Gary Reed (May 21, 1956 – October 3, 2016) was an American =

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 ...

writer, and the

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of Americ ...

, an independent comic book company that released 1,300 titles in the 1990s and published early work by many popular creators. Reed wrote over 200 comics and graphic novels, sometimes under assumed names (including Kyle Garrett, Brent Truax, and Randall Thayer). He was also Vice President of

McFarlane Toys McFarlane Toys is an American company founded by comic book creator Todd McFarlane which makes highly detailed model action figures of characters from films, comics, popular music, video games and various sporting genres. The company, a subsidia ...

when the company launched in 1993. His comics writing credits include '' Saint Germaine,'' ''

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder James Baker. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises. The street is ...

'' and '' Deadworld''. In addition to comics, Reed wrote a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

for

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

and wrote some of the storyline scenarios for '' Final Fight: Streetwise'' for

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

Biography

Early life and education

Gary Reed was born in 1956Reed entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999.'' Accessed Feb. 18, 2016. and raised in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. He grew up in the projects in Detroit and graduated from

Redford High School Redford High School was a secondary school in Detroit, Michigan. A part of Detroit Public Schools, the school opened in September 1921 and ceased operations in June 2007. Staffed and operated by the Detroit Public Schools; Redford High School se ...

, attending community college at night while working to put his wife through school at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. Reed opened his first bookstore while still a student at

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public university, public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal ...

. By the time he graduated with his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

(in biology, specializing in

molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a branch of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the st ...

), he had four stores that specialized in used books, comic books, and other popular culture items.

King Kon

In 1984, while still a graduate student, Reed launched the King Kon Comic & Fantasy Convention, an annual event celebrating comics and pop culture. It was the first regular

comic book convention A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events h ...

in the Detroit area since the demise of the

Detroit Triple Fan Fair The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) was a multigenre convention generally held annually in Detroit from 1965 to 1977. It is credited for being one of the first comic book conventions in the United States. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced co ...

in 1977. During this time he also did a weekly radio show and television show on

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

. With the arrival of his first daughter, Reed discontinued King Kon after the 1986 show. In 2010, Reed would join Detroit Fanfare Conventions as an adviser and serve on its board of directors.

Caliber Comics

In 1989, Reed launched

, an independent publishing company which gave exposure at an early stage of their careers to many of today’s top comics talents, including

Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an Americans, American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime fiction, crime and hardboiled, noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero fiction, superhero work. While a ...

David W. Mack David W. Mack is an American comic book artist and writer, known for his creator-owned series ''Kabuki (David W. Mack comic), Kabuki'' and for co-creating with Joe Quesada the Marvel Comics superhero Echo (Marvel Comics), Echo. Early life Mack ...

Vince Locke Vincent Locke () is an American comic book artist known for his work on '' Deadworld'' and ''A History of Violence'' and for his ultraviolent album covers for death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Biography Locke began work in 1986 illustrating '' ...

, Guy Davis,

Michael Lark Michael Lark (born 1966) is an American Harvey and Eisner Award-winning comic book artist and colorist. Lark has provided pencils for DC Comics' ''Batman'', '' Terminal City'', '' Gotham Central, Batman: Nine lives'' and '' Legend of the Hawkm ...

Patrick Zircher Patrick Zircher () is an American comic book artist and penciller. Career Zircher's early career as an illustrator began with production of several completed works for '' Villains and Vigilantes'', '' Champions'' and other pen-and-paper role-pl ...

Jim Calafiore Jim Calafiore is an American comic book penciller and inker, known for his work on Marvel Comics ''Exiles'', and DC Comics' ''Aquaman''. His other work includes ''Faction Paradox'', and writing Marvel's ''Exiles'' and ''Millennium Visions''. Cala ...

Ed Brubaker Ed Brubaker (; born November 17, 1966) is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series '' Lowlife'' and a number of serials i ...

Michael Gaydos Michael Gaydos is an American comics artist. Career At Marvel Comics he has worked with Brian Michael Bendis on '' Alias,'' the last storyline of its follow up, '' The Pulse'', and the current sequel comic, ''Jessica Jones''. He has also illustr ...

