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122-587: Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm ) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1998. Until it was shut down in 2010, the Wildstorm imprint remained editorially separate from DC Comics, with its main studio located in California . The imprint took its name from

244-487: A naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons - heroes who squabbled and worried about the likes of paying the rent. In contrast to the super-heroic do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered in a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko , Don Heck , and others, complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style became very popular among teenagers and college students who could identify with

366-493: A tabloid -sized, 10-by-15-inch (250 mm × 380 mm), 36-page magazine with a card-stock, non-glossy cover. An anthology , it mixed humor features such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger" with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the " yellow-peril " adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu -styled villain, Fang Gow. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought

488-491: A Siegel/Shuster creation from the slush pile and used it as the cover feature (but only as a backup story) in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). The duo's alien hero, Superman , was dressed in a cape and colorful tights. The costume, influenced by Flash Gordon 's attire from 1934, evoked circus aerial performers and circus strongmen, and Superman became the archetype of the " superheroes " that would follow. In early 1939,

610-498: A Wildcats 3.0: Coup D'État one-shot was released. After guest-starring in Superman books, in 2004 DC published a Mr. Majestic mini-series to test waters for an ongoing series that ran for 17 issues. Wildcats starred in a limited series by Robbie Morrison and Talent Caldwell entitled Wildcats: Nemesis , focusing on Zealot, Majestic, and the Coda continuity, while heavily spotlighting

732-592: A back-up story in the Eye of the Storm titles. A new ongoing Authority series began the storyline of the Coup d'état crossover, which ran through Authority , Sleeper , Stormwatch: Team Achilles and Wildcats 3.0. Two Winter Special anthologies also came out. Most of the line, except Sleeper , were canceled two years after their introduction. In 2004 , WildStorm revamped its array of sub-imprints. The core titles were grouped into

854-544: A coda to that series and a prequel to his Authority run, having very little to do with the Wildcats themselves. The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0 , was a part of the mature readers' Eye of the Storm imprint, dealing with Spartan's (now Jack Marlowe) agenda to better the world by proliferating advanced technology and power sources throughout the world via the HALO Corporation. Grifter was his troubleshooter and Agent Wax

976-718: A collection of English-language newspaper inserts originally published in Europe as the 1837 book Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois by Rodolphe Töpffer . The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the US, 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

1098-502: A fairly continuity-heavy crossover that resolved plotlines regarding Team One , Team 7 , and Kaizen Gamorra. Alan Moore, Mike Lopez and Al Rio spun Voodoo off in a four-issue mini-series that dealt with voodoo magic, while Moore also wrote a time-traveling WildC.A.T.s/ Spawn crossover mini-series drawn by Scott Clark and inked by Sal Regla. At the time, Grifter had another turn at an ongoing series, this time written by Steven Grant and drawn by Mel Rubi and Michael Ryan , while Zealot

1220-488: A film based on The Authority was in development and would help form the basis of the new DCU . In November 2023, María Gabriela De Faría was cast to play The Engineer, a member of The Authority, in the forthcoming Superman film ahead of The Authority film. American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States , on average 32 pages, containing comics . While

1342-590: 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 remained the dominant character archetype throughout the late 20th century into the 21st century. Some fans collect comic books, helping drive up their value. Some have sold for more than US$ 1 million. Comic shops cater to fans, selling comic books, plastic sleeves ("bags") and cardboard backing ("boards") to protect

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1464-450: A grittier tone during its 28-issue run. The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0 , revolved around the HALO Corporation, its CEO Jack Marlowe (an amalgamation of original team members Spartan and Void), Grifter , and a gallery of new characters subverting corporate politics to their cause of creating a better world. This incarnation lasted 24 issues and was followed by a nine-issue limited series titled Wildcats: Nemesis , which returned to

1586-476: A license for the lucrative Star Wars license, but lost to the incumbent Dark Horse Comics . Due to declining sales across the U.S. comics industry, and his view that his role as publisher and growing family demands interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left Image Comics and sold WildStorm to DC Comics in late 1998, enabling him to focus once again on art. The deal went into effect in January 1999. DC hailed

1708-400: A line of creator-owned comic books which included such popular works as: J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl , Joe Madureira's Battle Chasers , Humberto Ramos ' Crimson and Out There , Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo 's Steampunk , Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco 's Arrowsmith , Busiek's Astro City and Warren Ellis 's Two-Step and Tokyo Storm Warning . 1997 also saw

1830-596: A million copies a month each; comics provided very popular cheap entertainment during World War II especially among soldiers, but with erratic quality in stories, art, and printing. In the early 1940s, over 90 percent of girls and boys from seven to seventeen read comic books. In 1941, H. G. Peter and William Moulton Marston , created the female superhero character Wonder Woman , who debuted in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) and Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman in 1942. MLJ 's Pep Comics debuted as

1952-473: A more superheroic style reminiscent of the first series. In late 2006, a fourth ongoing series was launched as a part of the Worldstorm publishing initiative. The series saw the return of Jim Lee as regular penciller for the first time since its first volume while Grant Morrison took over writing duties. Only one issue was ever published, with future issues placed on hold. In mid-2008, the fifth volume of Wildcats

2074-433: A new imprint titled America's Best Comics as a showcase for Alan Moore . The line includes the titles Promethea , The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , Tomorrow Stories , Tom Strong and Top 10 . The studio launched Eye of the Storm in 2001 as an experiment. By this time, WildStorm had become largely a "mature readers" imprint. Joe Casey continued writing Wildcats , retitling it Wildcats 3.0 to reflect

