Amazing Heroes

Amazing Heroes

Amazing Heroes #85 (December 15, 1985). Cover art by Alan Davis.
Editor	Michael Catron (founding editor) Kim Thompson (1981–1992)
Categories	comic books news and criticism
Frequency	varied between monthly and biweekly
Publisher	Fantagraphics Books
First issue	June 1981
Final issue — Number	July 1992 204
Country	United States
Language	English
ISSN	0745-6506

Amazing Heroes was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, The Comics Journal, Amazing Heroes was a hobbyist magazine rather than an analytical journal.

Amazing Heroes' first editor was Michael Catron, Fantagraphics' head of promotion and circulation. Upon his departure after issue #6,Comics Journal editor Kim Thompson took over the reins.

The magazine was initially published under the Fantagraphics imprint Zam, Inc., through issue #6. Beginning with #7, the publishing imprint became Redbeard, Inc. It remained under Redbeard through at least issue #61, but by issue #68 was being published by Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

The magazine began as a monthly, then appeared twice a month for many years, and then went monthly again beginning in 1989. The magazine ran for 204 issues, folding with its July 1992 issue.

In February 1993, Fantagraphics announced that the publisher Personality Comics had bought the rights to Amazing Heroes, and planned to revive the magazine. Nothing came of it, however, as Personality itself folded later that year.

Amazing Heroes' first thirteen issues were magazine-sized, while the rest were comic book-sized.

The regular content included industry news, comics creator interviews, histories of comic book characters and reviews. Features included Hero Histories of various characters/features, previews of upcoming series, and letters page. Other regular features were a column called "Doc's Bookshelf" by Dwight Decker (which ran from 1987–1989), and a question-and-answer feature called "Information Center," which ran from 1986–1989.

There were regular special editions for previews of upcoming comics, and "swimsuit editions" in which various comics artists drew pin-ups of characters in bikinis and similar beach apparel. The Amazing Heroes Preview Special appeared twice a year (beginning with the Summer 1985 issue), presenting previews of all comics slated to appear over the next six months. These were extra-sized issues, and were often square-bound. Many issues of the AHPS also contained joke entries. The editors fluctuated between publishing these as separately numbered specials and special issues of the regular series itself.