 | |
| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction,horror,adventure |
| Founded | March 1992; 33 years ago (1992-03)[1] |
| Defunct | 1998; 27 years ago (1998)[2] |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Jim Salicrup (EIC)[1] |
| Products | Comic books[1] |
| Parent | Topps Company, Inc.[1] |
Topps Comics was a division ofTopps Company, Inc. that publishedcomic books from 1993 to 1998, beginning its existence during a short comics-industry boom that attracted many investors and new companies. It was based inNew York City, at 254 36th Street,Brooklyn, and at OneWhitehall Street, inManhattan.
The company specialized in licensed titles, particularlymovie andtelevision series tie-ins, suchThe X-Files, based on theFoxTV show, and the filmsBram Stoker's Dracula andJurassic Park. It also licensed such literary properties asZorro, and published a smattering of original series, includingCadillacs and Dinosaurs and several based on concepts by then-retired industry legendJack Kirby.
In March 1992,Topps Company, Inc., announced the formation of Topps Comics, to be headed byJim Salicrup, with plans to start publishing in October 1992.[1][3] The company's first title[4] wasBram Stoker's Dracula, a four-issue series (Oct. 1992—Jan. 1993), along with 100 collectible cards, based onthe movie, with art provided byMike Mignola and afull script provided byRoy Thomas, using dialogue derived almost entirely from the film's script.[5][6]
In April 1993, Topps launched a superhero line, "The Kirbyverse", based onJack Kirby drawings and concepts, with fourone-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]
The editor-in-chief and associate publisher wasJim Salicrup.[1] Editors included Len Brown (co-creator of Topps' 1962Mars 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 atNon-Sport Update magazine.[9] The company's design director, Brian Boerner, is listed as Reprint Editor (along with Charles S. Novinskie) in theXena trade paperbacks' credits.
Veteran comic-book scripterTony Isabella, writing about difficulties withThe X-Files creatorChris Carter over the Topps Comics'series, said in a 2000 interview:
[W]hoever was approving the comics over in Chris Carter Land were the poster kids for anal retentiveness. Although it's possible that they were so picky because they never wanted the comics out there in the first place. The main reason the comics fell behind schedule was because it took so long to satisfy theX-Files people. They went overeverything with a fine-tooth comb, including theletters columns. . . . I rarely ran negative letters in these columns because the [Topps] editors were afraid that theX-Files people would want even more changes in the material. Almost from the start, there were never enough usable letters for our needs. That's why I started including the 'Deep Postage' news items — and making up letters completely. I also wrote theXena letters columns, but those were a lot easier to produce.[10]
The "Kirbyverse" comics, launched simultaneously with April 1993cover-dates,[11] 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 forPacific Comics, which went defunct in the 1980s). Topps licensed them for an eight-title, interrelated mythos based around what becameJack Kirby'sSecret City Saga.[12] That flagship title was written by formerMarvel Comics editor-in-chiefRoy Thomas, with an issue #0prequel drawn by artistWalt Simonson and the remainder of the series bySpider-Man co-creatorSteve Ditko.
Kirby himself wrote and drew eight pages of theSatan's Six premiere, interlaced with story pages by writerTony 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".[13] As well, the covers of theBombast,Captain Glory, andNightGlider[14]one-shot comics noted below were built around preexisting Kirby character designs.
Along withSecret City Saga andSatan's Six, the Kirbyverse titles were:
Kurt Busiek, in an undated interview, gave some background on the comics line:
Silver Star is a Jack Kirby character, originally done as a miniseries for Pacific [Comics]. Back when I was writing for the Topps Kirbyverse, I started two miniseries that were never completed,Victory andSilver Star, both of which got one issue published before the line collapsed.Victory was a crossover, bringing together all the established Kirbyverse characters and reintroducing Captain Victory [of the 1981–84 Pacific Comics seriesCaptain Victory and the Galactic Rangers]... butSilver Star was a standalone project, one that was completely plotted and mostly scripted.[15]
In 2000, the Kirby estate saidDark Horse Entertainment had optionedSatan's Six as a film property.[16]
In 2011,Dynamite Entertainment published a comic book series titledKirby: Genesis that represented areboot of the Kirbyverse.[17]
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Note: Most, but not all, were designed aslimited series.
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