James O'Barr James O'Barr (born January 1, 1960) is an American comics artist, writer and graphic artist. He created the comic book series ''The Crow''. Early life O'Barr, an orphan, was raised in the foster care system. Career At 18, O'Barr enlisted in the ...

Kevin VanHook Kevin VanHook (born June 24, 1965) is an American comic book writer, comic book artist, visual effects supervisor, and filmmaker. Career In comics, VanHook is best known creating the character Bloodshot for Valiant Comics. He also wrote the ...

and Mike Carey. The initial titles were ''Deadworld'', ''Realm'', ''Caliber Presents'', '' Moontrap'', ''

The Crow ''The Crow'' is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fianc� ...

'', and ''

'' (a series co-created by Reed with Guy Davis). Reed and Davis were nominated for a

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for Best New Series for ''Baker Street''. ''Baker Street'' was later nominated for another Harvey Award, for a collection put out by iBooks. During this time, Reed also became vice president of

for the first three years of that company’s existence. Reed sold the last of his comics shops and ceased publishing in 2000. He started teaching at Henry Ford Community College as an adjunct professor.

Return to comics

Reed concentrated on his teaching until 2004, when he started working with

Byron Preiss Byron Preiss (April 11, 1953 – July 9, 2005)Byron Preiss
at the

, who contracted to reprint all of the issues of ''Baker Street'' in a single collection to be distributed by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. Reed was brought in to write graphic novel adaptations of the classic horror novels from

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

. ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'' and ''Dracula'' were released before Preiss died in a car accident, and the line was canceled. In 2006, Reed wrote a young adult novel for the new Actionopolis line. His ''Spirit of the Samurai'' was the first in a series of books featuring a young heroine with an ancestry she never knew she had. He also wrote a series of children's stories for Magic Wagon Publishing, a company specializing in children's literature for libraries.

Desperado/Image

In 2005 and 2006, Reed launched a new series of ''Deadworld'' through

Desperado Publishing Desperado Publishing is an American independent comic book publisher, established in 2004. Located in Norcross, Georgia, Desperado's president is Joe Pruett, its creative director is Stephan Nilson, and its director of business development is for ...

and

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

, and brought back many of the Caliber titles with Image, such as ''Red Diaries'', ''Saint Germaine'', and ''Renfield''. In 2009, he released ''A Murder of Scarecrows'' through Desperado as well as a hardcover original tale of ''Deadworld in Slaughterhouse'' with art by Hatter M's Sami Makkonen.

Transfuzion Publishing

In 2007, Reed formed a new company with fellow writer Rafael Nieves called Transfuzion Publishing, which collected many of his previous work into compilations, and also published new material. The company released graphic novels collecting Reed's works and also series on H.P. Lovecraft, ''Vietnam Journal'', ''Chillers'' anthology, and others. ''Night Pieces'', a collection of Reed's short stories, and the last Transfuzion release, was selected by horror journalist Decapitated Dan as the best archival collection of 2013.

IDW

''Deadworld'' has had most of its recent issues released from IDW, including the two Classics, the Omnibus, and the last two mini-series: ''Deadworld: War of the Dead'' and ''Deadworld: Restoration''. ''War of the Dead'' was nominated as Best Mini-Series for 2012 from Comic Monsters.com and

Shel Dorf Awards Sheldon "Shel" Dorf (July 5, 1933 – November 3, 2009) was an American comic book enthusiast and the founder of San Diego Comic-Con.Spurgeon, Tom.Shel Dorf, 1933-2009, ''The Comics Reporter'' (self-published), 4 November 2009. Accessed 4 Novembe ...

. It won the Ghastly Award for Best Mini-Series the same year. Reed also had ''Curious Cases of Sherlock Holmes'' released by IDW. At one point ''Deadworld'' had been signed up for a film, with

David Hayter David Hayter is a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is well known as the English-language voice actor for Solid Snake and Big Boss (Metal Gear), Naked Snake in the ''Metal Gear'' video game series. He wrote the fi ...

(''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is a comic book Limited series (comics), limited series by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 19 ...

'', ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

'') providing the script, but Reed announced in January 2014 that he had not renewed the option and he was looking to move ''Deadworld'' to another producer.