2196-516: A pilot for a TV series for the WB Network was made. The pilot never aired and was not picked up as a series, although the pilot was later leaked on the internet. Stormwatch was relaunched as Stormwatch: Team Achilles , about a team of normal soldiers who combat rogue superheroes. Robbie Morrison wrote a one-shot featuring the Authority characters, titled "Scorched Earth" (2003). It was serialized as

2318-782: A portmanteau of the titles of the Jim Lee comic series WildC.A.T.S. and Stormwatch . Its main fictional universe, the Wildstorm Universe , featured costumed heroes . Wildstorm maintained a number of its core titles from its early period, and continued to publish material expanding its core universe. Its main titles included WildC.A.T.S , Stormwatch , Gen , Wetworks , and The Authority ; it also produced single-character-oriented series like Deathblow and Midnighter , and published secondary titles like Welcome to Tranquility . Wildstorm also published creator-owned material, and licensed properties from other companies, covering

2440-500: A profound impact upon the American comic-book industry. Their popularity, along with mainstream media attention and critical acclaim, combined with changing social tastes, led to a considerably darker tone in comic books during the 1990s nicknamed by fans as the "grim-and-gritty" era. The growing popularity of antiheroes such as Wolverine and the Punisher exemplified this change, as did

2562-442: A promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed 10,000 copies. The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks , Kinney Shoes , Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000. Also in 1933, Gaines and Wildenberg collaborated with Dell to publish

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2684-480: A revamp of all the Wildstorm Universe titles, including comic-books by writers such as: Alan Moore , Warren Ellis , Adam Warren , Sean Phillips , and Joe Casey . After this revamp the new Wildcats series, Stormwatch and DV8 took the places of the most popular and most commercially successful comics of the Wildstorm Universe. Wildstorm also made a presentation to Lucasfilm Ltd. in an attempt to obtain

2806-577: A single WildStorm imprint, and discarding the "Universe" and "Signature Series" imprints. In 2007 , the WildStorm fictional universe became "Earth-50", part of the DC Comics Multiverse . In April 2008 , Ben Abernathy announced that the events of Wildstorm: Revelations , Wildstorm: Armageddon and Number of the Beast would segue into Wildstorm: World's End , a post-apocalyptic direction for

2928-570: A storyline with an organization called Puritans as the main villains. The Puritans' goal was to eradicate the Kherubim and Daemonites on Earth by traveling back in time and erasing killing them before the aliens could influence global events. A new line-up of WildC.A.T.s traveled in time to stop the Puritans, and had various adventures throughout different time periods. After the first series' cancellation, WildStorm, now an imprint of DC Comics , resurrected

3050-421: A sub-imprint of Image. He explained: "During the startup of Image Comics, I incorporated my business activities under the name Aegis Entertainment. As Aegis grew and the marketplace changed, I decided a new name would more accurately define the nature of the titles we produce". In conjunction with the name change, former DC editor Bill Kaplan was brought in to oversee production and scheduling, in an effort to combat

3172-520: A superhero, science-fiction and adventure anthology, but after the title introduced the teen-humor feature "Archie" in 1942, the feature's popularity would soon eclipse all other MLJ properties, leading the publisher to rename itself Archie Comics . Following the end of World War II, the popularity of superheroes greatly diminished, while the comic-book industry itself expanded. A few well-established characters such as Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman continued to sell, but DC canceled series starring

3294-553: A tale split between Savant and Majestic's replacement team on Earth and the original team journeying to Khera. The Kherubim had won the Daemonite-Kherubim war and were living in prosperity. Appearances were deceiving, however, and it was apparent the planet was run by power-hungry politicians who had ruthlessly subjugated the Daemonites as second-class citizens. Voodoo, with her Daemonite blood, experienced this firsthand. Maul's race

3416-503: A team consisting of Majestros, Zannah, Cole Cash and Kenesha. A team which would later be adjourned by former WildC.A.T.s mainstays such as Jeremy, Reno and Priscilla while battling the mutated human forces of the Brotherhood of the Sword. With the "World's End" crossover, original Wildcats Spartan, Zealot, Voodoo, Grifter, Maul, Nemesis and Warblade were brought together again to help save what

3538-494: A ten-cent pricetag [ sic ] on the comic books". When Delacorte declined to continue with Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (cover-dated July 1934), a 68-page giant selling for 10¢. Distributed to newsstands by the mammoth American News Company , it proved a hit with readers during the cash-strapped Great Depression , selling 90 percent of its 200,000 print, although putting Eastern Color more than $ 4,000 in

3660-402: A third of all North American sales in the early 1950s. Its 90 titles averaged a circulation of 800,000 copies per title for every issue, with Walt Disney's Comics and Stories peaking at a circulation of three million a month in 1953. Eleven of the top 25 bestselling comic books at the time were Dell titles. Out of 40 publishers active in 1954, Dell, Atlas (i.e. Marvel), DC, and Archie were

3782-503: 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 , and 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

WildStorm - Misplaced Pages Continue

3904-751: A way to keep their presses running. Like The Funnies , but only eight pages, this appeared as a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate , the Ledger Syndicate , and the Bell-McClure Syndicate . These included such popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith 's Mutt and Jeff , Ham Fisher 's Joe Palooka , and Percy Crosby 's Skippy . Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands , but rather sent it out free as

