FemForce #20
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFemForce #20 (1989) marks a genuine team milestone: the official induction ceremony for Dragonfly, Stardust, and Tara as full members of the Federal Emergency Missions Force — Tara had fought alongside the team since issue #1 but had never been formally sworn in. As the first and longest-running all-female superhero team title in American comics, any reconfiguration of its core roster carries meaningful continuity weight. The issue also kicks off the multi-part 'A Conversation With Bill Black' interview series, giving readers the first sustained inside look at publisher Bill Black's creative history stretching back through the Paragon Publications era, a document that has become a primary source for AC Comics scholarship. Its 'dream sequence' main story serves as a de facto crossover showcase, gathering a sprawling roster of AC Universe characters — many described by the publisher itself as appearing here and nowhere else — making it an unusually dense single-issue window into the full scope of the AC/Americomics shared universe circa 1989.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
FemForce launched in 1985 under Bill Black's AC Comics (formerly Americomics), building on Black's earlier Paragon Publications work that dated to 1969, and quickly established itself as the direct-market's primary all-female superhero team book. By issue #20, the title was deep enough into its run to hold an in-universe 'twentieth issue celebration,' a structure that let scripters Bill Black (plot) and Rik Levins (script) stage a party-framed story at the team's then-current Orlando-area headquarters while simultaneously validating the roster changes that had been building across preceding issues. Penciler Billie Marimon handled both the color cover (with inks by Mark Heike) and the black-and-white interiors, assisted by the collaborative 'All-Inker's Squad,' reflecting AC's production model in which much of the work was coordinated by mail among a geographically dispersed team of roughly two dozen contributors.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1989 by AC Comics (Americomics); 44 pages, black-and-white interiors with gray tones, and a color cover.
- Main story titled 'Are You Ready for Buckaroo Betty?' — plot by Bill Black, script by Rik Levins, pencils by Billie Marimon, inks by the All-Inker's Squad.
- Color cover penciled by Billie Marimon with inks by Mark Heike.
- Issue serves as the official in-story induction of Dragonfly, Stardust, and Tara as full Femforce members; Tara had been active with the team since issue #1 but had never been formally sworn in until this issue.
- The main story uses a dream-sequence device involving She-Cat, allowing a large guest-star roster including the Scarlet Scorpion, Captain Paragon, Astron, Astra, and Captain Freedom, as well as characters described by AC as 'not seen before or since.'
- Villains Rip-Jaw and the Black Commando appear as antagonists within the dream narrative.
- Issue #20 begins 'A Conversation With Bill Black,' a multi-part interview by Leo Laney exploring Black's creative history from his Paragon Publications days onward — the interview continues in at least the following issue (#21).
- FemForce is documented as the first and longest-running ongoing comic book series centered on an all-female superhero team in American comics history, having surpassed 200 issues.
Cast · 40 characters
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