Solarman

Solarman
Publication information
Publisher	Pendulum Press (1979–1980) Marvel Comics (1989) Scout Comics (2016–present)
First appearance	(Pendulum Press) Solarman #1: The Beginning (1979) (Marvel Comics) Solarman #1 (January 1989) (Scout Comics) Solarman #1 (July 2016)
Created by	David Oliphant Deborah Kalman
In-story information
Alter ego	Benjamin Tucker
Abilities	Superhuman strength, supersonic flight, survival in deep space, can control light, heat, and other forms of energy

Solarman is a fictional comic book superhero that first appeared in 1979, published by Pendulum Press, and then starred in a self-titled two-issue series from Marvel Comics in 1989. Solarman was revived as a title by Scout Comics in 2016. The character was originally created by David Oliphant and Deborah Kalman.

The character is unrelated to a hero named Solarman who appeared in Wham Comics #2 (Centaur Comics, Nov. 1940), or the character Solarman who appeared in two issues of Superman in 1976.

Solarman was created in the late 1970s by David Oliphant and Deborah Kalman. Oliphant was the founder and CEO of Pendulum Press, a children's educational publishing company responsible for the Illustrated Classics and Contemporary Motivators series, as well as licensed titles such as Star Wars. The character Solarman was created in response to the 1970s energy crisis as part of an energy awareness program to educate children about alternative fuels. Pendulum's Pendulum Illustrated Original series produced three issues of Solarman:

Years later, Marvel Comics writer/editor Stan Lee and then-Marvel president Jim Galton contacted Oliphant with the suggestion of publishing a Solarman book through Marvel. Oliphant, Lee, and Margaret Loesch created a new version of Solarman: his secret identity is a teenager named Ben Tucker who aspires to be a comic book artist, and whose adversary is an alien warlord named "Gormagga Kraal." Written by Lee and illustrated by Jim Mooney, this version of Solarman debuted in 1989, and lasted two issues. In 1992 a 22-minute animated Solarman pilot was also produced, based on the Marvel Comics version.

Decades later, Oliphant and Kalman decided to revamp and reintroduce the character as a black superhero, and chose Scout Comics as the publisher. Scout Comics' owner Brendan Deneen reached out to writer/editor Joe Illidge to co-write a new Solarman series with Oliphant, and to edit it. Illidge hired N. Steven Harris (whom he had known since their days at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts) to be the artist on the series, Andrew Dalhouse as the color artist, and Marshall Dillon as the letterer.

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