4026-557: A wide variety of genres . Its creator-owned titles included Red Menace , A God Somewhere , and Ex Machina , while its licensed titles included Friday the 13th , A Nightmare on Elm Street , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , StarCraft , the Dante's Inferno game, The X-Files , and the God of War video game series. DC shut down the Wildstorm imprint in December 2010. In September 2011,

4148-456: A year. In 1929, Dell Publishing (founded by George T. Delacorte, Jr. ) 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

4270-534: Is collected in the JLA: Ultramarine Corps trade. Both WildC.A.T.S Covert Action Teams: Compendium and A Gathering of Eagles are out of print. New printings of the trade paperbacks WildC.A.T.s: Homecoming and WildC.A.T.s: Gang War were published in 1999 after the late 1998 acquisition of WildStorm Productions by DC Comics ; as of 2009, both volumes have now sold out and are currently out of print. In August 2007 Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S TPB

4392-602: Is on a secret mission, and Maul has retired to his civilian identity. Kaizen Gamorra returned as the villain, aided by the WildCats' first enemy, Helspont. However, the title was permanently put on hold after only three issues. In July 2008 Wildstorm debuted a new ongoing WildCats series written by Christos Gage and pencilled by Neil Googe following on from the imprint's Number of the Beast mini-series. Adam Beechen took over writing duties from Gage in late 2009, with he and artist Tim Seeley starting with issue #19 until

4514-460: Is taken symbolically as the beginning of a new era, although his success was not immediate. It took two years for the Flash to receive his own title, and Showcase itself was only a bimonthly book, though one which was to introduce a large number of enduring characters. By 1959, the slowly building superhero revival had become clear to DC's competitors. Archie jumped on board that year, and Charlton joined

4636-649: The Flash and Green Lantern and converted All-American Comics and All Star Comics to Western titles, and Star Spangled Comics to a war title. The publisher also launched such science-fiction titles as Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space . Martin Goodman 's Timely Comics , also known as Atlas, canceled its three formerly high-selling superhero titles starring Captain America (created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ),

4758-601: The Human Torch , and the Sub-Mariner , briefly reviving the characters in 1954 only to cancel them again shortly thereafter to focus on horror, science fiction, teen humor, romance and Western genres. Romance comics became strongly established, with Prize Comics ' Young Romance and with Young Love , the latter written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; those two titles' popularity led to an explosion of romance comics from many publishers. Dell 's comic books accounted for

4880-670: The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held hearings on comic book indecency from April to June 1954. In the wake of these troubles, a group of comics publishers, led by National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media". A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on

5002-657: The Yellow Kid . The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend , measured 5 by 7 inches (130 mm × 180 mm) 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 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -by-9-inch (220 mm × 230 mm) format, it reprinted black-and-white newspaper comic strips and lasted

WildStorm - Misplaced Pages Continue

5124-801: The crossover limited series DC/Wildstorm: DreamWar one of the earliest times where DC and WildStorm characters would appear together. The six-issue comic book limited series was written by Keith Giffen , drawn by Lee Garbett , and published by DC Comics . The Stormwatch: PHD title ended in November 2009. The remaining series each received another creative-team shake-up as 2010 began: February's The Authority #18 by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman with art by Al Barrionuevo , Wildcats #19 by Adam Beechen with art by Tim Seeley and Ryan Winn , and April's Gen #35 by Phil Hester and art by Cruddie Torian . WildStorm varied its publishing with licensed properties, such as: A Nightmare on Elm Street , Friday

5246-542: The "WildStorm Universe" imprint, the creator-owned properties became the "WildStorm Signature Series" imprint, and all the licensed properties remained under the "WildStorm" imprint. Following Eye of the Storm , WildStorm published fewer WildStorm Universe titles, including Majestic and Wildcats: Nemesis ; Majestic was based on a character that had appeared in DC Comics Superman titles. In August 2006 , WildStorm simplified its "brand" by returning all content to

5368-434: The 13th , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , Mirror's Edge , World of Warcraft , The X-Files , Dante's Inferno , and God of War . WildStorm has also published original graphic novels from writers Kevin J. Anderson , John Ridley and David Brin . The imprint was shut down in December 2010, with Wildcats (vol. 5) #30 as its last issue, although DC Comics announced that the characters would reappear some time in

5490-520: The 1960s, DC, and then Marvel, began to include writer and artist credits on the comics that they published. Other notable companies publishing comics during the Silver Age included the American Comics Group (ACG), Charlton , Dell , Gold Key , Harvey Comics , and Tower . Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were featured, as the anti-authoritarian underground comix made waves in 1968, following

5612-457: The 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic-book specialty stores across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. In the mid-to-late 1980s, two series published by DC Comics , Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen , had

5734-542: The 1990s changing the format and distribution of their comic books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The " minicomics " form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing , arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even 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 ,

5856-515: The 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , which historians consider the first true American comic book; Goulart, for example, calls it "the cornerstone for one of the most lucrative branches of magazine publishing". Distribution took place through the Woolworth's department-store chain, though it remains unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover displays no price, but Goulart refers, either metaphorically or literally, to "sticking

5978-580: The American comic book has been adapted periodically outside the United States, especially in Canada and the United Kingdom . While comics can be the work of a single creator, the labor of creating them is frequently 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. Particularly in superhero comic books,

6100-675: The CCA) stopped publishing crime and horror titles, which was their entire business, and were forced out of the market altogether, turning to magazine publishing instead. By 1960, output had stabilized at about 1,500 releases per year (representing a greater than fifty percent decline since 1952). The dominant comic book genres of the post-CCA 1950s were funny animals, humor, romance , television properties, and Westerns . Detective, fantasy , teen, and war comics were also popular, but adventure, superheroes, and comic strip reprints were in decline, with Famous Funnies seeing its last issue in 1955. In

