The Men in Black | |
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The Men in Black #1 (Jan. 1990). Cover art by Max S. Fellwalker
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Publication information | |
Publisher |
Aircel Comics Malibu Comics (now owned by Marvel Comics) |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format |
Mini-series One-shots |
Publication date(s) | Jan.-March 1990 May–July 1991 1997 |
No. of issues | 3 3 4 |
Creative team | |
Created by | Lowell Cunningham |
Written by | Lowell Cunningham |
Artist(s) | Sandy Carruthers |
Collected editions | |
The Men in Black | ISBN |
The Men in Black is an American comic book created and written by Lowell Cunningham, illustrated by Sandy Carruthers, and originally published by Aircel Comics. Aircel would later be bought out by Malibu Comics, which itself was bought out by Marvel Comics. Three issues were published in 1990, with another three the following year. It was adapted into the film Men in Black, which was a critical and commercial success, leading to two sequels and various spin-offs, as well as a number of tie-in one-shot comics from Marvel. Cunningham had the idea for the comic once a friend of his introduced him to the concept of government "Men in Black" upon seeing a black van riding the streets.
The first series consisted of three issues and was published in 1990 by Aircel Comics, cover-dated January to March 1990. After Aircel was acquired by Malibu Comics, a second series appeared, The Men in Black Book II #1-3 (May–July 1991)
Malibu was purchased by Marvel Comics in 1994, and when the feature film Men in Black was released, Marvel published a number of one-shots in 1997, including a prequel, a sequel, a movie adaptation, and a reprint of the first issue of the original Aircel miniseries.
The first series was collected into a trade paperback (June 1990, ).
The Men in Black is an international espionage organization which monitors and investigates both good and evil paranormal activity on Earth. Their remit includes alien life, demons, mutants, zombies, werewolves, legendary creatures and other paranormal beings. In order to keep their investigations secret, much of the global population are unaware of their activities, and are liable to be neuralyzed to blank their memory of any interaction with the agents.