Deluxe Comics was a short-lived comic book publishing company known for publishing one title, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Lodestone Publishing, Inc., an imprint of Deluxe,[2] published a few other series, notably taking over from other publishers such titles as Futurians and Evangeline.
Deluxe/Lodestone operated in the period 1984 to 1986.
History
Deluxe Comics was a division of Singer Publishing, founded by David M. Singer (11 February 1957–24 August 2013).[3]
In 1984, Deluxe began publishing new issues of Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, about a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. The singer claimed the group was in the public domain, a claim disputed by John Carbonaro of JC Comics.[4] In 1981, JC Comics had acquired the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents rights from defunct publisher Tower Comics (which had gone out of business in 1969; Wood had died in 1981). JC Comics had published several issues of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents in 1983, the last of which through Archie Comics' Red Circle Comics line.[5]
A lawsuit initiated by Carbonaro was eventually settled in United States district court in favor of Carbonaro,[6] with Singer acknowledging Carbonaro's registered copyrights and trademark. Under the settlement, Carbonaro also received, among other things, an assignment of all rights to Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, previously published by Singer, and an undisclosed sum of money.[5]
Closure
Deluxe Comics/Lodestone closed its doors in 1986 when several major distributors failed to pay sizeable past-due invoices.[5]
↑ Heintjes, Tom (June 1985). "Newswatch: Deluxe suspends T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents; bedeviled by fake news releases". The Comics Journal. No.99. pp.20–22.
↑ Heintjes, Tom (January 1986). "Independents news: Eclipse, First, Fantagraphics Books, and WaRP". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No.104. p.21. ISSN0194-7869. Evangeline news: Creators Judith Hunt and Chuck Dixon have completed negotiations with various publishers, and Deluxe Comics has come up with the rights to publish Evangeline.
↑ Heintjes, Tom; Thompson, Kim (February 1985). "Deluxe Comics adds two new titles". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No.95. p.21. ISSN0194-7869.
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing reviews of the products of the mainstream comics industry, the magazine promotes the view that comics are a fine art, meriting broader cultural respect, and thus should be evaluated with higher critical standards.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. They were an arm of the United Nations and were notable for their depiction of the heroes as everyday people whose heroic careers were merely their day jobs. The series was also notable for featuring some of the better artists of the day, such as Wallace Wood and Gil Kane. The team first appeared in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1. The name is an acronym for "The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves". The team has appeared in several versions via several publishers since the early 1980s.
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Tower Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1965 to 1969, best known for Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a strange combination of secret agents and superheroes; and Samm Schwartz's Tippy Teen, an Archie Andrews clone. The comics were published by Harry Shorten and edited by Schwartz and Wood. Tower Comics was part of Tower Publications, a paperback publisher at that point best known for their Midwood Books line of soft-core erotic fiction aimed at male readers.
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