Amazing Heroes #11
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAmazing Heroes #11 sits squarely inside the magazine's landmark first-thirteen-issue run, when the title still carried its original oversized, magazine-format trim — a physical distinction that sets these earliest issues apart from every subsequent number in the 204-issue series. As one of the few fan-press venues of the era giving serious, recurring ink to Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents — a Silver Age property that had been out of print for over a decade — the issue's extended Hero History helped re-introduce that team to a generation of early-1980s readers, sustaining collector and publisher interest that would eventually fuel multiple revival attempts. The Gil Kane interview on the Micronauts gave readers a candid window into one of the medium's most versatile veterans at a moment when Marvel's licensed science-fantasy line was still near the peak of its popularity. And the early spotlight on Jan Duursema — introduced here as 'a dynamic new talent' — represents exactly the kind of emerging-creator coverage that made Amazing Heroes an indispensable primary source for understanding how the Direct Market talent pipeline actually worked.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Amazing Heroes launched in June 1981 under Fantagraphics' Zam Inc. imprint, conceived by founding editor Michael Catron as a hobbyist complement to The Comics Journal — covering mainstream superhero fare that the more critically minded Journal largely ignored. By the time issue #11 appeared (late 1981 into early 1982), Catron had already been replaced by Comics Journal editor Kim Thompson after chronic deadline problems, and the publishing imprint had shifted to Redbeard Inc. beginning with issue #7. Issue #11 was thus among the first handful produced under Thompson's steadier editorial hand, and it still appeared in the original magazine-sized format that the title would retain only through issue #13 before converting to standard comic-book dimensions with #14.
Trivia · 10 facts
- Published December 1981 (per MyComicShop indicia data) — though at least one retail listing dates it May 1982; the precise cover date is flagged as unresolved.
- One of the last thirteen issues in the original oversized magazine format; from issue #14 onward Amazing Heroes converted to standard comic-book dimensions.
- Cover art by Gil Kane, depicting the Micronauts — tying directly to the issue's featured interview with Kane about his work on that Marvel licensed title.
- Inside back cover art by Pat Gabriele and Mark Texeira, providing early print exposure for both artists.
- Feature interview: Gil Kane discusses the Micronauts, offering behind-the-scenes commentary on one of Marvel's most visually distinctive licensed properties of the era.
- Hero History of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents — a multi-part retrospective on the Tower Comics team that had been dormant since the late 1960s, part of Amazing Heroes' recurring character-history department.
- Spotlight on Jan Duursema, billed as 'a dynamic new talent,' representing the magazine's early-career creator coverage that helped document the Direct Market talent pool.
- Serialized strips: Star Wars by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson and Star Hawks by Archie Goodwin and Gil Kane continued in this issue — both running across the magazine's first 59 issues and later repackaged (the Star Wars material reissued as Classic Star Wars).
- Additional feature: examination of time travel in the DC Universe, alongside the recurring 'Silly Cover,' 'Coming Distractions,' and 'Comics Report' departments standard to early issues.
- Issue #11 appeared under the Redbeard Inc. imprint (active from #7 through at least #61), during Kim Thompson's editorship, which began after founding editor Michael Catron departed following issue #6.
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