6222-620: The Ladytron one shot, a farsic rendition of her past, as well as a Mister Majestic ongoing series which ran for nine issues. Wild Times: Wildcats and Wild Times: Grifter were published as one-shots as a part of the crossover series Wild Times that spotlighted the characters in Elseworlds -like alternate reality scenarios that blended genres. Wildcats also participated in the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover written by Stormwatch's Warren Ellis that served as

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6344-587: The Modern Horror age. But as of 2009 historians and fans use " Bronze Age " to describe the period of American mainstream comics history that began with the period of concentrated changes to comic books in 1970. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involves many continuing books, making the transition less sharp. The development of the " direct market " distribution system in

6466-558: The National Park Service. Warblade was featured very briefly, last seen in the Wildcats 2000 annual that brought back the dead version Condition Red killing Olympia. Casey and Phillips signaled the new Wildstorm, critically acclaimed but low on readers' radar. The heroes fought Samuel Smith (a superhuman serial killer whose grandfather had appeared in Team One: WildC.A.T.s) after which eventually Zealot returned. Casey also wrote

6588-630: The Superman crossover story arc Warworld Saga . A 12 issue WildC.A.T.S series by Matthew Rosenberg and Stephen Segovia ran from 2022 to 2023. The 2023 series Birds of Prey features WildC.A.T.S member Zealot, and the new Outsiders series relaunches the Wildstorm title Planetary with a new version of the character The Drummer as well as the Authority's sentient home The Carrier. The 2023 DC Black Label mini-series Waller vs. Wildstorm featured Wildstorm characters such as Team 7 and Stormwatch . In 2023, James Gunn of DC Studios announced that

6710-674: The WildC.A.T.s characters they released in 1993. In 1995, Wildstorm created an imprint called Homage Comics , centered on more writer-driven books. The imprint started with Kurt Busiek 's Astro City and The Wizard's Tale , James Robinson's Leave It to Chance (with Paul Smith), and Terry Moore 's Strangers In Paradise . Subsequently, the imprint featured works by Sam Kieth , including The Maxx , Zero Girl and Four Women , three of Warren Ellis ' pop-comics mini-series, Mek , Red , and Reload , and Jeff Mariotte 's weird western Desperadoes . In 1997, Cliffhanger debuted

6832-500: The Wildcats under a whole different premise—Wildcats dealt with the lives of the original members after the team's breakup following a botched mission during which team member Zealot apparently died. Scott Lobdell provided the writing for the initial seven issues as well as a Mosaic one-shot detailing the change in Lord Emp, with Travis Charest penciling most of them. New villains like Kenyan and CC Rendozzo were featured as antagonists, but it

6954-542: The Wildstorm universe altogether. Wildcats: Nemesis was a 9-issue miniseries, published from November 2005 to July 2006. Written by Robbie Morrison and illustrated by various artists, it featured Nemesis and Wildcats. In 2006 it was collected into a trade paperback ( ISBN   978-1-4012-1105-9 ). In 2006, as part of the "Worldstorm" line-wide event, the title was restarted, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Jim Lee . The team consisted of Spartan, Mr. Majestic , Zealot, Grifter, Voodoo, Savant, and Ladytron. Warblade

7076-407: The angsty and irreverent nature of characters like Spider-Man , Hulk , X-Men and Fantastic Four . This was a time of social upheaval, giving birth to a new generation of hip and more counter-cultural youngsters, who found a voice in these books. Because Marvel's books were distributed by its rival, National, from 1957 until 1968 Marvel were restricted to publishing only eight titles a month. This

7198-440: The apex of a speculator-fueled comics sales boom and was wildly popular at its inception, with wholesale sales to comic book stores above one million copies for early issues. This first series ran for 50 issues, and in addition to Lee, featured work by comics creators such as Travis Charest , Chris Claremont , James Robinson and Alan Moore . This popularity saw the property expand into other media, with an animated adaptation of

7320-408: The art may be divided between: The process begins with the writer (often in collaboration with one or more others, who may include the editor and/or the penciller) coming up with a story idea or concept, then working it up into a plot and storyline , finalizing it with a script . After the art is prepared, the dialogue and captions are lettered onto the page from the script, and an editor may have

7442-471: The bandwagon in 1960. In 1961, at the demand of publisher Martin Goodman (who was reacting to a surge in sales of National's newest superhero title The Justice League of America ), writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Atlas, which now re-named itself Marvel Comics . With an innovation that changed the comic-book industry, Fantastic Four #1 initiated

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7564-402: The book's cancellation in December 2010 with #30. In November 2022 ( cover date January 2023), DC debuted WildC.A.T.s the second volume to feature the same abbreviated stylization in the title as the first series in 1992. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Stephen Segovia, it sees Grifter working for the HALO Corporation to assemble a group of operatives to embark upon missions in

7686-751: The book, he did the four-issue Gathering of Eagles storyline written by his Uncanny X-Men writer, Chris Claremont . It featured a new villain Tapestry and added the characters of Mister Majestic , Savant, and Soldier, and featured Claremont's creator-owned character, Huntsman. Almost all of the characters were spun off into their own mini-series, with Zealot featured in a series by Ron Marz and Terry Shoemaker, Spartan in one by Kurt Busiek and Mike McKone , Warblade sharing another with Cyberforce 's Ripclaw , Grifter co-starred in The Kindred 's limited series with Stormwatch's Backlash by Brett Booth that led to

