Caliber Comics

Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America's leading independent publishers. Caliber ceased publishing in 2000, but resumed operations in 2015, and continued after Reed died in 2016.

Gary Reed, who previously owned a chain of bookstores, began publishing with the release of two titles acquired from Arrow Comics—Deadworld and The Realm. Other initial launches included Caliber Presents, featuring the work of Vince Locke, Mark Bloodworth, Tim Vigil, James O'Barr, and Guy Davis; the first issue of Baker Street, co-created by Reed and Guy Davis; and the initial appearance of O’Barr’s The Crow.

Reed arranged with "Pocket Classics", a series of illustrated books similar in design to Classics Illustrated, to be released to the direct market via Caliber Press. Over forty titles were distributed. The interest in literary works continued for Caliber when in 1991 the new imprint Tome Press was launched. Tome featured historical and biographical material in addition to literature. Over 65 different Tome Press titles would be released on subjects as diverse as the Russian Revolution, The Alamo, Amelia Earhart, El Cid, Jack London stories, reprints of classic art print series, and dozens of others.

After its initial launch, Caliber expanded by bringing in new creators and projects. Jim Calafiore was first published with his graphic novella, Progeny. In Grafik Muzik, Mike Allred introduced his Madman character, Kevin VanHook's Frost series which was the storyline for the film released in 2002, Ted Slampyak's Jazz Age Chronicles, Philip Hester's Fringe, Stuart Immonen's Playground, John Bergin's Ashes, and other titles such as Go-Man, Northguard, Varcel's Vixens, and more.

In the early 1990s, Caliber launched three new imprints, Gauntlet and Iconografix. Gauntlet was an action-based line whose leading titles were U.N. Force, Berzerker (featuring work from Rob Liefeld and Angel Medina), Patrick Zircher's Samurai Seven, and Serpent Rising (based on the stage play). Iconografix dealt with more obscure and cutting-edge material that included humor comics as well as comics often referred to as the "slice of life." Included here were the first issues of Ed Brubaker's Lowlife, Meatcake from Dame Darcy, Bound & Gagged from Michael Aushenker, and a number of projects from Dave Cooper, Jason Lutes, and Matt Howarth.

Caliber had ventured into licensed comics with their early release of Moontrap, the science fiction film starring Star Trek's Walter Koenig, and the production of a comic for Troma Films called Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo; but it was the full-color adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, written and drawn by Kevin VanHook that proved the most successful.

Another licensed property was Mechanoid Invasion, a 1981 RPG from Palladium Books made into a 3-book comic called The Mechanoids beginning in Spring 1991. Another comic property affiliated with Caliber called Justice Machine had also been adapted into a Heroes Unlimited sourcebook by Palladium. This was based on the original Noble Comics version by Gustovich in 1981, while Caliber distributed the New Justice Machine sequel by Ellis from 1989.

The expansion of Caliber continued with projects including Michael Lark's Airwaves, Silencers from Mark Askwith and R. G. Taylor, and Negative Burn, the anthology title that would run for 50 issues and was picked up by Desperado Publishing.