Deluxe Comics was a short-lived

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

publishing company known for publishing one title, ''Wally Wood's

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. They were an arm of the United Nations and were notable for their depiction of the heroes as everyday people ...

''. Lodestone Publishing, Inc., an imprint of Deluxe, published a few other series, notably taking over from other publishers such titles as ''

Futurians The Futurians were a group of science fiction fans, many of whom became editors and writers as well. The Futurians were based in New York City and were a major force in the development of science fiction writing and science fiction fandom in the ...

'' and ''

Evangeline ''Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie'' is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel during the e ...

''. Notable creators who worked for Deluxe/Lodestone included

Dave Cockrum David Emmett Cockrum (; November 11, 1943 – November 26, 2006) was an American comics artist known for his co-creation of the new X-Men characters Nightcrawler (character), Nightcrawler, Storm (Marvel Comics), Storm, Colossus (character), Colos ...

Chuck Dixon Charles Dixon (born April 14, 1954) is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on the Marvel Comics character the Punisher and on the DC Comics characters Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and early 2000s. Early life D ...

Judith Hunt Judith A. Hunt is an American illustrator, painter, cartoonist, and designer, who has produced a diverse array of artwork for books, magazines, television, comics, videos, and toys. She has worked as an art director and staff illustrator/designer ...

Rich Buckler Rich Buckler (February 6, 1949 – May 19, 2017) was an Americans, American comics artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' in the mid-1970s and for creating the character Deat ...

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (c ...

Keith Giffen Keith Ian Giffen (November 30, 1952 – October 9, 2023) was an American comics artist and writer. He was known for his work for DC Comics on their ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' and ''Justice League'' titles as well as for being the co-creator of ...

Murphy Anderson Murphy C. Anderson Jr. (July 9, 1926 – October 22, 2015) was an American comics artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the Golden Age of Comic Books in ...

Jerry Ordway Jeremiah Joseph Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining ''Crisis on Infinite E ...

Robert Loren Fleming Robert Loren Fleming (born November 5, 1956) is an American comic book writer. He is best known as the co-creator of '' Thriller'' with Trevor Von Eeden and for his collaborations with Keith Giffen. Career Robert Loren Fleming worked for DC Com ...

Kyle Baker Kyle John Baker (born 1965) is an American cartoonist, comic book writer-artist, and animator known for his graphic novels and for a 2000s revival of the series ''Plastic Man''. Baker has won numerous Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for his wo ...

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...

Paul Smith Paul Smith is the name of: Music * Paul Smith (composer) (1906–1985), American film music composer * Paul Smith (pianist) (1922–2013), Los Angeles jazz pianist * Paul Smith (English singer) (born 1979), vocalist and songwriter of British in ...

, and

Ricardo Villagrán Ricardo Villagran (born 1938) is an Argentine people, Argentine illustrator known for his work in the American comic book industry. Biography Early life and education Villagran was born in the small northern city of Corrientes in 1938. Since ...

. Deluxe/Lodestone operated in the period 1984 to 1986.

History

Deluxe Comics was a division of Singer Publishing, founded by David M. Singer (11 February 1957–24 August 2013). In 1984, Deluxe began publishing new issues of ''

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...

'', about a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by

Tower Comics Tower Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1965 to 1969, best known for Wally Wood's '' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', a strange combination of secret agents and superheroes; and Samm Schwartz's ''Tippy Teen'', an Arch ...

in the 1960s. The singer claimed the group was in the public domain, a claim disputed by

John Carbonaro JC Comics (also known as JC Productions) was a comic book company primarily involved with the post-Silver Age iteration of the characters the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. JC Comics was owned by John Carbonaro (Sept. 30, 1951 – Feb. 25, 2009). Histor ...

of JC Comics. In 1981, JC Comics had acquired the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents rights from defunct publisher

(which had gone out of business in 1969; Wood had died in 1981). JC Comics had published several issues of ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' in 1983, the last of which through

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

Red Circle Comics Dark Circle Comics is an imprint of Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Under its previous name, Red Circle Comics, it published non-humor characters, particularly superheroes in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a digital imprint from 2012 to 2014, and ...

line. A lawsuit initiated by Carbonaro was eventually settled in

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

in favor of Carbonaro, with Singer acknowledging Carbonaro's registered copyrights and trademark. Under the settlement, Carbonaro also received, among other things, an assignment of all rights to ''Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', previously published by Singer, and an undisclosed sum of money.

Closure

Deluxe Comics/Lodestone closed its doors in 1986 when several major

distributors A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design A ...

failed to pay sizeable past-due invoices.

Titles published

Deluxe Comics

* ''Wally Wood's

'' (5 issues, Nov. 1984Oct. 1986)

Lodestone

*''Codename: Danger'' (4 issues, Aug. 1985May 1986) * ''

Special'' (one-shot, May 1986) * ''The

'' (3 issues, Oct. 1985Apr. 1986) * ''

The Honeymooners ''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It f ...

'' (one-shot, 1986) * ''The March Hare'' (one-shot, 1986)

Notes

External links

* * * * {{comics-stub Comic book publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1984