Mighty Comics Group, sometimes referred to as Archie Adventure Series and Radio Comics, refer to the attempt(s) by Archie Comics to revamp and publish superhero (and non-Archie) comics in the mid-1960s. There were basically two phases to this attempt, and they would try again in the 1980s under the name of Red Circle Comics.
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Phase 1: Archie Adventure Series, 1959-65
In 1959, Archie Comics hired Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (of Captain America fame) to create new superheroes under their "Archie Adventure Series" line. They started off with a new Shield, Lancelot Strong. DC Comics viewed the character as too similar to Superman, and it was cancelled after 2 issues.
Kirby & Simon developed a new character, the Fly, which they produced for the first 4 issues, after which they were replaced by other creators. This title was soon joined by The Jaguar. By mid-1965, the titles were all cancelled.
Only two other titles were published under the "Archie Adventure Series", one was the satire title Tales Calculated to Drive you Bats, the last issue of which changed to sf/horror, and the other the short-lived Jughead's Fantasy.
Their Shadow comic (published because Belmont Books, connected to Archie, was publishing new Shadow material), was a kind of bridge between the Archie Adventure Series, and the later Radio/Mighty material.
Titles
(also, backup stories in several Archie titles: Pep, Laugh, etc)
Characters
Phase 2: Radio Comics/Mighty Comics Group 1965-67
With the new popularity of Marvel Comics, Archie hired Superman creator Jerry Siegel to create a new line of over-the-top comics in a bad parody of Marvel stories, which got worse with the camp phase started by the new Batman TV series. It started off with the Shadow title being fairly straight, like the Fly and Jaguar, but after the 2nd issue, Jerry Siegel had turned the Shadow into a silly camp hero, as he would with the rest of the line. There were plans on creating a title (also written by Siegel) starring Steel Sterling, but it never came out. Work for this title was used as backup material in Fly-Man
A strange thing about these titles is that the indicia gave the publisher as "Radio Comics" (and references in the comics referred to them as such), but the covers said nothing until January of 1966, when they proclaimed them part of the "Mighty Comics Group" (a possible attempt to capitalize on the popularity of "Marvel Comics Group"?).
Archie published several other titles under the "Radio Comics" imprint, including some of their "Madhouse Glads" titles, "Archie as Pureheart the Powerful/Captain Pureheart" and "Jughead as Captain Hero".
Archie's Belmont Books would reprint material from this period as High Camp Superheroes (#B50-695) in April, 1966.
Titles
Characters
- Black Jack
- Bob Phantom
- Captain Flag
- Dusty
- Firefly
- The Fly (later called Fly-Man)
- Flygirl
- The Fox
- Inferno
- The Jaguar
- Pow Girl
- Roy, the Super Boy
- The Shadow
- The Wizard
- The Web II (son of original Web)
Later "Phases"
Red Circle Comics
In the early 1980s, Archie tried using their superheroes again under the "Red Circle Comics" line.
Spectrum Comics
Archie would try again with their heroes under the Spectrum line, but after seeing the proposals, killed the idea before anything saw print. Info available on the Mighty Crusaders site.
Impact Comics
In the Early 90s rival DC Comics licensed the characters for their brief Impact Comics imprint, but the line failed due to poor sales and internal conflicts.
Archie's Weird Mysteries
The Mighty Crusaders made two appearances in the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" comic (original stories based on the animated series of the same name).
Influence
Alan Moore's The Watchmen was initially an idea he had for the Mighty Comics characters. He would change this to Charlton Comics characters which had been acquired by DC, and, eventually, make them original characters
Trade Paperback Collections
Recently, Archie Comics has reprinted some of this work in trade paperback collections under the "Red Circle Productions" name.
- The Fly (reprints first 4 issues of The Fly done by Simon and Kirby)
- Mighty Crusaders (reprints Fly-Man #31, #32 and #33 and Mighty Crusaders #1)
External links
- Archie(MLJ) Superhero entry at International Catalogue of Superheroes
- Archie(MLJ) entry at Toonopedia
- Mighty Crusaders site
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