Caliber Comics

Caliber Comics or Caliber Press was an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, in the next decade Caliber published over 1300 comics and ranked as one of the America's leading independent publishers. Caliber ceased publishing in 2000.

Beginnings
Gary Reed, who previously owned a chain of bookstores, began publishing with the release of two titles acquired from Arrow Comics—Deadworld and The Realm. Other initial launches included Caliber Presents, featuring Vince Locke, Mark Bloodworth, Tim Vigil, James O'Barr, and Guy Davis; the first issue of Baker Street, co-created by Reed and Guy Davis; and the initial appearance of O’Barr’s The Crow.

Expansion
Reed arranged with "Pocket Classics", a series of illustrated books similar in design to Classics Illustrated, to be released to the direct market via Caliber Press. Over forty titles were distributed. The interest in literary works continued for Caliber when in 1991 the new imprint Tome Press was launched. Tome featured historical and biographical material centered in addition to literature. Over 65 different Tome Press titles would be released on subjects as diverse as the Russian Revolution, The Alamo, Amelia Earhart, El Cid, Jack London stories, reprints of classic art print series, and dozens of others.

After its initial launch, Caliber expanded by bringing in new creators and projects. Jim Calafiore was first published with his graphic novella, Progeny. In Grafik Muzik, Mike Allred introduced his Madman character, Kevin VanHook's Frost series which was the storyline for the film released in 2002, Ted Slampyak's Jazz Age Chronicles, Philip Hester's Fringe, Stuart Immomen's Playground, John Bergin's Ashes, and other titles such as Go-Man, Northguard, Varcel's Vixens, and more.

In the early 1990s, Caliber launched two new imprints, Gauntlet and Iconografix. Gauntlet was an action-based line whose leading titles were U.N. Force, Berzerker (featuring work from Rob Liefeld and Angel Medina), Patrick Zircher's Samurai Seven, and Serpent Rising (based on the stage play). Iconografix dealt with more obscure and cutting-edge material that included humor comics as well as comics often referred to as the "slice of life." Included here were the first issues of Ed Brubaker's Lowlife, Meatcake from Dame Darcy, Bound & Gagged from Michael Aushenker, and a number of projects from Dave Cooper, Jason Lutes, and Matt Howarth.

Caliber had ventured into licensed comics with their early release of Moontrap, the science fiction film starring Star Trek's Walter Koenig, and the production of a comic for Troma Films called Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo; but it was the full-color adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, written and drawn by Kevin VanHook that proved the most successful. Another licensed property was Mechanoids from Palladium Books.

The expansion of Caliber continued with some notable projects, including Michael Lark's Airwaves, Silencers from Mark Askwith and R.G. Taylor, and Negative Burn, the anthology title that would run for fifty issues (and has since been picked up by Desperado Publishing).

Stabur merger and further expansion
In late 1993, Caliber merged with the Stabur Corporation. Reed became president of Stabur as well as staying on with Caliber. Caliber began to produce special comics for Wal-Mart, including the series Big Bang Comics (which later would have a long run at Image Comics), Stormquest, and a number of literary adaptations, including a version of Frankenstein. Caliber also produced some records and a specialty magazine, ARC, for distribution outside of comics.

In 1993, the principles of Stabur were involved in starting up a new toy company with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. Reed was named vice president of McFarlane Toys while still running Stabur and Caliber. Jim Pruett was hired to take over some of the editorial duties of Caliber. Reed would stay with McFarlane Toys until May 1996.

Caliber expanded in the mid-1990s with titles such as David Mack's Kabuki, Brian Bendis' AKA Goldfish and Jinx, Mark Ricketts' Nowheresville, Mike Carey and Michael Gaydos on Inferno, and in 1995, Caliber launched the sub-imprint of New Worlds. New Worlds' titles were loosely connected, and included Raven Chronicles, Helsing, Seeker, Saint Germaine, Red Diaries, Black Mist, and others. Although not an actual shared universe, the settings and characters could cross over with each other and often did.

