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.
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[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 there after, 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 The second issue was titled Archie's Super Hero Comic Digest Magazine, and is notable for publishing the previously unpublished revamp of the Black Hood done by Gray Morrow and Neal Adams.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-livedImpact line. Since then, there have been only occasional appearances in Archie titles, probably to preserve their ownership.
[edit] Titles
- Black Hood (June 1983 - October 1983) 3 issues
- Blue Ribbon Comics (November 1983 - December 1984) 14 issues
- The Comet (October 1983 - December 1983) 2 issues [was to be a six issue mini-series]
- The Fly (May 1983 - October 1984) 9 issues
- Lancelot Strong: The Shield (June 1983 - August 1983) 2 issues, retitled Shield-Steel Sterling
- Mighty Crusaders (March 1983 - September 1985) 13 issues
- Original Shield (April 1984 - October 1984)
- Shield-Steel Sterling (December 1983) 1 issue (#3), retitled Steel Sterling
- Steel Sterling (January 1984 - July 1984) 4 issues (#4-7)
[edit] Characters
- Black Hood II (nephew of original Black Hood)
- The Comet
- Darkling
- The Fly
- Flygirl
- The Fox II (son of original Fox)
- Hangman II (son of original Hangman)
- The Jaguar
- Mr. Justice
- Lancelot Strong: Shield II (soon killed off)
- Shield III (son of original Shield)
- Steel Sterling
- The Web II (son of the original)
[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 aklso 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.
