Red Circle Comics

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Red Circle Comics was an imprint used by Archie Comics to publish non-Archie characters, especially their superheroes, in the 70s and 80s.

Contents

[edit] Phase 1: 1970s

The Red Circle Comics line was first used to publish Chilling Adventures in Sorcery in October, 1973. This title was originally Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as told by Sabrina with its first 2 issues. With the 3rd it was renamed and published under the Red Circle Comics line. With issue 6 it was renamed Red Circle Sorcery and lasted until issue 11 (Feb, 1975). A series called Super Cops would publish one issue in July 1974. Shortly thereafter, Mad House (a retitle of Mad House Glads) would also be published under the Red Circle Comics line starting with issue 95 (Sept, 1974). This would end after #97 (Jan, 1975), when the title reverted back to being a standard Archie humor title.

In 1978 and 1979, Archie published 2 digests collecting their superhero materials from the 60s. The first was titled Archie's Super Hero Special. The second issue was titled Archie's Super Hero Comic Digest Magazine, and is notable for publishing the previously unpublished revamp of the Black Hood done by Gray Morrow and Neal Adams. There was nothing on their covers to indicate they were Red Circle titles. You had to read the indicia.

[edit] Titles

  • Archie's Super Hero Special (1978)
  • Archie's Super Hero Comic Digest Magazine #2 (1979)
  • Chilling Adventures in Sorcery (October 1973- February 1974) 3 issues (#3-5), retitled Red Circle Sorcery
  • Mad House (September 1974 - January 1975) 3 issues (#95-97)
  • Red Circle Sorcery (April 1974 - February 1975) 6 issues (#6-11 - #s 6, 7, and 10 featured stories by T. Casey Brennan.)
  • Super Cops (July 1974) 1 issue (one-shot)

[edit] Phase 2: 1980s

In the 1980s, Archie would make a more concerted effort to reuse their superheroes. The first appearance was actually in JC Comics's JCP Features #1, in Dec of 1981, which reprinted the new Black Hood materials that appeared in Archie Super Hero Comic Digest Magazine #2. In March of 1983, the first issue of Mighty Crusaders appeared, which led to many new titles under the Red Circle Comics banner. With the February 1984 issues, this line had been renamed the "Archie Adventure Series." By September of 1985, the entire line had been cancelled. The next attempt at using the characters would have been the promised "Spectrum" line, but that line never came out because the changes to the characters were considered too radical by Archie Comics' management. Archie's super-heroes were later leased to DC Comics for use in its short-lived !mpact line. Since then, there have been only occasional appearances in Archie titles, probably to preserve their ownership.

[edit] Titles

[edit] Characters

[edit] Marvel

Red Circle was also used as a cover logo from the mid-Thirties until 1957 for Martin Goodman's line of pulp magazines and also for some of the paperbacks his company produced. Goodman also published Timely Comics, the company that would eventually become Marvel Comics. Beyond the name, the two firms are in no way related.

[edit] External links

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