As Caliber expanded, more editorial staff was hired to handle the growing line of comics. Moebius Comics launched and fan favorites Mr. Monster and Maze Agency returned. Caliber handled the distribution of Amazing Comics, which featured the work of Mike Deodato. Brian Lumley's Necroscope and Whitley Strieber's Communion series were signed on for comic releases. Jon Sable from Mike Grell was announced but never came out. Caliber also started a new imprint in 1997, Tapestry Comics, that featured an "all ages" approach.

Decline and demise
As the overall comic market declined with the consolidation of the distribution system, Caliber slowly cut back on the number of titles. Caliber found some success of producing comics that appealed outside of the usual comics market with some of the Tome Press titles including the Sherlock Holmes Reader, which had the majority of its sales outside of the traditional comic stores.

Spawn PowerCardz
The demise of Caliber can be attributed primarily to the problems associated with the Spawn PowerCardz game. Caliber had invested heavily in time and money to launch the collectible card game and had great potential with purchase orders. However, the printer of the card game was running behind in production and outsourced the collation of the game to another printer who didn't understand the random assortment of the cards. When the game appeared with improper collation, the purchase orders, which exceeded over two million dollars, were cancelled. Although a lawsuit was filed and Caliber won, by the time the judgment came, it was too late. In addition, the printer declared bankruptcy and Caliber was left only with portions of the unusable product.

In 2000, Caliber released the last of its titles, and Gary Reed moved on to concentrate on teaching college biology. Many of Caliber's top titles continued on with new publishers, including Baker Street, Deadworld, Disciples, Saint Germaine, Kilroy Is Here, Negative Burn, Raven Chronicles, and Red Diaries.

Recently, Reed has been reviving many of the Caliber titles with reprints of collections and all new series, initially from Image Comics, then from Transfuzion Publishing.

Caliber titles (selected)

 * A.K.A. Goldfish
 * Baker Street
 * Big Bang Comics
 * Brian Lumley's Necroscope
 * Caliber Presents
 * Cavewoman: Rain
 * Deadworld
 * Disciples
 * Fire
 * Inferno
 * Jinx
 * Kabuki
 * Kilroy Is Here
 * Kingdom of the Wicked
 * Legendlore
 * Maze Agency
 * Moebius Comics
 * Oz
 * Negative Burn
 * Nature of the Beast
 * Renfield
 * The Realm
 * The Searchers
 * Spawn PowerCardz

Tome Press

 * Erewhon
 * Jack London's Koolau the Leper
 * Medieval Tales: Murder of Thomas Becket
 * Pre-Raphaelite Persuasion
 * Siege of The Alamo
 * Song of the Cid
 * Suppressed
 * True Spy
 * Zulunation

New Worlds

 * Black Mist
 * Helsing
 * Raven Chronicles
 * The Red Diaries
 * Saint Germaine
 * Seeker

Gauntlet

 * Berzerker
 * Samurai Seven
 * Serpent Rising
 * U.N. Force

Iconografix

 * Bound & Gagged
 * Lowlife
 * Meatcake

Tapestry Press

 * Dreamwalker
 * Explorers
 * Pakkins' Land
 * Patty Cake

Creators

 * Michael Allred
 * Brian Michael Bendis
 * David Boller
 * Troy Boyle
 * Ed Brubaker
 * Jim Calafiore
 * Mike Carey
 * Gary Carlson
 * Guy Davis
 * Michael Gaydos
 * Phil Hester
 * Steve Jones
 * Michael Lark
 * Max Douglas
 * Vince Locke
 * David Mack
 * Tom Pappalardo
 * J.M. Martin
 * Joe Pruett
 * Mark Ricketts
 * Gary Reed
 * Galen Showman
 * Matt Smith
 * Kevin Van Hook
 * Philip Xavier
 * Patrick Zircher