hometown, Dayr Qūbil in Lebanon. In 1967, at the age of 11, he returned to Detroit. In school, he became interested in comic book illustration and storytelling, began developing skills as an artist, he used his art for a campaign that won him election of vice-president of his senior class in Redford High School, where he gained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the JROTC program.)
During high school, Netzer met Greg Theakston, who introduced him to the world of professional comics art. He worked as a sign painter and graphic designer while attending Wayne State University in Michigan for two years. Theakston introduced him to Neal Adams at the Detroit Triple Fan Fair comics convention in 1974. Adams invited him to join Continuity Studios. In late 1975, Netzer was invited to join Arvell Jones and Keith Pollard for a drive to New York City, where the two artists shared an apartment, they offered Netzer accommodations. He joined Continuity Studios, he began work producing storyboards and advertising art for the studio, while procuring his first comics assignment, a two-part back-up story in Kamandi: "Tales of the Great Disaster". He gained quick recognition as an illustrator at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, producing art for Kobra, Challengers of the Unknown and the Legion of Super-Heroes and Wonder Woman at DC, as well as various covers for Marvel. Other characters he became known for were the Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Black Lightning and Spider-Man.
Netzer became active in efforts to form a Comics Creators Guild. By late 1977, he was scheduled to pencil the new series John Carter, Warlord of Mars for editor Marv Wolfman at Marvel. Reconsidering the direction his life and career were taking, the general conditions of the comics industry, Netzer declined the project and decided to take a break away from drawing comic books. In November 1977, Netzer hitchhiked across the United States. Arriving in San Francisco, he contacted Star*Reach magazine publisher Mike Friedrich to decline a commitment he had made for the publication's first color installment. Friedrich asked Netzer to produce a story that would tell of his new-found aspirations, resulting in "The Old and Final Testaments", an eight-page vignette weaving socio-religious history with humanity's ambitions for the colonization of the solar system. Friedrich published the story in Star*Reach #12 and wrote about his meeting with Netzer in the editorial. For the next several years, Netzer produced sporadic comic book art for DC and Marvel, including a Batman story in DC Special Series, Black Lightning in World's Finest Comics, Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up and numerous covers for Marvel.
During this period, he traveled through the United States and promoted the idea of a new political hierarchy through the comic book medium. His colleagues expressed concerns about his behavior. In a 1980 interview with Whizzard Magazine, editor Marty Klug noted: "Since 1977 his work, most notably in Star*Reach, has professed a creative politico-religious theme derived from diverse sources ranging from superhero adventure to Biblical prophecy. Nasser's speculations—frequently intriguing controversial and, at times, somewhat outrageous—espouse a refreshing optimism found in such works, he is assembling these perspectives in book form and may well be one of the first comic illustrators to branch off in such a unique direction." In September 1981, Netzer left the United States for Lebanon, settled in Israel in 1983. In 1984–1988, he contributed covers, accompanying illustrations and a comic strip and Honey, to Counterpoint, an Israeli English-language publication of Gush Emunim edited by Rachelle Katsman and Yisrael Medad.
In 1987, he produced Israel's first Super Hero color comic book, with partners Jonathan Duitch and Yossi Halpern, "Uri-On", under their Israel Comics imprint. This came at a time of a surge in comics activity in the country and was featured in an Israel Museum Comics Exhibit alongside the work of his national peers, Dudu Geva, Michel Kichka, Uri Fink and others. Michael's design of the Menorah symbol for Uri-On was featured in a Israel Museum exhibit highlighting various Menorah designs through the ages. Netzer's prominence as a former American comic book artist and controversial choice of residence in the occupied West Bank, provided a platform for the artist to appear on local television talk shows, receive varied media coverage and give lectures on the comic book medium as a tool for advancing a peaceful solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict. In 1991, Netzer returned to New York and Continuity Comics, where he produced art for several issues of Megalith, he and Neal Adams entered into a dispute over intellectual property rights to Ms. Mystic, a character they had worked on jointly in 1977, which Adams had published under the Pacific Comics and Continuity Comics imprints, leading to a lawsuit against Adams in New Y
Jim Starlin
James P. Starlin is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories. For DC Comics, he drew many of their iconic characters Darkseid and other characters from Jack Kirby's Fourth World. For Epic Illustrated, he created Dreadstar. In the 1960s, Jim Starlin served as an aviation photographer in the US Navy in Vietnam. During his off duty time, he submitted various comics. After leaving the Navy, Starlin sold two stories to DC Comics. After writing and drawing stories for a number of fan publications, Jim Starlin entered the comics industry in 1972, working for Roy Thomas and John Romita at Marvel Comics. Starlin was part of the generation of artists and writers who grew up as fans of Silver Age Marvel Comics. At a Steve Ditko-focused panel at the 2008 Comic-Con International, Starlin said, "Everything I learned about storytelling was him or Kirby. Did the best layouts."Starlin's first job for Marvel was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man.