Binary Publications

Reed teamed up with Paul Burke, his former partner at Stabur Press, to launch Binary Publishing, a line of books centered on pop culture. Featuring titles centered on ''

The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was written by Sharman and Richard O ...

'' and cartoonists such as Jack Davis. Reed wrote the young adult tale ''Zelda’s Zombie Zoo'' for Binary.

Caliber Comics relaunch

In 2014, Reed announced that he was bringing Caliber Comics back, in a partnership formed with Eagle One Media’s Eric Reichart. The relaunched company released collections of material originally published by Caliber in addition to all new material.

Personal life

Reed lived in a suburb of Detroit with his wife, Jennifer. They had four daughters. In addition to his freelance writing, Reed taught various biology-related courses at several community colleges in his area. In 2012, Reed was presented with a special Shel Dorf Award for his contributions to the comic industry. He died unexpectedly on October 3, 2016, from a heart attack.

Legacy

Shortly after Reed's death, the

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, Michigan, Grand Traverse County, although it partly extends into Leelanau County, Michigan, Leelanau County. The city's population was 15, ...

-based

Cherry Capital Comic Con A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

created an award named in Reed's honor, the Gary Reed Independent Creator of the Year Award. Winners include: * 2017 Seth Damoose * 2018 Dan Dougherty * 2019 Travis McIntire * 2020 Kasey Pierce * 2021 Joshua Werner * 2022

Joe Pruett Joe Pruett (January 8, 1966) is an People of the United States, American comic book writer, editor, and publisher, and the co-founder of Desperado Publishing and AfterShock Comics. Biography Pruett broke into the industry during the year of 1989 ...

* 2023 Doug Wood * 2024 Corinne Roberts

Bibliography

Comics work includes: * ''A Murder of Scarecrows'' (Desperado) * ''Baker Street'' (Caliber) * ''Book of the Tarot'' (Tome Press) * ''Cortez and the Fall of the Aztecs'' (Tome Press) * ''Deadworld: Requiem for the World'' (Image) * ''Deadworld: The Dead-Killer'' (Image) * ''Deadworld Chronicles'' (Desperado) * ''Deadworld: Slaughterhouse'' (Desperado) * ''Deadworld Classics'' 1 and 2 (IDW) * ''Deadworld: War of the Dead'' (IDW) * ''Deadworld: Restoration'' (IDW) * ''Deadworld: Voices from the Deadworld'' (Transfuzion) * ''Dracula'' (Penguin) * ''Frankenstein'' (Penguin) * ''Ghost Sonata'' (Transfuzion) * ''Helsing'' (Transfuzion) * '' Honour Among Punks: Complete Baker Street'' (iBooks) * ''Jack London's Call of the Wild'' (Magic Wagon) * ''Jack the Ripper'' (Transfuzion) * ''Magus'' (Caliber) * ''Night Pieces'' (Transfuzion) * ''Of Scenes and Stories'' (Transfuzion) * ''Pandora'' (Magic Wagon) * ''

Raven Chronicles A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single Taxon, taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are as ...

'' (Transfuzion) * ''Realm'' (Caliber) * ''

The Red Diaries ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...

'' (Image) * ''

Renfield R. M. Renfield is a fictional character who appears in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''.

'' (Image) * ''The Red Revolution'' (Tome Press) * '' Saint Germaine'' (Image, Transfuzion) * ''Seeker: Identity Crisis'' (Transfuzion) * ''Sherlock Holmes' Curious Cases'' (IDW) * ''Sherlock Holmes: Murder at Moulin Rouge'' (Transfuzion) * ''Sin Eternal: Return to Dante's Inferno'' (Transfuzion) * '' Song of the Cid'' (Tome Press) * ''Spirit of the Samurai'' (Actionopolis) * ''The Call of the Wild'' (Magic Wagon) * ''Troy: An Empire in Siege'' (Tome Press) * ''True Spy Stories'' (Tome Press) * ''Zelda's Zombie Zoo'' (Binary) * ''Zulunation: End of Empire'' (Transfuzion)

References

External links

*
Gary Reed Independent Creator of the Year award website

Caliber Comics

''Deadworld''

Binary Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Gary 1956 births 2016 deaths American graphic novelists American comics writers American male novelists Eastern Michigan University alumni Writers from Detroit Novelists from Michigan Redford High School alumni