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 ...
of the same name, published by Star Comics (an imprint of
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
). Top Dog was created by writer Lennie Herman and artist
. The series lasted for 14 issues, published from 1985 to 1987.
The series
Top Dog is a very intelligent, talking dog who befriends a human child named Joey Jordan. Top Dog goes on to live with Joey, who promises not to expose the fact that Top Dog can speak. The duo go on to have adventures involving spies, criminals and mad scientists, after it is revealed that Top Dog was formerly "Mr. X", a government agent who was valued for his intelligence, but had to disguise his canine nature with a cover ID and a full-body cloak. Amongst these adventures were several crossovers with other Star Comic characters such as Heathcliff and
Royal Roy
''Royal Roy: A Prince of a Boy'' was a 1985-1986 bimonthly comic book from Marvel Comics' younger-readers' imprint Star Comics. It was created by Lennie Herman and Warren Kremer.
Publication history
''Royal Roy'' began in April 1985 as an answer t ...
. One story even seemingly involved a
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
team-up. Although it was actually an actor in a Spider-Man suit, the real Peter Parker does make an appearance. The series ran for fourteen issues after which, the character continued to make appearances in ''Heathcliff'' comic books (starting in issue #22) in both crossovers and backup stories.
Top Dog reappeared in the 2009-2010
X-Babies
The X-Babies are a group of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are depicted as being Mojo-manufactured child clones of the X-Men. They first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men Annual'' #12 and were cre ...
miniseries ''Stars Reborn'', as both a copy of himself produced by Mr. Veech to throw the X-Babies off his trail, and an Earth-616 version of himself, who happens to be a cyborg canine, rather than just an intelligent talking dog.
Titles
''Top Dog''
The titles of the main 14-issue ''Top Dog'' series:
#"The Secret Life of Top Dog" (AKA "The Dog-Gone Beginning")
#"Spies"
#"Mad Biter"
#"Top Dog's Secret Past is Revealed" (AKA "The Secret of Top Dog")
#"Mr. Invisible"
#"Frank N Stein"
#"Special Team Up: Royal Roy and Top Dog" (AKA "Crisis in Cashalot") (featuring
Royal Roy
''Royal Roy: A Prince of a Boy'' was a 1985-1986 bimonthly comic book from Marvel Comics' younger-readers' imprint Star Comics. It was created by Lennie Herman and Warren Kremer.
Publication history
''Royal Roy'' began in April 1985 as an answer t ...
)
#"The Strange Disappearance of Top Dog" (AKA "Missing")
#"Special Team Up: Heathcliff and Top Dog" (AKA "The Mystery of the Missing Millions") (featuring Heathcliff)
#"The Team Up of the Year: Can This be Spider-Man?" (AKA "The Spectacular Comic Book Caper!") (featuring Peter Parker and a
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
lookalike)
#"Enter: Dirty Dog" (AKA "The Return of Dirty Dog")
#"The Revenge of Frank N Stein N Mervin"
#"Front to the Future"
#"Please Don't Go T-Top Dog!"
''Heathcliff''
The regular series continued in the back of '' Heathcliff'' comics starting with issue #22. Issue numbers #36, 40, 46 - 56 did not feature a Top Dog story. Issue #45 is one of