Virgin Comics - Anybody read them?

[The Dirt Gang]

I recently heard something about the now dead Virgin Comics. They seemed to have some interesting people involved and the concepts for the Indian line sounded really interesting. Has anyone read any of these? I was wondering if they were any good.

[Elveen]

I'd bet C-lo has read them.

[Chiclo]

I'd bet C-lo has read them.

A few.

Virgin comics did a lot of India-oriented comics. At the time, had I ordered from Previews magazine or ordered comics online, it is very likely that I would have bought several of these Indian comics. The most successful property of the line was Devi, a female hero whose self-titled book ran for 20 issues and crossed over with Witchblade. While Virgin was publishing, I only added one of their books to my pull list - Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter. It was better than the name would suggest and the Christina Z art was beautiful. The book cancelled after the third issue (which was mostly prose anyway) and that was around when Virgin folded anyway.

We have a Virgin checklist in the Dead Universes Checklists section, link here:

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=25138" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chiclo]

I would like to add a few notes -

Not including variants, that is a very manageable checklist to finish. I don't watch Virgin comics closely but I am not aware of any single issue being particularly valuable. As far as I know, these are all dollar books.

[grendeljd]

I read a few issues of Snake Woman & thought it was pretty good. Lost track of it though, not sure when it got cancelled.

[Phantom]

Was big in the uk, due to 'dan dare'.
Sure their where hardcovers collected of this.

Looking at it differently, tapping India for comic book artists is a great idea.
Art costs on a book must surely be expensive part of the cost.
Due to currency exchange, and cost of living in India - it would save art cost and give them a great wage.
Yes I have thought about this at length. keeping popular artists would be hard, easy for them once in the industry to get other work.
Does llc still print - off to find out.

[The Dirt Gang]

Thanks guys! The Indian line sounds pretty fascinating. I read somewhere that Terry Gilliam was supposed to do a book for them. Too bad it never came to fruition. His more recent films have not been great but I love his older stuff -- Brazil, Time Bandits, etc. Jenna Jameson and prose - who knew!?!

[Chiclo]

Jenna Jameson and prose - who knew!?!

The prose was pretty cheesy. Some of it was probably written by Jenna Jameson herself.

[leonmallett]

I would say I picked up around 90-95% of what they put out as it came out. I think the only stuff I missed was maybe Dock Walloper and one of the historical series.

There was some really good stuff, but i think the lack of a shared world feel probably did hurt them. Also, the production values felt very good (trade dress; paper quality etc), and I wonder if costs were quite high. Finally, it did feel that underneath it all it was about trying to create vehicles into other media.

[StarBrand]

I would say I picked up around 90-95% of what they put out as it came out. I think the only stuff I missed was maybe Dock Walloper and one of the historical series.

There was some really good stuff, but i think the lack of a shared world feel probably did hurt them. Also, the production values felt very good (trade dress; paper quality etc), and I wonder if costs were quite high. Finally, it did feel that underneath it all it was about trying to create vehicles into other media.

Good insights.

[The Dirt Gang]

I would say I picked up around 90-95% of what they put out as it came out. I think the only stuff I missed was maybe Dock Walloper and one of the historical series.

There was some really good stuff, but i think the lack of a shared world feel probably did hurt them. Also, the production values felt very good (trade dress; paper quality etc), and I wonder if costs were quite high. Finally, it did feel that underneath it all it was about trying to create vehicles into other media.

Which of their titles did you like the most or do you recommend?

[leonmallett]

I would say I picked up around 90-95% of what they put out as it came out. I think the only stuff I missed was maybe Dock Walloper and one of the historical series.

There was some really good stuff, but i think the lack of a shared world feel probably did hurt them. Also, the production values felt very good (trade dress; paper quality etc), and I wonder if costs were quite high. Finally, it did feel that underneath it all it was about trying to create vehicles into other media.

Which of their titles did you like the most or do you recommend?

Virulents was a great one-shot for my money.

Snakewoman was probably the strongest ongoing, and the best title from Virgin IMHO. Both Virulents and Snakewoman have a horror vibe to them.

The first 7 Brothers arc was ace - I could easily see that as an OTT action-thriller movie.

Sadhu was okay, but felt patchy. Ramayan held my attention buy could also be patchy. I quite enjoyed Devi.

My recollections are that the art could be quite varied. They never felt like they had a house style, and i guess some of the storytelling issues that were present in the weaker books were possibly due to lack of experience.

[rasputin9977]

They are still alive but are called lightning comics or something like that. They are mainly online comics though do publish floppies now and then. Matter of fact, Stan Lee had a FCBD in 2013 that was called Chakra and published by lightning.

[leonmallett]

They are still alive but are called lightning comics or something like that. They are mainly online comics though do publish floppies now and then. Matter of fact, Stan Lee had a FCBD in 2013 that was called Chakra and published by lightning.

Liquid Comics. I *think* Lightning is/was a now-defunct 90's publisher.

[Chiclo]

They are still alive but are called lightning comics or something like that. They are mainly online comics though do publish floppies now and then. Matter of fact, Stan Lee had a FCBD in 2013 that was called Chakra and published by lightning.

Liquid Comics. I *think* Lightning is/was a now-defunct 90's publisher.

Yep. Lightning featured such winners as Perg and Hellina. Lots of t&a. I put together a checklist but ultimately decided not to pursue such smut.

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=30729" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rasputin9977]

Yes, thank you. Liquid Comics, not Lightning Comics. Also that Chakra FCBD comic was published by Graphic India, not Liquid Comics (They also released a Ramayan FCBD this year as well). Going to their website, I see that they also have Devi, Sadhu and Ramayan. Liquid Comics also has a website with the same properties so I'm not sure if they are both the same company or just have a business partnership.

[leonmallett]

Yes, thank you. Liquid Comics, not Lightning Comics. Also that Chakra FCBD comic was published by Graphic India, not Liquid Comics (They also released a Ramayan FCBD this year as well). Going to their website, I see that they also have Devi, Sadhu and Ramayan. Liquid Comics also has a website with the same properties so I'm not sure if they are both the same company or just have a business partnership.

the Liquid site is a pretty poor place IMHO. I wish the characters not tied to the big name directors etc had found a good home to be published as ongoing concerns, but alas it was not to be.

Makes you wonder how different things could have been if Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper had been made into a movie.