Caliber Comics, the independent comic book publisher that helped launch the careers of many top contemporary comic creators including Mike Allred, Ed Brubaker, David Mack, Brian Bendis, Mark Andreyko, Michael Lark, Patrick Zircher, Jim Calafiore, Mike Carey, and Jim O' Barr, is making a return, but not as a publishing company.  Gary Reed, the publisher of Caliber, and also one of its most prolific writers, is overseeing the resurrection of numerous Caliber properties in a number of different venues and media. Caliber Comics didn't publish superhero books or what one might call 'alternative' comics, but it played a major role in reviving some wonderful, but neglected comic book genres -- such as horror, crime, and fantasy.

 

Desperado Publishing will be involved with the re-launching of many Caliber titles.  According to Reed, Joe Pruett, publisher of Desperado, hasn't 'taken over all of the Caliber properties, it's more like a 'first look' deal.'  Desperado has already launched a new Deadworld series as well as Reed's Saint Germaine collection.  Other Desperado titles with a Caliber connection include Negative Burn and Kilroy, while Red Diaries, Golgothika, Renfield, and Black Mist are under consideration.

 

Reed has also fashioned an agreement with Komikwerks under which many of the Caliber titles will be available online and then collected as ebooks for distribution to bookstores.  Raven Chronicles, Seeker, Helsing, Troy, Magus and other Caliber titles will start appearing as daily online strips starting in late February.

 

In addition to their online incarnations described above other Caliber titles will be appearing in different media -- the entire 46-isssue run of Deadworld has been collected on CD-Rom by Eagle One Marketing, and Reed has signed with the Hollywood management company, Content House, to represent the Caliber properties for potential film and television exploitation. In addition some of the Caliber titles, such as Deadworld and Raven Chronicles, will be adapted into novels.

 

Reed is also forming a new company with Rafael Nieves.  Transfuzion, which will launch in May, will serve as a content builder that will bring writers and artist together to collaborate on properties in a number of different media.

 

Reed is also continuing to write comics.  Penguin Books published his Frankenstein adaptation last year and a Dracula graphic novel with artist Becky Cloonan (of Demo fame) will be published in March.  Reed also has a young adult book coming out from the new Actionopolis line from Komikwerks.