TITLE: Hero Illustrated vol. 1, issue #11
YEAR: May 1994
COMPANY: Warrior Publications Periodical
Editor: Frank Kurtz
Senior Editor: Steve Darnall
Publisher: Steve Harris
Assistant Publisher: Marc Camron
Back in May 1994, the comic book industry and fans were mourning the death of Jack Kirby, readers were starting to see a change in the comic industry with the Image dump of new creatives they hired and got rid off. A few of those artists and writers went on to create Access. While Jim Shooter who was screwed with Valiant, went on to create Defiant.
DC was creating hype for Doomsday/Superman, Zero Hour was on the horizon, Blackball Comics were making their move and a lot of craziness going on in the industry which is featured in this very issue.
Back then, “Youngblood” was being made into an animated series but the networks wanted to censor Liefeld’s work. Guns couldn’t be called guns and no sexual artwork and Leifeld wasn’t having any of it. So, he and his partners decided to focus on making it a direct-to-video release and following what Japanese animation had done and was successful in doing.
Articles include “On the Edge”, “Classic Bob Ray”, a feature on the new Blackball Comics, an article for those who want to write for comics, A Day in the Life of working at DC Comics, a spotlight on Mort Drucker of “MAD Magazine”, an article on AXIS Comics, the Return of Archie’s “Pureheart” and “Captain Hero” and more.
But possibly my favorite part of this issue is the final commentary by Jim Shooter discussing the #1 problem of the comic book industry but also having some words to say about Hero Magazine’s inside information.
And you have to say it was cool for “Hero Magazine” to allow this type of comments in their magazine. Granted, things would change with the change of leadership a year later. But partly the earlier years of “Hero Illustrated” were no doubt the better years of the magazine.