7808-418: The card game, Wildstorms: The Expandable Super-Hero Card Game produced between 1995 - 1997, which was later spun off into a crossover set of cards with Marvel. The crossover was the swan song for the Wildstorm game as Marvel's merchandising clout succeeded in pushing Wildstorm's out of the spotlight. Although the timing was right for their card game, they were too early by a year with a Pog game which used

7930-719: The cast, while WildC.A.T.s villain Helspont appeared in Superman #7 and #8, Grunge appeared in Superboy #8, Zealot appeared in Deathstroke #9, and Spartan appeared in Team 7 #5. Midnighter was a recurring character in Grayson , before spinning off into his own ongoing series. Midnighter and Apollo also appeared in a 6-issue miniseries, Midnighter and Apollo . On February 16, 2017, Wildstorm

8052-505: The closing chapters of the arc. WildC.A.T.s ' story continued in a three-part mini-series, penciled by Jae Lee, that introduced the Daemonite Lord Hightower. Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri proceeded to publish a 'Killer Instinct' crossover detailing Warblade's connection to Marc Silvestri's Cyber Force . Jim Lee devoted his time to coming up with the new concepts of Gen13 , Deathblow , and Stormwatch . Before he left

8174-494: The comic books. An American comic book is also known as a floppy comic . It is typically thin and stapled, unlike traditional books . American comic books are one of the three major comic book industries globally, along with Japanese manga and the Franco-Belgian comic books . The typical size and page count of comics have varied over the decades, generally tending toward smaller formats and fewer pages. Historically,

8296-420: The comic debuting on CBS in 1994 and a toyline from Playmates Toys . In 1998, ownership of the Wildcats concepts and characters were sold to DC Comics , a subsidiary of Time Warner , as part of DC's acquisition of Lee's company Wildstorm Productions . A new incarnation of the team was soon launched under the simplified title Wildcats , focusing on the former members of the now-disbanded team and emphasizing

8418-529: The comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster , the future creators of Superman . The two began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval", doing the first two installments before turning it over to others and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", they created the supernatural -crimefighter adventure Doctor Occult . In 1938, after Wheeler-Nicholson's partner Harry Donenfeld had ousted him, National Allied editor Vin Sullivan pulled

8540-460: The company relaunched its entire superhero line with a rebooted continuity in an initiative known as The New 52 , which included Wildstorm characters incorporated into that continuity with its long-standing DC characters. In February 2017 Wildstorm was revived as a standalone universe with The Wild Storm , by writer Warren Ellis . However, the characters were reintroduced to DC continuity in 2021. Wildstorm, founded by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi ,

8662-432: The countercultural era. Legal issues and paper shortages led to a decline in underground comix output from its 1972 peak. In 1974 the passage of anti-paraphernalia laws in the US led to the closing of most head shops, which throttled underground comix distribution. Its readership also dried up as the hippie movement itself petered out in the mid-1970s. Wizard originally used the phrase "Bronze Age", in 1995, to denote

8784-459: The country. Some cities passed laws banning comic books entirely. In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his book Seduction of the Innocent , where he discussed what he perceived as sadistic and homosexual undertones in horror comics and superhero comics respectively, and singled out EC Comics due to its success as a publisher of these genres. In response to growing public anxiety,

8906-564: The darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics , Dark Horse Comics , and (founded in the 1990s) Image Comics . This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as " A Death in the Family " in the Batman series (in which The Joker brutally murdered Batman's sidekick Robin ), while at Marvel the continuing popularity of

9028-479: The decision as one that would "strengthen both WildStorm's ability to expand its editorial goals and diversifying DC's output". WildStorm was editorially separate from DC Comics, and the two companies maintained offices on opposite coasts: Wildstorm in California , and DC in New York City . DC's acquisition of WildStorm allowed their respective universes to co-exist, and characters from either universe could appear in

9150-471: The early days of comic books, this practice had all but vanished during the 1940s and 1950s. Comic books were produced by comic book companies rather than by individual creators (EC being a notable exception, a company that not only credited its creative teams but also featured creators' biographies). Even comic books by revered and collectible artists like Carl Barks were not known by their creator's name— Disney comics by Barks were signed " Walt Disney ". In

9272-444: The final say (but, once ready for printing, it is difficult and expensive to make any major changes), before the comic is sent to the printer. The creative team, the writer and artist(s), may work for a comic book publisher who handles the marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A wholesale distributor, such as Diamond Comic Distributors , the largest in the US, distributes the printed product to retailers. Another aspect of

9394-416: The first issue of their eponymous comic book WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams , published by Image Comics . It was Image founding partner Jim Lee's first work published by the newly launched company, and his first creator-owned project. The Wildcats were the starting point for Lee's menagerie of interconnected superhero creations which became the foundation of the Wildstorm Universe. The Wildcats launched at

9516-449: 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 rapidly expanded and genres such as horror, crime, science fiction and romance became popular. The 1950s saw

9638-794: The future. DC Comics relaunched its DC Universe imprint in September 2011, which included the integration of the WildStorm characters into the DC Universe. The initial wave of relaunched titles included: Voodoo and Grifter solo series, a revived Stormwatch title featuring Jack Hawksmoor , Midnighter , Apollo , the Engineer , and Jenny Quantum , and a revived version of Team 7 with non-WildStorm characters Deathstroke , Amanda Waller and Black Canary . The Teen Titans spin-off title The Ravagers featured Caitlin Fairchild and Warblade as part of

