Malibu Comics

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Malibu Comics was a comic book publisher in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. The Ultraverse was a shared universe much like the real world, but in which a variety of characters - known within the comics as "Ultras" - acquired super-human abilities. The company's headquarters was in Calabasas, California. Malibu also owned a small software development company that designed video games in the early to mid-90's called Malibu Interactive.

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[edit] History

Malibu Comics was launched in 1986 by Dave Olbrich and Tom Mason (joined by Chris Ulm in 1987) thanks to the secret financing of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who was operating a comic book distribution company (Sunrise Distribution) at the time. The independent American publisher began modestly with creator-owned black-and-white titles, but made a name for itself publishing a combination of new series and licensed properties such as the classic characters Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, and popular TV/movie/video-game tie-ins. The company served as publishers-of-record for the first comics from Image Comics in 1992, giving the upstart creator-run publisher access to the distribution channels. The Bravura line consisted of creator-owned titles was soon started. In 1992, heroes from Centaur Publications (a Golden Age publisher those properties fell into public domain)were revived in the form of the Protectors, Airman, Amazing Man, Aura, Arc, Arrow, Ferret, Man of War, and Mighty Man, among others. Several of these characters had short-lived spin off titles of their own.

The Ultraverse line was launched during the "boom" of the early 1990's, roughly concurrent with the debut of publishers such as Image and Valiant, and new superhero lines from DC and Dark Horse (Milestone and Comics Greatest World, respectively). (The line was in part intended to fill the gap left by Image's independence.) They boasted improved production values over traditional comics (especially digital coloring and higher-quality paper), and a roster of respected and/or talented new writers and artists. Emphasizing the tight continuity between the various series in the Ultraverse line, Malibu made extensive use of crossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories also encouraged readers to sample issues of the entire line. Many fans loved the scope of storytelling this approach allowed; others complained of the effort and cost of buying the issues necessary to keep track of it all. Regardless, the Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog.

As sales declined industry-wide in the mid-1990s, Malibu cancelled lower-selling series. The company was purchased by Marvel Comics in 1994. Marvel cancelled the entire Ultraverse line, but (during the Black September event) re-launched a handful of the more popular titles as well as a number of crossovers with Marvel characters. The "volume 2" series each started with "#∞ (infinity)" issues and were cancelled a short time later. Within the Marvel Comics multiverse, the Malibu Universe is designated as Earth-93060.

[edit] Ultraverse revival

In June 2005, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada told an online interviewer that he had once hoped to revive the Ultraverse, but that the "initial structure" of Malibu's contracts with the Ultraverse creators entitled them to share in profits made with these characters, making any revival "next to impossible". Some creators have gone on to explain that while the contracts do entitle them to a small percentage of profits, their characters were created as 'work-for-hire' and Marvel's ownership is in the clear.

[edit] Titles

Some of Malibu's titles included:

[edit] Ultraverse

[edit] Crossovers with Marvel Comics

[edit] Genesis Universe (this line made use of many Centaur characters)

[edit] Bravura line

[edit] Licensed Properties

[edit] External links

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