Topps Comics

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Topps Comics
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GenreScience fiction, horror, adventure
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Headquarters
Brooklyn/Manhattan, New York City
,
U.S.
Key people
Jim Salicrup (EIC)[1]
ProductsComic books[1]
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ParentTopps Company, Inc.[1]
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Topps Comics was a division of Topps Company, Inc. that published comic books from 1993 to 1998, beginning its existence during a short comics-industry boom that attracted many investors and new companies. It was based in New York City, at 254 36th Street, Brooklyn, and at One Whitehall Street, in Manhattan.

The company specialized in licensed titles, particularly film and TV series tie-ins, such The X-Files, based on the Fox TV series, and the films Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jurassic Park. It also licensed such literary properties as Zorro, and published a smattering of original series, including Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and several based on concepts by then-retired industry legend Jack Kirby.

History

In March 1992, Topps Company, Inc., announced the formation of Topps Comics, to be headed by Jim Salicrup, with plans to start publishing in October 1992.[1][3] The company's first title[4] was Bram Stoker's Dracula, a four-issue series (Oct. 1992—Jan. 1993), along with 100 collectible cards, based on the film, with art provided by Mike Mignola and a full script provided by Roy Thomas, using dialogue derived almost entirely from the film's script.[5][6]

In April 1993, Topps launched a superhero line, "The Kirbyverse", based on Jack Kirby drawings and concepts, with four one-shot titles.[7][8]

Topps entered the comic book market as the number of publishers was increasing, with at least nine other companies joining the field from 1990 to 1992. This coincided with an increase in comic book market speculation that created inflated sales and an eventual collapse of the market. Topps Comics closed in 1998.[2]

Personnel

The editor-in-chief and associate publisher was Jim Salicrup.[1] Editors included Len Brown (the co-creator of Topps' 1962 Mars Attacks cards), Howard Zimmerman, and Dwight Jon Zimmerman. The company's sales and promotions manager Charles S. Novinskie is listed as, additionally, a Topps Comics editor in his capsule biography at Non-Sport Update magazine.[9] The company's design director, Brian Boerner, is listed as reprint editor (along with Charles S. Novinskie) in the Xena trade paperbacks' credits.

Veteran comic-book scripter Tony Isabella, writing about difficulties with The X-Files creator Chris Carter over the Topps Comics' series, said in a 2000 interview:

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The Kirbyverse

File:Bombast1.jpg
Bombast #1 (April 1993), cover art by Jack Kirby

The "Kirbyverse" comics, launched simultaneously with April 1993 cover dates,[10] stemmed from character designs and story concepts that the prolific Kirby, at this very late point in his life, had in his files of unrealized projects and preliminary sketches (some for Pacific Comics, which went defunct in the 1980s). Topps licensed them for an eight-title interrelated mythos based around what became Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga.[11] That flagship title was written by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, with an issue #0 prequel drawn by artist Walt Simonson and the remainder of the series by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.

Kirby himself wrote and drew eight pages of the Satan's Six premiere, interlaced with story pages by writer Tony Isabella, penciler John Cleary and inker Armando Gil. Kirby's contribution may have been drawn in the 1970s, as one historian wrote: "The 1970s was the flowering of Jack's interest in the paranormal. Freed from the restraints of more conservative collaborators, Jack delved into these themes with gusto. ... [He] developed 'Satan's Six' around this time, although it didn't see the light of day until the Topps Kirbyverse campaign in the 1990s".[12] As well, the covers of the Bombast, Captain Glory, and NightGlider[13] one-shots noted below were built around preexisting Kirby character designs.

Along with Secret City Saga and Satan's Six, the Kirbyverse titles were:

Kurt Busiek, in an undated interview, gave some background on the comics line: Template:Quote

In 2000, the Kirby estate said Dark Horse Entertainment had optioned Satan's Six as a film property.[14]

In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment published a comic book series titled Kirby: Genesis that represented a reboot of the Kirbyverse.[15]

List of Topps Comics publications

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Note: Most, but not all, of these were designed as limited series.

