"Title" (22 pages)
cover:
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George Perez
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writer:
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Various
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art:
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Various
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colors:
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Various
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letters:
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Various
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editor:
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Various
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BIZARRE THRILLS: THE PARAGON PUBLICATIONS STORY Vol 1 TPB
Cover Date: Mar 2012
Cover Price: $29.95 Publisher: AC Comics (accomics.com)
This is it- the “non-AC” book that AC Comics fans have been waiting
almost three decades for !! If you read & enjoy AC Comics, you’ll
want to have this book to understand where it all comes from. In an era
before the independent, direct-sales comic book distribution system
existed, Bill Black created a line of comic-book style periodicals that
incorporated the idea of design and featured his own original characters
in ongoing, interconnected stories- a comics universe. No, this was NOT
AC Comics; this came before that. This was Bill’s legendary PARAGON
PUBLICATIONS. Between 1968 and 1982, PARAGON released more than 40
publications, fueled not only by Bill’s tasteful sense of visuals and
impactful storytelling, but also a healthy dose of something woefully
rare in the mainstream comics of the day, and that is STRONG FEMALE
CHARACTERS, styled with Bill’s fascination for the glamorous “good girl
art” comic books of the 1940′s. That creative vision must’ve been
well-realized, since many of those characters are still appearing today
in the AC Comics line; in FEMFORCE and elsewhere. This volume collects
some of the BEST of the PARAGON material; 21 full vintage stories in
all, starring the likes of SYNN(when she was still referred to as The
Girl From LSD), The SHADE (his ORIGINAL origin), TARA, STORMY TEMPEST,
NIGHTVEIL(at a point that she was being referred to as “Phantom Lady”),
The (original) SCARLET SCORPION, the prototype for STARDUST; the
villainous ALIZARIN CRIMSON, Dr. RIVITS, No-NOSE NANETTE and GORGANNA-
plus a number of great characters you may never have heard of, including
The STARMASTERS, The DEFENDER and SPACE GUARDIAN. See the origins of
SYNN and the SCARLET SCORPION, AND THE FIRST FEMFORCE story ever
published anywhere!! Although Bill did the writing and art on virtually
EVERY story in the PARAGON era, he occasionally had “a little help from
his friends” in terms of collaborators like Martin Greim, Bob Cosgrove,
Gary Brown, Marc Hempel( and if you’re familiar with his current art
style, you’d NEVER recognize him here!!) Willie Blyberg and Steve Vance.
Also, pin-ups by the likes of Terry Austin, John Byrne, Howard Chaykin,
Dick Giordano, Mike Golden, Gil Kane, Bob McLeod, Don Newton, George
Perez, Mike Royer, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Toth and Mike Zeck fill out
the book, all behind a striking Joe Staton- Bill Black color cover. In
addition, Bill provides a complete PARAGON PUBLICATIONS index, an
overview to how it all ran, notes and history; plus comments from
fans/readers of the day. Most of this material has been unseen anywhere
for more than three decades. When the PARAGON books were originally
circulated as a mail-order product sold through fanzine ads, they sold a
ridiculously high number of copies-in some cases, more than a number of
mainstream books sell today. Whoever bought the magazines back then
must have liked them, since despite the fact that they sold in high
volume, very few copies find their way onto the collector’s market;
hence the inflated prices when they DO show up. Among regular AC fans
and readers, few things have garnered more requests than a reprinting of
the classic vintage material in this book. But that’s not all!! When
Bill started AC Comics at the tail-end of 1982, virtually all of the
PARAGON plotlines were “left hanging” and unfinished- even those
relating to characters that showed up in AC continuity virtually
untouched. This always bothered the Wild One, so especially for this
volume, Bill teamed up with ace penciler Eric Coile to produce an ALL
NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN 23-page story involving STARDUST, SYNN and the
rest of the FEMFORCE in a contemporary tale that actually RESOLVES all
of those old plotlines today!! A 2012-era PARAGON adventure!! Who else
but Bill Black would take the time and effort to finish up stories more
than thirty years old? As a personal aside, the PARAGON line is what
inspired ME to attempt a career illustrating comics. Despite it’s long
& successful run, AC Comics itself has never really lived up to the
PARAGON standard, as none of us other than Bill ever REALLY got it right
.The day-to-day demands of keeping a growing company running forced
Bill to give up a major creative hand early on, leaving AC art &
writing to us lesser lights. Get this book and see what AC should’ve
been, had we all had the talent & vision of Bill Black. BIZARRE
THRILLS: The PARAGON PUBLICATIONS story Volume One is 260 pages in black
& white at 81/2″ X 11″ magazine size, with color covers and
perfect-bound TPB binding. It was released in 2012.
