Star Reach

From Hey Kids Comics

Star Reach
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Star*Reach #1 (April 1974): Cover by Howard Chaykin.
Publication information
Publisher Star*Reach
Schedule Irregular
Format anthology
Genre superhero, science fiction, fantasy
Publication date April 1974 – October 1979
Number of issues 18
Creative team
Writer(s) Various
Artist(s) Various
Editor(s) Mike Friedrich

Star Reach (also spelled Star*Reach) was an influential, American science fiction and fantasy comics anthology published from 1974 to 1979 by Mike Friedrich. It is unrelated to the early MS-DOS computer game of the same name.

Publication history[edit | edit source]

One of the first mainstream independent comic books, Star*Reach bridged the gap between the countercultural underground comics and traditional Marvel/DC Comics fare, providing mature genre stories for an adult audience. The fan press of the time referred to this and the comics magazine Heavy Metal as "ground-level publications".[1] Along with such other examples as Flo Steinberg's Big Apple Comix, published in 1975, and Harvey Pekar's naturalistic Everyman series American Splendor, first published in 1976, Star*Reach was a forerunner of the late-1970s rise of the modern graphic novel, and of the 1980s' independent comics.

[[wikipedia:Image:Starreach7.jpg|left|thumb|Star*Reach #7 (January 1977): Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith.|]] Eighteen issues were released between 1974 and 1979. Contributors included such Marvel and DC writers and artists as Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, and Barry Windsor-Smith. It also included prose short stories by such authors as Roger Zelazny, who wrote the 13-page "The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth", with illustrations by Gray Morrow, in issue #12 (March 1978).[2]

Friedrich's company grew into a small publishing house in Hayward, also called Star*Reach, that published the comic book series Quack; Imagine; and Lee Marrs' Pudge, Girl Blimp, along with a number of one-shot comics.[3] The company ceased publishing in 1979.

Eclipse Comics repackaged some of the original Star*Reach and Imagine material as Star*Reach Classics in 1984.[4]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Burchett, Rick, and Ed. Mantels, "Whizzard Talks to Steranko", Whizzard vol. 2, #11 [issue #16] (Summer 1978; published by Marty Klug, 5730 Chatport Road, St. Louis, Missouri), p.13
  2. Star*Reach (series) at the [[wikipedia:Grand Comics Database|]]
  3. Publisher Star*Reach at the Grand Comics Database
  4. Star*Reach Classics at the Grand Comics Database

External links[edit | edit source]

Category:Comics anthologies Category:Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Category:Eclipse Comics titles Category:Fantasy comics Category:Science fiction comics Category:1974 comic debuts Category:Companies based in Hayward Category:Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area