Original series

Kirbyverse comics

  • Bombast #1 (April 1993, one-shot)
  • Captain Glory #1 (April 1993, one-shot)
  • Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga #0—4 (April—August 1993)
  • Jack Kirby's Silver Star #1 (October 1993, planned four-issue miniseries, truncated)
  • Jack Kirby's TeenAgents #1—4 (August—November 1993)
  • NightGlider #1 (April 1993, one-shot)
  • Satan's Six #1—4 (April—July 1993)
  • Satan's Six: Hellspawn #1—3 (June—July 1994)
  • Victory #1 (June 1994; planned five-issue miniseries, truncated)

Literary adaptations/tie-ins

Film adaptations/tie-ins

TV series/radio series adaptations/tie-ins

  • Duckman #1—5 (November 1994—May 1995) and 0 (February 1996)
  • Duckman: The Mob Frog Saga #1—3 (November 1994—February 1995)
  • Exosquad #0—1 (January 1994)
  • Hercules: The Legendary Journeys #1—5 (June—October 1996)
  • The Lone Ranger and Tonto #1—4 (August—November 1994)
  • The Marriage of Hercules and Xena #1 (July 1998)
  • Space: Above and Beyond #1—3 (January—March 1996)
  • Space: Above and Beyond — The Gauntlet #1—2 (May—June 1996)
  • The X-Files #1—41 (Jan. 1995 – Sept. 1998) and 0 (an adaptation of the series' pilot episode)
  • The X-Files Annual #1—2 (August 1995; 1996)
  • The X-Files Comics Digest #1—3 (December 1995—September 1996)
  • The X-Files: Fight the Future #1 (July 1998, an adaptation of the spin-off feature film)
  • The X-Files: Ground Zero #1—4 (December 1997—March 1998, an adaptation of the spin-off novel by Kevin J. Anderson)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess #1—2 (August—September 1997) and 0 (October 1997)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: Blood Lines #1—2 (May—June 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: The Dragon's Teeth #1—3 (December 1997—February 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: The Orpheus Trilogy #1—3 (March—May 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: The Wrath of Hera #1—2 (September—October 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: Year One #1 (August 1997)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess and the Original Olympics #1—3 (June—August 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess vs. Callisto #1—3 (February—March 1998)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess/Joxer: Warrior Prince #1—3 (November 1997—January 1998)

Trading card adaptations/tie-ins

  • Mars Attacks #1—5 (May—October 1994, limited series)
  • Mars Attacks (volume 2) #1—7 (August 1995—May 1996, ongoing series)
  • Mars Attacks #1/2 (1995, co-published with Wizard magazine)
  • Mars Attacks #11 / Wizard Ace Edition #65 (1996, co-published with Wizard magazine)
  • Mars Attacks Baseball Special #1 (June 1996)
  • Mars Attacks High School #1—2 (May—September 1997)
  • Mars Attacks Image #1—4 (December 1996—April 1997, published through Image Comics)
  • Mars Attacks The Savage Dragon #1—4 (December 1996—March 1997)

Other

  • Topps Comics Presents #0 (June 1993)
  • Topps Comics Preview #1 (March 1994)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bryant, Adam (March 27, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; Topps to Start Publishing Comic Books". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gabilliet, Jean-Paul; translated by Bart Beaty; Nick Nguyen (2009). "The Collapse of 1993–1996". Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 148–151. ISBN 978-1604732672.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Topps Enters Comics". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 149. Mar 1992. p. 23.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Topps Comics Announces First Title". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 150. May 1992. pp. 13–33.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.O'Neill, Patrick Daniel (January 1993). "Getting Your Teeth into Dracula". Wizard (17): 61–63.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)". The Comic Book Database. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Topps Launches New Kirby Titles". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 158. Apr 1993. p. 27.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Twilight at Topps". The Collected Jack Kirby Collector. 5. TwoMorrows Publishing: 149–152. 2006.
  9. ^ "Who's Who at NSU", Non-Sport Update, n.d. WebCitation archive.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Topps Launches New Kirby Titles". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 158. Apr 1993. p. 27.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sullivan, Darcy (Oct 1993). "Ceci n'est pas Jack Kirby: Topps, Kirby and the Ecstasy of the Moolahverse". The Comics Journal. No. 162. pp. 90–95.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Knowles, Chris (December 1996). "The Kirby-Files: An Overview of Jack's Occult and Supernatural Themes". Jack Kirby Collector (13). Archived from the original on September 5, 2001.
  13. ^ Sources disagree on its spelling, sometimes even within the same source: The cover of the single issue itself appears to spell it "NightGlider". The cover of Victory #1 likewise spells it as one word, though in an all-caps typeface. The Grand Comics Database entry spells it as both "Nightglider" and "Night Glider". The archived pulldown title-search menu at the Jack Kirby Museum site spells it "Night Glider".
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Tracy Kirby Interview". Jack Kirby Collector (28). April 2000. Archived from the original on February 11, 2001.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Kirby: Genesis". Comic Book Resources. May 29, 2011. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Topps Releases Posthumous Kurtzman". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 158. Apr 1993. p. 27.

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