Harrier Comics (officially known as Harrier Publishing) was a British comic bookpublisher active in the mid-to-late 1980s. Harrier was notable for putting out black-and-white comics in a mold more similar to American comics than to typical British fare.
Print runs for Harrier's titles typically ran in the 10,000 range, with most of the issues being distributed in the United States.[4] During its short existence, Harrier published more than 120 issues of over 30 titles.
History
Harrier was founded in 1984 by Martin Lock, up to that point a long-time comics fanzine publisher known for BEM and Fantasy Advertiser. The success of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led to a short-lived explosion of black-and-white independent comics in the United States in the mid-1980s. The U.K. publisher Harrier's titles followed the same mold (unlike most British comics publishers, who favored the comic magazine format). Harrier's aesthetic was also inspired in some ways by the bold design of the UK's Escape magazine.[citation needed] As evidenced by the company logo, Harrier's name was an homage to the harrier bird of prey (some varieties of which are native to the U.K).
Harrier's first title was the space-fantasy series Conqueror, with the first issue being dated August 1984. The series traced its roots back to 1979, when writer Lock[5] and artist Dave Harwood created the first stories for BEM. Conqueror eventually ran for nine issues and spawned a number of spin-offs and one-shots, published throughout 1984 and 1985. The 1987 Conqueror Special served as an end-cap to the series.
1985 saw the first volume of Swiftsure, also written by Lock, which ran for six issues and was followed by a second volume of four issues in 1987.
In 1986, Harrier released the showcase anthology Avalon, which ran 14 issues; and Redfox, which ran ten issues before being picked up in 1987 by Valkyrie Press. (Valkyrie Press begin in 1986 as an imprint of Harrier,[6] established to collect the first four issues of Redfox, which had been published by Harrier, in a trade paperback.)[7]Second City and Shock Therapy also debuted in 1986. That same year, Harrier published one issue of Lew Stringer's Brickman (a parody of Batman), which featured pages drawn by notable British creators Dave Gibbons, Mike Collins, Mark Farmer, and Kevin O'Neill, and an introduction written by Alan Moore.
1987 was Harrier's most active year, as it debuted the humor series !Gag!, Barbarienne (written by Lock), Eddie Campbell's Deadface, Grun, Nightbird, and Swiftsure vol. 2; as well as the one-shots By The Time I Get To Wagga Wagga (also by Campbell), Captain Oblivion, the Conqueror Special, Deathwatch, Phil Elliott's More Tales From Gimbley, and Watchcats. That year Harrier also debuted its New Wave imprint — the first title published under it being Glenn Dakin and Steve Way's Paris the Man of Plaster, which ran for six issues. Other alternative-flavored titles, like Deadface and the !Gag! anthology, were soon folded into the New Wave imprint. The Harrier title Redfox won the 1987 Eagle Award for Favourite New Title.
In 1988, Harrier released another batch of new titles—including Harrier Preview, Kalgan the Golden, Moon Fighting, Nick Hazard, Sunrise and Vignette Comics — none of which lasted for more than two issues. That year, Harrier's New Wave imprint released the four-issue Sinister Romance and Eddie Campbell's Ace and Bacchus.
By the spring of 1989, however, low sales forced Harrier to shut down.[3]
Notable creators associated with Harrier
Harrier first published Eddie Campbell's long-running character Bacchus, first in Deadface and then in a self-titled comic. The New Wave imprint featured Campbell,[8] as well as Glenn Dakin's work, in Paris, The Man Of Plaster (with Steve Way) and the anthology !Gag!. Dakin (with Woodrow Phoenix) also co-edited, wrote, and drew the New Wave humor title Sinister Romance. Long-time British comics creator Phil Elliott edited !Gag!. Harrier also published two collections of Elliott's A Tale from Gimbley stories, as well as Elliott and Paul Duncan's four-issue Second City title.
Two of three completed prologues for an unfinished story by Grant Morrison and Tony O'Donnell titled Abraxas were published as back-up stories in Harrier's Sunrise #1-2 before its cancellation. They were printed in black and white although the original art was in color.[9]