He drew three issues of Iron Man, that introduced the characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer. He was given the chance to draw an issue of the "cosmic" title Captain Marvel. Starlin took over as plotter the following issue, began developing an elaborate story arc centered on the villainous Thanos, spread across a number of Marvel titles. Starlin left Captain Marvel one issue after concluding his Thanos saga. Concurrently in the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5. After working on Captain Marvel and writer Steve Englehart co-created the character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, though they only worked on the early issues of the Master of Kung Fu series. Starlin took over the title Warlock, starring a genetically engineered being created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s and re-imagined by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in the 1970s as a Jesus Christ-like figure on an alternate Earth.
Envisioning the character as philosophical and existentially tortured, Starlin wrote and drew a complex space opera with theological and psychological themes. Warlock confronted the militaristic Universal Church of Truth revealed to be created and led by an evil evolution of his future–past self, known as Magus. Starlin incorporated Thanos into this story. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "In a brief stint with Marvel, which included work on two characters that had never quite made their mark, Starlin managed to build a considerable cult following."In Fall 1978, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Val Mayerik formed Upstart Associates, a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City. The membership of the studio changed over time. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider. Starlin worked for Marvel's chief competitor DC Comics and drew stories for Legion of Super-Heroes and the "Batman" feature in Detective Comics in the late 1970s.
Starlin co-created the supervillain Mongul with writer Len Wein in DC Comics Presents #27. The new decade found Starlin creating an expansive story titled "the Metamorphosis Odyssey", which introduced the character of Vanth Dreadstar in Epic Illustrated #3. From its beginning in Epic Illustrated, the initial story was painted in monochromatic grays added to with other tones, becoming full color; the storyline was further developed in The Price and Marvel Graphic Novel #3 and the long-running Dreadstar comic book, published first by Epic Comics, by First Comics. Starlin was given the opportunity to produce a one-shot story in; the Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by Marvel itself. Starlin and Bernie Wrightson produced Heroes for Hope, a 1985 one-shot designed to raise money for African famine relief and recovery. Published in the form of a "comic jam," the book featured an all-star lineup of comics creators as well as a few notable authors from outside the comic book industry, such as Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Edward Bryant.
In 1986, he and Wrightson produced a second benefit comic for famine relief. Heroes Against Hunger, featuring Superman and Batman, was published by DC and like the earlier Marvel benefit project featured many top comics creators. Starlin became the writer of Batman and one of his first storylines for the title was "Ten Nights of The Beast" in issues #417 – 420 which introduced the KGBeast. Starlin wrote the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult drawn by Wrightson. and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426–429, in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a fatal situation. Other projects for DC included wr
Marv Wolfman
Marvin Arthur Wolfman is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's The Tomb of Dracula, for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, DC Comics's The New Teen Titans and the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series with George Pérez. Marv Wolfman was born in the son of police officer Abe and housewife Fay, he has Harriet, 12 years older. When Wolfman was 13, his family moved to Flushing, Queens, in New York City, where he attended junior high school, he went in Manhattan, hoping to become a cartoonist. Wolfman is Jewish. Marvin Wolfman was active in fandom before he began his professional comics career at DC Comics in 1968. Wolfman was one of the first to publish Stephen King, with "In A Half-World of Terror" in Wolfman's horror fanzine Stories of Suspense #2; this was a revised version of King's first published story, "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber", serialized over four issues of the fanzine Comics Review that same year. Wolfman's first published work for DC Comics appeared in Blackhawk No. 242.
He and longtime friend Len Wein created the character Jonny Double in Showcase No. 78 scripted by Wolfman. The two co-wrote "Eye of the Beholder" in Teen Titans No. 18, which would be Wein's first professional comics credit. Neal Adams was called upon to rewrite and redraw a Teen Titans story, written by Wein and Wolfman; the story, titled "Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho!", would have introduced DC's first African American superhero, but was rejected by publisher Carmine Infantino. The revised story appeared in Teen Titans No. 20. Wolfman and Gil Kane created an origin for Wonder Girl in Teen Titans No. 22 which introduced the character's new costume. He and artist Bernie Wrightson co-created Destiny in Weird Mystery Tales No. 1, a character which would be used in the work of Neil Gaiman. In 1972, Wolfman moved to Marvel Comics as a protégé of then-editor Roy Thomas; when Thomas stepped down, Wolfman took over as editor in charge of the publisher's black-and-white magazines finally the color line of comics.