RelatedAC Comics > Paragon Publications >
For Sale: Buy this book on accomics.com
|
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BACK ISSUE! #58 (18 Jul 2012) Bizarre Thrills: The Paragon Publications Story Vol. 1 available now posted Mar 26, 2012 12:54 AM by Vu Nguyen [ updated Mar 26, 2012 12:54 AM ]
BIZARRE THRILLS: THE PARAGON PUBLICATIONS STORY Vol 1 TPB (Mar 2012)
Bizarre Thrills: The Paragon Publications Story Vol. 1
– March 21, 2012
Price: $29.95
This is it- the “non-AC” book that AC Comics fans have been waiting
almost three decades for !! If you read & enjoy AC Comics, you’ll
want to have this book to understand where it all comes from. In an era
before the independent, direct-sales comic book distribution system
existed, Bill Black created a line of comic-book style periodicals that
incorporated the idea of design and featured his own original characters
in ongoing, interconnected stories- a comics universe. No, this was NOT
AC Comics; this came before that. This was Bill’s legendary PARAGON
PUBLICATIONS. Between 1968 and 1982, PARAGON released more than 40
publications, fueled not only by Bill’s tasteful sense of visuals and
impactful storytelling, but also a healthy dose of something woefully
rare in the mainstream comics of the day, and that is STRONG FEMALE
CHARACTERS, styled with Bill’s fascination for the glamorous “good girl
art” comic books of the 1940′s. That creative vision must’ve been
well-realized, since many of those characters are still appearing today
in the AC Comics line; in FEMFORCE and elsewhere. This volume collects
some of the BEST of the PARAGON material; 21 full vintage stories in
all, starring the likes of SYNN(when she was still referred to as The
Girl From LSD), The SHADE (his ORIGINAL origin), TARA, STORMY TEMPEST,
NIGHTVEIL(at a point that she was being referred to as “Phantom Lady”),
The (original) SCARLET SCORPION, the prototype for STARDUST; the
villainous ALIZARIN CRIMSON, Dr. RIVITS, No-NOSE NANETTE and GORGANNA-
plus a number of great characters you may never have heard of, including
The STARMASTERS, The DEFENDER and SPACE GUARDIAN. See the origins of
SYNN and the SCARLET SCORPION, AND THE FIRST FEMFORCE story ever
published anywhere!! Although Bill did the writing and art on virtually
EVERY story in the PARAGON era, he occasionally had “a little help from
his friends” in terms of collaborators like Martin Greim, Bob Cosgrove,
Gary Brown, Marc Hempel( and if you’re familiar with his current art
style, you’d NEVER recognize him here!!) Willie Blyberg and Steve Vance.
Also, pin-ups by the likes of Terry Austin, John Byrne, Howard Chaykin,
Dick Giordano, Mike Golden, Gil Kane, Bob McLeod, Don Newton, George
Perez, Mike Royer, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Toth and Mike Zeck fill out
the book, all behind a striking Joe Staton- Bill Black color cover. In
addition, Bill provides a complete PARAGON PUBLICATIONS index, an
overview to how it all ran, notes and history; plus comments from
fans/readers of the day. Most of this material has been unseen anywhere
for more than three decades. When the PARAGON books were originally
circulated as a mail-order product sold through fanzine ads, they sold a
ridiculously high number of copies-in some cases, more than a number of
mainstream books sell today. Whoever bought the magazines back then
must have liked them, since despite the fact that they sold in high
volume, very few copies find their way onto the collector’s market;
hence the inflated prices when they DO show up. Among regular AC fans
and readers, few things have garnered more requests than a reprinting of
the classic vintage material in this book. But that’s not all!! When
Bill started AC Comics at the tail-end of 1982, virtually all of the
PARAGON plotlines were “left hanging” and unfinished- even those
relating to characters that showed up in AC continuity virtually
untouched. This always bothered the Wild One, so especially for this
volume, Bill teamed up with ace penciler Eric Coile to produce an ALL
NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN 23-page story involving STARDUST, SYNN and the
rest of the FEMFORCE in a contemporary tale that actually RESOLVES all
of those old plotlines today!! A 2012-era PARAGON adventure!! Who else
but Bill Black would take the time and effort to finish up stories more
than thirty years old? As a personal aside, the PARAGON line is what
inspired ME to attempt a career illustrating comics. Despite it’s long
& successful run, AC Comics itself has never really lived up to the
PARAGON standard, as none of us other than Bill ever REALLY got it right
.The day-to-day demands of keeping a growing company running forced
Bill to give up a major creative hand early on, leaving AC art &
writing to us lesser lights. Get this book and see what AC should’ve
been, had we all had the talent & vision of Bill Black. BIZARRE
THRILLS: The PARAGON PUBLICATIONS story Volume One is 260 pages in black
& white at 81/2″ X 11″ magazine size, with color covers and
perfect-bound TPB binding. It was released in 2012.
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