Deluxe Comics was a short-lived

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

publishing company which published one title, ''Wally Wood's

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ''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 peop ...

''.

History

Deluxe Comics was a division of Singer Publishing, founded by David M. Singer (11 February 1957–24 August 2013). It lasted from 1984 to 1986.

''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' controversy

In 1984, Deluxe began publishing ''

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...

's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', featuring some of the best artists of the era, including

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (co ...

Dave Cockrum David Emmett Cockrum (; November 11, 1943 – November 26, 2006) was an American comics artist known for his co-creation of the new X-Men characters Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Mystique, as well as the antiheroine Black Cat. Cockrum was ...

Keith Giffen Keith Ian Giffen (born November 30, 1952) is an American comics artist and writer. He is known for his work for DC Comics on their ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' and ''Justice League'' titles as well as for being the co-creator of Lobo. Biography K ...

Murphy Anderson Murphy C. Anderson Jr. (July 9, 1926 – October 22, 2015) was an American comics artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the Golden Age of Comic Books in ...

and

Jerry Ordway Jeremiah Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining ''Crisis on Infinite Earths' ...

. Singer claimed the group was in the public domain, a claim disputed by

John Carbonaro JC Comics (also known as JC Productions) was a comic book company primarily involved with the post- Silver Age iteration of the characters the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. JC Comics was owned by John Carbonaro (Sept. 30, 1951 – Feb. 25, 2009). Histo ...

of JC Comics. In 1981, JC Comics had acquired the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents rights from defunct publisher

Tower Comics 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 Archi ...

(which had gone out of business in 1969). JC Comics had published several issues of ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' in 1983, the last of which through

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Red Circle Comics Dark Circle Comics is an imprint of Archie Comics Publications, Inc. Under its previous name, Red Circle Comics, it published non-humor characters, particularly superheroes in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a digital imprint from 2012 to 2014. In ...

line. A lawsuit initiated by Carbonaro was eventually settled in US District Court in favor of Carbonaro, 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.

Lodestone Comics

Lodestone Comics was a sister company of Deluxe Comics and in 1985–1986 published five short-lived titles: ''Codename Danger'', ''

Evangeline ''Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie'' is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during t ...

Special'', ''the

Futurians The Futurians were a group of science fiction (SF) fans, many of whom became editors and writers as well. The Futurians were based in New York City and were a major force in the development of science fiction writing and science fiction fandom i ...

'', the ''March Hare'', and a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

edition of ''

The Honeymooners ''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fol ...

''.Lodestone Comics
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...

Closure

Deluxe Comics/Lodestone closed its doors in 1986 when several major distributors failed to pay sizeable past-due invoices.

Notes

External links

* * * Comic book publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1984 {{comics-stub