JC Comics (also known as JC Productions) was a

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 ...

company primarily involved with the post-

Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

iteration of the characters the

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 ...

. JC Comics was owned by John Carbonaro (Sept. 30, 1951 – Feb. 25, 2009).

History

Acquisition of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents rights

Carbonaro acquired the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from the defunct

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 ...

,Sodaro, Robert J. "The Resplendent Sound of T.H.U.N.D.E.R.!" ''Comics Value Annual'' (1999). Archived o
ThunderAgents.com
. Accessed Feb. 8, 2014. and tried to relaunch them with his own comic book company.

Association with Archie

Shortly after acquiring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents rights, Carbonaro made an arrangement with

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 ...

to print and distribute JC Comics' titles, in conjunction with Archie's own attempted relaunch of their old superhero imprint

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 ...

. This resulted in cross-advertisements between the two companies and appearances of the companies' characters in each other's titles. Although Carbonaro was hired as an editor at Archie, Archie never owned the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents characters; nor was JC Comics an Archie imprint. From 1981 to 1984, JC Comics published three T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents titles: ''JCP Features'', a single issue featuring early work by the artist

Mark Texeira Mark Texeira () is an American comic book artist. Classically trained as a painter, he broke into the comics field in the early 1980s. Career Mark Texeira was born and raised in New York City. He attended Manhattan's High School of Art and ...

(which also contained an Archie ''

Black Hood The Black Hood is the name of several fictional characters (Matthew/Mateo Burland, Thomas "Kip" Burland, and Gregory Hettinger) created by Archie Comics, MLJ Comics (later known as Archie Comics) during the period known as the "Golden Age of Comi ...

'' reprint); ''Hall of Fame Featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', a three-issue series reprinting stories from the titular superhero team's original 1960s

series, with new covers by artists including

Steve Ditko Stephen John Ditko. Page contains two reproductions from school yearbooks. A 1943 Garfield Junior High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen Ditko". A 1945 Johnstown High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen J. Ditko" under extracurricular ac ...

and

Bob Layton Bob Layton (born September 25, 1953) is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics titles such as ''Iron Man (comic book), Iron Man'' and ''Hercules (Marvel Comics), Hercules'', and for co-fo ...

; and the two-issue series ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', featuring new stories. Ultimately, the wrap-up story of the latter series appeared in Red Circle's ''

Blue Ribbon Comics ''Blue Ribbon Comics'' is the name of two American comic book anthology series, the first published by the Archie Comics predecessor MLJ Magazines Inc., commonly known as MLJ Comics, from 1939 to 1942, during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The r ...

'' anthology title. During this period, JC Comics also published a single issue of ''Basically Strange'', a black-and-white

horror comics Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...

magazine featuring artist Rick Bryant and writer-artist Bruce Jones.

Texas Comics

Also in 1983, Carbonaro arranged for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to appear in a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

adventure with

Justice Machine The Justice Machine is a fictional team of superheroes originally created by Mike Gustovich and appearing in comic books from many small publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to Gustovich, writers Jenny Isabella and Mark Ellis have als ...

in ''Justice Machine Annual'' #1, then being published by Texas Comics.

Dispute with Deluxe Comics

In 1984, a former associate of Carbonaro named David M. Singer claimed that the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent characters were in the public domain. He founded

Deluxe Comics Deluxe Comics was a short-lived comic book publishing company known for publishing one title, ''Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents''. Lodestone Publishing, Inc., an imprint of Deluxe, published a few other series, notably taking over from other pu ...

and began publishing a new series, ''

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 ...

's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', featuring top artists including

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. A lawsuit by Carbonaro asserting his copyright and trademark rights was heard in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York (John Carbonaro, et. al. v. David Singer, et. al., 84 Civ. 8737 (S.D.N.Y.), and via summary judgment, the judge ruled from the bench that the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were indeed Carbonaro's property. Under the settlement, Carbonaro received an assignment of all rights to ''Wally Woods T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', and an undisclosed sum of money.

Omni Comix

Over the years, JC Comics tried many times to launch new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents material. A 1995 deal with

Penthouse Comix ''Penthouse Comix'' is an American mass-market, magazine-sized comic book, published by Penthouse International/General Media Communications from spring 1994 through July 1998 and 2024 to present. Founded and initially edited by George Caragonne ...

resulted in a single story in '' Omni Comix''.

Later attempts

In the early 2000s another attempt to revive the characters was planned with

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, but the ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'' and some statutettes are all that came of it. Following Carbonaro's 2009 death, DC briefly licensed the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from owners Radiant Assets, and they have since been licensed by

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

Titles

; Published by JC Comics: * ''JCP Features'' a.k.a. ''JCP Features the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' #1 (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

Dec. 1981) * ''Basically Strange'' #1 (dated Nov. 1982 in copyright indicia, but cover-dated Dec. 1982) * ''Hall of Fame Featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' (3 issues, May-Dec. 1983) * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' (2 issues, May 1983–Jan. 1984)JC Comics
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

; Published by

: * ''

'' #12 (1983) ; Published by Texas Comics: * '' Justice Machine Annual'' #1 (1983) ; Published by Penthouse Comics: * '' Omni Comix'' #3 (Oct.–Nov. 1995)''Omni Comix'' #3
Grand Comics Database. Accessed Feb. 8, 2014. ; Published by

(

DC Archive Editions ''DC Archive Editions'' is a line of hardcovers that was published from 1989–2014, reprinting early, often rare comic book series, titles, and stories. They include more than 160 Golden Age and Silver Age comic properties currently owned by DC ...

): * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 1 (2002), * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 2 * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 3 * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 4 * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 5 * ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'', vol. 6

Notes

References

External links

* * {{comicbookdb, type=publisher, id=2296, title=JC Comics
"John Carbonaro is dead (miss, him, miss him)"
''Freelance Ink'' blog (March 7, 2009) Comic book publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1981