Epic Comics / Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics imprint launched in 1982 from the creative territory opened by Epic Illustrated, giving writers and artists unusual scope for creator-owned work and material aimed beyond the company’s standard superhero line.
Epic Comics / Marvel Comics
Epic Comics grew out of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated magazine and the company’s early experiments with creator-owned publishing. Under Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, with Archie Goodwin central to the editorial project, the imprint provided a home for work in which creators could retain ownership of their properties while Marvel handled publication and distribution.
Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar became the first regular Epic Comics series in 1982. The imprint later published a wide range of science-fiction, fantasy and mature-readership material, including projects associated with creators such as Archie Goodwin, Jim Starlin, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill, as well as Marvel’s influential English-language publication of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira.
Why it matters
Epic is significant to TMR because it documents an important shift in American mainstream comics publishing: a large established company creating space for creator ownership, mature subject matter and work that sat outside its conventional superhero universe.
Associated people
Coverage
TMR combines the historical Epic Comics imprint with its parent publisher in this relationship label. This does not mean every Marvel publication was an Epic title; individual object records retain the exact imprint shown on the object.
2 objects
TMR holdings represented across 1987–1988.