Awesome Comics

Awesome Comics or Awesome Entertainment (also known as Awesome-Hyperwerks when briefly joined with Hyperwerks Entertainment) was an American comic book studio formed in 1997 by Rob Liefeld following his expulsion from Image Comics, a company he co-founded five years prior.

Awesome Comics was the successor of Extreme Studios and Maximum Press, Liefeld's imprints at Image, and was followed by his new company Arcade Comics upon its closure in 2000.

Netflix was in talks to adapt the characters for a series of films in 2018 but the deal collapsed.

In 1992, seven high-profile comics artists left Marvel Comics to form their own publisher, where comics creators could publish creator-owned material without having to give up copyright-control to their characters. The seven artists (bar Whilce Portacio, who opted not to become a full partner) formed a partnership among their individual studios, and published their comics under the over-arcing Image Comics banner. Image's early titles were distributed by Malibu Comics (a company chosen for its good marketing and distribution practices), while Image established itself independently. The studios were: Todd McFarlane's Todd McFarlane Productions, Marc Silvestri's Top Cow Productions, Jim Lee's Wildstorm Productions, Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment, Jim Valentino's ShadowLine, and Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios.

Extreme Studios's Youngblood became the first comic released under the Image banner, and became the first independent (non-DC/Marvel) title to be a number-one best-seller since DC and Marvel became dominant. Other Extreme titles published through Image included: Badrock, Bloodstrike, Brigade, Team Youngblood, Youngblood Strikefile, Glory, Prophet, Supreme, Troll and New Men.

Titles thought not to fit with the Image brand were self-published under Liefeld's separate imprint: Maximum Press. These titles included Asylum, Avengelyne, Warchild, Law and Order, Black Flag, Risk, and even licensed properties such as the classic sci-fi TV show Battlestar Galactica (based on the original 1978–1979 TV series). After Liefeld's departure from Image in 1996, Maximum Press began publishing some of Liefeld's Extreme titles (including Glory and Supreme), before Awesome Entertainment came into being.

After acrimonious disputes with the other founding partners (not least over allegations of irregularities surrounding Liefeld's separate imprint Maximum Press), Liefeld and Extreme Studios broke from Image Comics in 1996, and became "Awesome Comics." Shortly thereafter, Liefeld found a new publisher — writer-producer Jeph Loeb — and additional financing from both John Hyde (Film Roman CEO) and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, newly Chairman of Platinum Studios. Platinum Studios continues to play an integral part in Liefeld's comics work. (Liefeld had previously worked with Rosenberg, the founder of Malibu Comics, Image's original distributor, which (post-Image) had been sold to Marvel, in 1994.)

Awesome Comics continued many of the popular Extreme series, as well as launching new titles, including The Coven and Lionheart by Loeb and artist Ian Churchill. Perhaps Liefeld's best move, and the one for which Awesome's output is best known, was the decision to hire acclaimed comics writer Alan Moore to breathe new life into several of Extreme/Awesome's comics and characters. Although Moore's first output for Liefeld came when Extreme was still publishing under the Image banner, the majority of his work was done under Awesome, with several issues (of Supreme) also being published by Maximum in-between the two imprints.^{[citation needed]}