9760-554: The heroes try to gain control of the Daemonite battleship, which turned out to be the Kheran ship instead, with WildC.A.T.s eventually leaving for Khera. Following a Grifter one-shot, the crossover gave birth to a short-lived Steven Seagle-written Grifter series that centered on his super-spy/superhero adventures while linking to an obscure Team One character Regiment at one point. Alan Moore then took over writing duties, and proceeded to tell

9882-483: The introduction of the Comics Code Authority in the wake of Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency , which, ignoring the social problems caused by the wars of 1939–45 and 1950–52, sought to blame those problems solely on comics. While there was only a 9% drop in the number of releases between 1952 and 1953, circulation plummeted by an estimated 30–40%. The cause of the decrease is not entirely clear. Television had begun to provide competition with comic books, but there

10004-623: The late 1940s and early 1950s horror and true-crime comics flourished, many containing graphic violence and gore. Due to such content, moral crusaders became concerned with the impact of comics on the youth, and were blaming comic books for everything from poor grades to juvenile delinquency to drug abuse. This perceived indecency resulted in the collection and public burning of comic books in Spencer, West Virginia and Binghamton, New York in 1948, which received national attention and triggered other public burnings by schools and parent groups across

10126-475: The latter's ongoing title, as well as another with Youngblood's Badrock , Billy Tucci's Shi , and even Dark Horse's the Mask . James Robinson wrote a handful of issues as well as a Team One Stormwatch/WildC.A.T.s mini-series detailing the past of the Wildstorm universe and would go on to write the Wildcats' first annual. The title also participated in the WildC.A.T.s-oriented " Wildstorm Rising " crossover that saw

10248-482: The line. In July of the same year, Christos Gage and Neil Googe published a new WildCats: World's End #1. There followed, in August 2008, a new Authority: World's End #1 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with art by Simon Coleby , Gen #21 by Scott Beatty with art by Mike Huddleson , and Stormwatch: PHD #13 by Ian Edginton with art by Leandro Fernández and Francisco Paronzini . That same year, DC releaseld

10370-501: The main characters were: While not specifically part of any WildC.A.T.s group, Mister Majestic would work with his own covert action team for a time when the Shapers Guild would attempt seize earth's Kherubim terraforming engine to make a new Khera. Members would include mainstays like Spartan, Zealot and Savant while also including: The introduction of rogue Kherubum warrior Lady Charis would be first adversarial too, then join up with

10492-433: The major players in volume of sales. By this point, former big-time players Fawcett and Fiction House had ceased publishing. Circulation peaked in 1952 when 3,161 issues of various comics were published with a total circulation of about one billion copies. After 1952, the number of individual releases dropped every year for the rest of the decade, with the biggest falls occurring in 1955–56. The rapid decline followed

10614-573: The most consistently, commercially successful comics from Image. These included Lee's own titles WildC.A.T.s and the teen-hero title Gen , illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. Like many other Image titles, some of the WildStorm titles suffered from inconsistent completion and shipping, resulting in "monthly" comics coming out every few months. This era produced a number of titles of varying popularity including Gen , WildC.A.T.s , Stormwatch , Deathblow , Cybernary , and Whilce Portacio's Wetworks . In late 1993, Lee launched Wildstorm Productions as

10736-528: The new Wildstorm universe anti-hero character of Nemesis. At the same time, Wildstorm published the Captain Atom: Armageddon maxi-series, heavily featuring the Wildcats as they tried to help DC character Captain Atom return to his universe and stop him from accidentally destroying their reality. Nikola, a female medic, became the new Void with Captain Atom sharing a part of the power that eventually remade

10858-417: The original team, rumored to be dead, had left for Khera, the Kherubim homeworld. This unlikely group broke from the WildC.A.T.s usual anti-Daemonite agenda and conducted a proactive war on criminals. This alienated them from many other characters in the Wildstorm universe. For a time Kenesha would drop out of the hero circuit and return to a life of Indiana Jones-lite spelunking for the hidden reliquary, along

10980-448: The outskirts of the DC Universe. Its first task is to round up an elite group of scientists, which puts the group into conflict with the scientists' mysterious leader, Void. The team also comes into conflict with a shadowy organization called the Court of Owls. The original WildC.A.T.s (Covert Action Team) consisted of: A second team was introduced later in the series. They were formed after

11102-500: The planet with "Half-Breeds". Daemonites, besides having a fearsome appearance, also possessed various superhuman abilities, including body possession and mental control over human beings. The initial arc brought Voodoo over to the team as the readers' point-of-view character as Helspont , a Daemonite warlord, had taken control over Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle . Rob Liefeld 's Youngblood co-starred in

11224-559: The process involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator(s). Fan art and letters to the editor were commonly printed in the back of the book, until, in the early 21st century, various Internet forums started to replace this tradition. The growth of comic specialty stores helped permit several waves of independently-produced comics, beginning in the mid-1970s. Some early examples of these – generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative" comics – such as Big Apple Comix , continued somewhat in

11346-525: The product. Paramount had international distribution rights, and later released the film only in a few foreign markets. Toys from both titles were less successful than those made by Todd McFarlane, partly due to poor marketing and partly because the McFarlane toys were targeted at a more mature audience. However, they had a big success copying Wizards of the Coast 's Magic: The Gathering with their introduction of

11468-505: The publication of Robert Crumb 's irregularly published Zap Comix . Frank Stack had published The Adventures of Jesus as far back as 1962, and there had been a trickle of such publications until Crumb's success. What had started as a self-publishing scene soon grew into a minor industry, with Print Mint , Kitchen Sink , Last Gasp and Apex Novelties among the more well-known publishers. These comix were often extremely graphic, and largely distributed in head shops that flourished in

