Preceded by a mail order business, a chain of comic book stores, and even a distribution firm, brothers Steve and Bill Schanes’ 1980s comic book publishing company Pacific Comics brought creators’ rights and exciting titles, characters, and stories to the four color-medium. Next year marks its 40th anniversary.
In hindsight, the roster is dizzying: Jack Kirby’s Captain Victory and Silver Star. Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer. Mike Grell’s Starslayer. Steve Ditko’s The Missing Man. Sergio Aragones’ Groo the Wanderer. Neal Adams’ Ms. Mystic and Skateman (Skateman?!?).
Not all of these comic book releases were hits, but they certainly went a long way toward proving that creators could finally craft their own properties on their own terms. And often succeed in doing so.
According to San Diego Reader reporter Jay Allen Sanford, the Schanes Brothers told Kirby, for example, “they wanted only publishing rights to new works; he could keep ownership of anything new and copyrightable he created. They’d even help him license characters for use overseas or in television, film, or other media. Pacific was also the first company to offer Kirby royalty payments according to a comic’s sales figures: 8¢ on the dollar and 10¢ for comics selling over 100,000 copies. If Marvel titles, selling around 150,000 copies on average, had offered royalties akin to Pacific’s, this would have worked out to $13,000 in payments to the artist.”
The Schanes brothers were rewarded with sales for Captain Victory #1 – the company’s premiere title, which hit comics shops in August 1981 – reaching numbers somewhere around 70,000 copies, according to Sanford. Those were numbers right up there with the popular four-color releases by the House of Ideas and its Distinguished Competition at the time – and a huge hit for a new independent publisher on the rise.
There were also the must-have books packaged by Bruce Jones and April Campbell (as Bruce Jones Associates). The pair compiled, edited, and chiefly wrote the genre books Alien Worlds (sci-fi), Pathways to Fantasy (fantasy), Somerset Holmes (mystery), Silverheels (sci-fi) and Twisted Tales (horror). On the art side, the proverbial Who’s Who of contributors included Alfredo Alcala, Brent Anderson, Bret Blevins, John Bolton, Frank Brunner, Tim Conrad, Richard Corben, Butch Guice, Jeff Jones, Val Mayerik, Gray Morrow, George Pérez, Mike Ploog, Nestor Redondo, Ken Steacy, John Totleben, Doug Wildey, Al Williamson, Bill Wray, and Tom Yeates, among others.
Established artist creators such as Berni Wrightson (Berni Wrightson: Master of the Macabre), John Byrne (Rog 2000), and Wally Wood (World of Wood), saw some of their earlier works collected by the company, while future comic book masters like Stevens, Art Adams, Steve Rude, Will Meugniot, Timothy Truman, and others got their starts at Pacific Comics.
After publishing the above-mentioned titles and Bold Adventure, Darklon the Mystic, Demon Dreams, Edge of Chaos, Elric of Melniboné, Joe Kubert’s 1st Folio, Pacific Presents, Sun Runners, Vanity and Wild Animals, the experiment ended in 1984.
From a collector’s perspective, the complete run of Pacific Comics would range from very inexpensive to slightly expensive to acquire, but their availability – particularly in high grade – might be a different story. Finding some of the scarcer issues would no doubt prove challenging. In the end, particularly for fans of creator-owned comics, it might be well worth the effort.
(This article was written by Scott Braden and originally appeared in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #50.)
