Hero Illustrated

I think of all the Wizard clones of the period, Hero was probably the one that aimed higher. Starting off with the same Extreme/Marvel/Lady Death/Ultraverse coverage as everyone else, they soon aimed higher by shifting their covers to stuff like Bone, Will Eisner, Blackball Comics and Sin City even as they continued to run Spawn and Star Wars covers.

They infamously dropped the apparently obligatory price guide of the period with the brilliant line ‘Why waste pages every month to tell you that Bone #1 costs $150 when you can get the 1st trade for $12:95?’

I thought it’s a shame it couldn’t have been picked by Fantagraphics as it was the middle ground between Wizard and The Comics Journal and could have been a great replacement for the MUCH missed Amazing Heroes, but this is the same time that Fantagraphics had resorted to publishing Eros and Monster Comics to stay alive, so it was clearly out of the realm of possibility.

Still, if you ever see them, always worth a read, and if you get a chance to read Dave Sim’s take on the history of Amazing Spider-Man that they published or Hart Fisher interviewing Glenn Danzig, it’s quite the eye opener.