11590-650: The red. That quickly changed, with the book turning a $ 30,000 profit each issue starting with #12. Famous Funnies would eventually run 218 issues, inspire imitators, and largely launch a new mass medium . When the supply of available existing comic strips began to dwindle, early comic books began to include a small amount of new, original material in comic-strip format. Inevitably, a comic book of all-original material, with no comic-strip reprints, debuted. Fledgling publisher Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications, which would evolve into DC Comics , to release New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935). This came out as

11712-620: The satirical Mad —a former comic book which was now converted to a magazine format in order to circumvent the Code. DC started a revival in superhero comics in 1956 with the October 1956 revival of its former golden age top-seller The Flash in Showcase #4. Many comics historians peg this as the beginning of the Silver Age of American comic books, although Marvel (at this point still known variously as both Timely and Atlas ) had started reviving some of its old superheroes as early as 1954. The new Flash

11834-402: The series over to Mark Millar . The Authority fused Silver Age superhero concepts with 1990s cynicism. In the 2004 Wildstorm crossover, Coup d'etat , the Authority takes control of the United States. Ellis and artist John Cassaday created Planetary , about "explorers of the strange", an experiment that merged pop culture, comic book history and literary characters. WildStorm launched

11956-686: The shift in tone. The new version was penciled by Dustin Nguyen with inks by Richard Friend. Gen was relaunched with a new first issue, written by X-Men's Chris Claremont. A Gen spinoff, 21 Down , was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray . After the Point Blank mini-series, Ed Brubaker developed the same themes into the critically acclaimed Sleeper , set in the WildStorm universe. In 2001 Warren Ellis began Global Frequency . The rights for Global Frequency were bought by Warner Bros. in 2004 and

12078-408: The size was derived from folding one sheet of Quarter Imperial paper (15 in × 11 in or 380 mm × 280 mm), to print 4 pages which were each 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 by 11 inches (190 mm × 280 mm). This also meant that the page count had to be some multiple of 4. In recent decades, standard comics have been trimmed at about 6.625 x 10.25 inches. The format of

12200-486: The source material, such as Voodoo being an adolescent rather than an ex-stripper and Lord Emp being an ordinary human. The group was composed of all the original 'C.A.T.s. The major villain was Helspont, but the Troika and the Coda were featured. A parody of the series, MadD.O.G.s, was seen during Alan Moore's run in the comics. The series was produced by Nelvana Limited and WildStorm Productions. A toyline from Playmates Toys

12322-407: The start, he is at least capable of stringing a story together. As long as you concentrate (a lot of characters and factions are introduced very quickly), it's an enjoyable if fairly linear tale. And of course, the art is simply stunning." A Wild C.A.T.s TV series was created in 1994. It had only thirteen episodes and a more family-friendly storyline. As a result, there were numerous changes from

12444-552: The studio to work on the first issue of Cyberforce . Although he worked at the studio, his projects would debut as the work of a new Image "partner studio" firm named Top Cow . Silvestri continued to work out of Wildstorm's studio for about two years. Although WildStorm considered attracting talent, such as John Romita Jr. , from the "Big Two", ( Marvel and DC ), Lee decided to find new talent instead. Lee's talent search yielded Brett Booth in 1992, and J. Scott Campbell in 1993. Apart from McFarlane's Spawn , Wildstorm produced

12566-406: The studio's problems with erratic publication schedules. His attempts to get the studio's characters into other media proved disappointing. A Saturday morning cartoon series of WildC.A.T.s lasted only a single season (1994–1995), while a full-length animated version of Gen was produced but never released in the United States. Disney had acquired the domestic distribution rights, but shelved

12688-729: The success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at National Comics Publications (the future DC Comics) to request more superheroes for its titles. In response, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman , who debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The period from the late 1930s through roughly the end of the 1940s is referred to by comic book experts as the Golden Age of comic books . It featured extremely large print-runs, with Action Comics and Captain Marvel selling over half

12810-417: The titles of either imprint. In 1999, WildStorm launched several new titles, including The Authority , a dark and violent superhero comic whose characters fought dirty and had little regard for the rights and lives of their opponents; their only goal was to make the world a better place. Warren Ellis created The Authority as a successor to Stormwatch . He wrote its first twelve issues before handing

12932-417: The tradition of the earlier 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. This so-called " small press " scene (a term derived from the limited quantity of comics printed in each press-run) continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in

13054-489: The various X-Men books led to storylines involving the genocide of superpowered "mutants" in allegorical stories about religious and ethnic persecution. In addition, published formats like the graphic novel and the related trade paperback enabled the comic book to gain some respectability as literature. As a result, these formats are now common in book retail and the collections of US public libraries . Wildcats (comics) The team first appeared in August 1992 in

13176-556: The way she would assemble her own team of adventurers with Majestros at her side. The team consisted of Grifter, Max Cash, Void, and an old Spartan unit activated by Grifter, possessing Hadrian's original personality, as well as new members: After a disastrous mission wherein Zealot faked her death to hunt down the earth Coda chapter. The Cat's, whittled down to Jacob and Spartan, would go on to recruit both old faces and new blood after Lord Emp had ascended. Besides Grifter and Jack Marlowe,