Wolfman said in 1981. "No one wanted to commit themselves to the staff." He added, "We used to farm the books out to Harry Chester Studios and whatever they pasted up, they pasted up. I formed the first production staff, hired the first layout people, paste-up people." Wolfman stepped down as editor-in-chief. He and artist Gene Colan crafted The Tomb of Dracula, a horror comic that became "one of the most critically-acclaimed horror-themed comic books ever". During their run on this series, they created Blade, a character who would be portrayed by actor Wesley Snipes in a film trilogy. Wolfman co-created Bullseye in Daredevil No. 131. He and artist John Buscema created Nova in that character's eponymous first issue. Wolfman and Gil Kane adapted Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom concepts into comics in Marvel's John Carter, Warlord of Mars series. Wolfman wrote 14 issues of Marvel Two-in-One starting with issue No. 25. The Spider-Woman series was launched in April 1978 by artist Carmine Infantino; as the first regular writer on Spider-Woman, he redesigned the character, giving her a human identity as Jessica Drew.
Wolfman succeeded Len Wein as writer in his first issue, No. 182, had Peter Parker propose marriage to Mary Jane Watson, in the following issue. Wolfman and Keith Pollard introduced. 194. In 1978, Wolfman and artist Alan Kupperberg took over the Howard the Duck syndicated newspaper comic strip. While writing the Fantastic Four and John Byrne introduced a new herald for Galactus named Terrax in No. 211. A Godzilla story by Wolfman and Steve Ditko was changed into a Dragon Lord story published in Marvel Spotlight vol. 2 No. 5. The creature that the Dragon Lord battled was intended to be Godzilla but since Marvel no longer had the rights to the character the creature was modified to a dragon called The Wani. In 1980, Wolfman returned to DC after a dispute with Marvel. Teaming with penciller George Pérez, Wolfman relaunched DC's Teen Titans in a special preview in DC Comics Presents No. 26. The New Teen Titans added the Wolfman-Pérez creations Raven and Cyborg to the old team's Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Beast Boy.
The series became DC's first new hit in years. Wolfman wrote a series of New Teen Titans drug awareness comic books which were published in cooperation with The President's Drug Awareness Campaign in 1983–1984; the first was pencilled by Pérez and sponsored by the Keebler Company, the second was illustrated by Ross Andru and underwritten by the American Soft Drink Industry, the third was drawn by Adrian Gonzales and financed by IBM. In August 1984, a second series of The New Teen Titans was launched by Pérez. Other projects by Wolfman for DC during the early 1980s included collaborating with artist Gil Kane on a run on the Superman feature in Action Comics. During their collaboration on that series and Sta
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1, which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium; the Fantastic Four was the first superhero team created by editor/co-plotter Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, who developed a collaborative approach to creating comics with this title that they would use from on. The four individuals traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four, who gained superpowers after exposure to cosmic rays during a scientific mission to outer space, are Mister Fantastic, a scientific genius and the leader of the group, who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes. Since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional, yet loving, family. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble and hold grudges both deep and petty and eschewed anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status.
The team is well known for its recurring encounters with characters such as the villainous monarch Doctor Doom, the Kree Empire's ruthless and tyrannical enforcer Ronan the Accuser, the planet-devouring Galactus, ruler of the Negative Zone, the sea-dwelling prince Namor, the spacefaring Silver Surfer, the Skrull warrior Kl'rt. The Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated series and four live-action films. Apocryphal legend has it that in 1961, longtime magazine and comic book publisher Martin Goodman was playing golf with either Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of rival company DC Comics known as National Periodical Publications, that the top executive bragged about DC's success with the new superhero team the Justice League of America. While film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan has debunked the particulars of that story, Goodman, a publishing trend-follower, aware of the JLA's strong sales, did direct his comics editor, Stan Lee, to create a comic-book series about a team of superheroes.
According to Lee, writing in 1974, "Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes....'If the Justice League is selling', spoke he,'why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?'"Lee, who had served as editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel Comics and its predecessor companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, for two decades, found that the medium had become creatively restrictive. Determined "to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books", Lee concluded that, "For just this once, I would do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading.... And the characters would be the kind of characters I could relate to: they'd be flesh and blood, they'd have their faults and foibles, they'd be fallible and feisty, — most important of all — inside their colorful, costumed booties they'd still have feet of clay."Lee said he created a synopsis for the first Fantastic Four story that he gave to penciller Jack Kirby, who drew the entire story.
Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who captions. This approach to creating comics, which became known as the "Marvel Method", worked so well for Lee and Kirby that they used it from on. Kirby recalled events somewhat differently. Challenged with Lee's version of events in a 1990 interview, Kirby responded: "I would say that's an outright lie", although the interviewer, Gary Groth, notes that this statement needs to be viewed with caution. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvel's offices, that Lee had added the dialogue after the story had been pencilled. Kirby sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions, he pointed to a team he had created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, the Challengers of the Unknown. "f you notice the uniforms, they're the same... I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt... the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Thing's skin is a kind of decoration, breaking up the monotony of the blue uniform."
The chest insignia of a "4" within a circle, was designed by Lee. The characters wear no uniforms in the first two issues. Given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to identify with precise detail who created the Fantastic Four. Although Stan Lee's typed synopsis for the Fantastic Four exists, Earl Wells, writing in The Comics Journal, points out that its existence does not assert its place in the creation: "e have no way of knowing of whether Lee wrote the synopsis after a discussion with Kirby in which Kirby supplied most of the ideas". Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes that the Fantastic Four was a furtherance of the work Kirby had been doing and so "more Kirby's creations than Lee's", but Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collabora
Ron Wilson (comics)
Ron Wilson is an American comics artist known for his work on comic books starring the Marvel Comics character The Thing, including the titles Marvel Two-in-One and The Thing. Wilson spent eleven years, from 1975 to 1986, chronicling The Thing's adventures through different comic titles. Ron Wilson grew up in the Canarsie neighborhood. Wilson entered the comics industry in the early 1970s at Marvel Comics where he produced both cover illustrations and interior artwork, he was the regular artist on Marvel Two-in-One from 1975–1978 and again from 1980–1983. In the 1980s, after the cancellation of Marvel Two-in-One, Wilson teamed with writer John Byrne on The Thing. In 1983 he plotted and drew "Super Boxers", he drew the entire run of Marvel's Masters of the Wolfpack limited series. Wilson's work appeared in The Avengers, Captain America, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Iron Man, What If. In 1990, Wilson illustrated an issue of Urth 4 for Continuity Comics and returned to Marvel to draw WCW World Championship Wrestling in 1992–1993.
His work appeared in Marvel Comics Presents in 1992–1994. Wilson contributed to DC Comics Milestone Media imprint providing character design work and pencilled an issue of Icon as well as the DC universe mini-series Arion the Immortal. In 2008, he provided a cover for the second issue of the pro wrestling-themed mini-series Headlocked published by Visionary Comics; as of 2012, Wilson was preparing a new creator-owned project Battle Rappers. Ron Wilson at the Comic Book DB Ron Wilson at Mike's Amazing World of Comics Ron Wilson at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
Frank Giacoia
Frank Giacoia was an American comics artist known as an inker. He sometimes worked under the name Frank Ray, to a lesser extent Phil Zupa, the single moniker Espoia, the latter used for collaborations with fellow inker Mike Esposito. Frank Giacoia studied at Manhattan's School of Industrial Art and the Art Students League of New York, he entered the comics industry by penciling the feature "Jack Frost" in U. S. A. Comics #1, inked by friend and high-school classmate Carmine Infantino — the latter's first art for comics and published by Marvel Comics' 1940s precursor, Timely Comics, his friend and collaborator Carmine Infantino, a classmate at the Art Students League, recalled that... Frank Giacoia and I were in constant contact. One day in'40 we decided to go up to Timely Comics, which became Marvel, to see if we could get some work, they gave us a script called'Jack Frost' and that story became our first published work. Frank did the pencils and I did the inking. Joe Simon was the editor and he offered us both a staff job.
Frank took the job. I wanted to quit school and I told my father that it was a great opportunity, he said,'No way! You're gonna finish school'. In 1941, Giacoia joined the New York City comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, the studio of Golden Age greats Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, his early works include drawing crime comics for Ace Comics, horror for Avon Publishing, a multitude of characters for National Comics Publications including the Flash and Batman. Other companies for which Giacoia did art during the 1940s and 1950s include Crestwood Publications, Dell Comics, Eastern Color Printing, Fawcett Comics, Harvey Comics, Lev Gleason Publications, Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics. Giacoia and writer Otto Binder introduced the short-lived character Captain Wonder in Kid Komics #1. During the 1960s Silver Age of comic books, Giacoia became best known as a Marvel Comics inker on Captain America stories penciled by the character's co-creator, industry legend Jack Kirby. One of the company's preeminent names, he worked on every title at one time or another.