13298-408: Was a cloud with a silver lining, and proved the making of Marvel, allowing the company to concentrate its brightest and best talent on a small number of titles, at a time when its rivals were spreading their creative talents very thin across a huge number of monthly titles. The quality of Marvel's product soared in consequence, and sales soared with it. While the creators of comics were given credit in

13420-533: Was all dropped very quickly, with Charest leaving the monthly comic format to work on a French Metabarons graphic novel called Dreamshifters and Lobdell exiting a couple of issues later. As Joe Casey and Sean Phillips took over Wildcats, they quickly dealt away with Kenyan, while Void and Emp ended up having Spartan absorb their assets and powers; thus the book began a long spell featuring him aided by Ladytron and Grifter with Maul and Voodoo guest-starring, as well as new characters Noir, and Agents Wax and Mohr of

13542-464: Was also a rise in conservative values with the election in 1952 of Dwight Eisenhower . The Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body founded to curb the juvenile delinquency alleged to be due to the crime and horror comics, has often been targeted as the culprit, but sales had begun to drop the year before it was founded. The major publishers were not seriously harmed by the drop in sales, but smaller publishers were killed off: EC (the prime target of

13664-454: Was also released in 1994. The basic series included figures of Grifter, Helspont, Maul, Spartan, Warblade and Zealot, along with a generic Daemonite figure. In 1995, new versions of Helspont, Maul, Spartan, Warblade, and Zealot were released, along with figures of Pike, Void, and Voodoo, and a WildC.A.T.S. Bullet Bike accessory. In addition, Playmates also produced "giant" versions of Grifter, Maul, and Spartan, plus figures for other characters in

13786-460: Was also treated unjustly and though Emp and Zealot were seduced by promises of power and recognition, Spartan discovered the truth about Khera's corrupt leaders. It took the death of one of Maul's race for the WildC.A.T.s to leave and head back for Earth. Voodoo and Emp both left the team, while the remainder joined with Savant and Majestic's new team. Moore also participated in Fire From Heaven ,

13908-402: Was featured in a Backlash spinoff, Wildcore . Barbara Randall Kesel, Pasqual Ferry , Rich Johnson and Carlos D'Anda crafted a two-part storyline that, in effect, wrote Majestic, Savant and Ladytron out of the team, and set up the spin-off Savant Garde , written by Randall Kesel. Original scripter Brandon Choi returned alongside Johnathan Peterson and artists Mat Broome and Ed Benes for

14030-488: Was launched, tying into the World's End crossover event. Launched as an original Image comic book title by popular X-Men penciler Jim Lee and his friend writer Brandon Choi, the comic book's premise revolved around the centuries-long war between aliens called Kherubim and Daemonites. Kherubim, a nearly immortal, human-looking alien race with exceptional powers and skills, traveled to Earth and, by breeding with humans, populated

14152-568: Was left of the human race. Their membership also included Ladytron as well as a few new members: Nemesis subsequently went missing following the teams battle with Majestic, while Savant rejoined the team. Trade paperback collections: Vol. 1 #14 is collected in Savage Dragon Vol. 4: Possessed as it was done by Erik Larsen as part of Image X Month; #20 is also collected in the Wildstorm Rising trade paperback, while JLA/WildC.A.T.s

14274-419: Was officially revived with The Wild Storm #1 by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt , a 24 issue series that re-imagined the Wildstorm Universe. On October 11, 2017, Wildstorm launched a second series under The Wild Storm banner with the 12 issue mini-series The Wild Storm: Michael Cray by Bryan Hill . Following the conclusion of The Wild Storm DC Comics announced that a new Wildcats six issue mini-series

14396-459: Was one of his first associates. The stories added a motley group to this proactive organization including the power broker C.C. Rendozzo and her organization, Agent Orange, and Grifter's unlikely pupil Edwin Dolby, one of HALO's accountants. The series ended with a thunderous finale where Zealot, Marlowe, and a team assembled by Grifter destroyed the Coda chapter that Zealot had created on Earth. The series

14518-547: Was one of the founding studios that formed Image Comics in 1992. Image grew out of Homage Studios and was founded by artists Whilce Portacio , Jim Lee, Erik Larsen , Rob Liefeld , Todd McFarlane , Marc Silvestri , and Jim Valentino in San Diego, California . All but Portacio decided to become full partners in the new firm. At the time, Lee and Portacio were recognized for their work on various X-Men titles at Marvel Comics . In late 1992, penciller Marc Silvestri joined

14640-421: Was released, containing the contents of both Gang War and Homecoming TPBs, as well as the short story from WildC.A.T.S #50. Andy Butcher reviewed the first graphic novel compendium of WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams for Arcane magazine, rating it a 6 out of 10 overall. Butcher comments that "of all the artists who've tried to write, Lee is one of the more successful. Despite some confusing flashbacks at

14762-532: Was to debut August 28, 2019, again penned by Ellis with art by Ramon Villalobos, but was cancelled in 2019. Grifter, Apollo, and The Midnighter appeared in the alternate future timeline series Future State : Dark Detective in 2021. The Wildstorm characters were then officially reintroduced into DC Universe continuity later that year in Batman: Urban Legends #5 and Superman and The Authority . The new Authority team then appeared as supporting characters in

14884-465: Was written by Joe Casey and drawn by Dustin Nguyen , Duncan Rouleau , Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Pascual Ferry and Sean Phillips. Concurrent with Wildcats Version 3.0 , Wildstorm also published a critically acclaimed noir-superhero series Sleeper starring Alan Moore's Wildcats villain Tao, which also featured Grifter. As part of the crossover Coup D'État, centering on the Wildstorm Universe's United States,

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