Giacoia inked the first appearance of the Punisher in The Amazing Spider-Man #129. Giacoia worked on the newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man from 1978–1981, as well as on the strips Flash Gordon, The Incredible Hulk, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Sherlock Holmes, Thorne McBride, he was credited as the pseudonym "Frankie Ray" for some time. In Fantastic Four #53, his real name was announced in the "Bullpen Bulletins". Giacoia was nominated for the Shazam Award for Best Inker in 1974; the 1989 graphic novel The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, the back cover of, inked by Giacoia, is dedicated to his memory. He posthumously won one of the two annual Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Awards in 2016; the award was received by Mike Giacoia. In its list of "The 20 Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books", historians at the retailer Atlas Comics listed Giacoia at #5: In comics from 1941, Frank Giacoia's smooth, thick line has been recognizable over a surfeit of outstanding pencillers. Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colan and Jack Kirby all benefited from his heavy, robust linework which always helped tell the story in a simple, direct way.
His collaboration with Kirby on the short-lived newspaper strip Johnny Reb and Billy Yank was superb, as was the case when he teamed with'the King.' Frank worked for many publishers during his 40-odd years in comics: Lev Gleason, Timely, DC and of course Marvel. Frank Giaocia at the Comic Book DB Frank Giaocia at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States 32 pages, containing comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics, which included the debut of the superhero Superman; this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the comic book industry expanded and genres such as horror, science fiction and romance became popular; the 1950s saw a gradual decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television and the impact of the Comics Code Authority. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a superhero revival and superheroes remain the dominant character archetype in the 21st century; some fans collect comic books. Some have sold for more than US $1 million. Comic shops cater to fans, selling comic books, plastic sleeves and cardboard backing to protect the comic books. An American comic book is known as a floppy comic.
It is thin and stapled, unlike traditional books. American comic books are one of the three major comic book schools globally, along with Japanese manga and the Franco-Belgian comic books; the typical size and page count of comics have varied over the decades trending toward smaller formats and fewer pages. In recent decades, standard comics have been about 6.625 inches × 10.25 inches, 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a single creator, the labor of making them is divided between a number of specialists. There may be a separate writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters and backgrounds. In superhero comic books, the art may be divided between: a writer, who creates the stories. A penciller, who lays out the artwork in pencil. An inker, who finishes the artwork in ink. A colorist, who adds color to the comics a letterer, who adds the captions and speech balloons; the process begins with the creator coming up with an idea or concept working it into a plot and story, finalizing the preliminary writing with a script.
After the art production, letters are placed on the page and an editor may have the final say before the comic is sent to the printer. The creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the finished product to retailers. Another part of the process involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century when various Internet forms started to replace them. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, beginning in the mid-1970s; some of the early example of these - referred to as "independent" or "alternative" comics - such as Big Apple Comix, continued somewhat in the tradition of underground comics, while others, such as Star Reach, resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist.
The "small press" scene continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in the 1990s changing the format and distribution of their books to more resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an more limited audience than the small presses; the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. Publishers had collected comic strips in hardcover book form as early as 1842, with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, a collection of English-language newspaper inserts published in Europe as the 1837 book Histoire de M. Vieux Bois by Rodolphe Töpffer; the G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S; the Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats, in 1897. A hardcover book, it reprinted material—primarily the October 18, 1896 to January 10, 1897 sequence titled "McFadden's Row of Flats"—from cartoonist Richard F. Outcault's newspaper comic strip Hogan's Alley, starring the Yellow Kid.
The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches and sold for 50 cents; the neologism "comic book" appears on the back cover. Despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Company's Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922. Produced in an 8½-by-9-inch format, it reprinted black-and-white newspaper comic strips and lasted a year. In 1929, Dell Publishing published The Funnies, described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert" and not to be confused with Dell's 1936 comic-book series of the same name. Historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book, but it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands". The Funnies ran for 36 issues, published Saturdays through October 16, 1930. In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines, sales manager Harry I.
Wildenberg, owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut company Eastern Color Printing—which printed, among other things, Sunday-paper comic-strip sections – produced Funnies on Parade as a way to keep their presses running. Like The Funnies, but only eight pages, this appeared as a newsprint magazine
