Monday, April 11, 2011

What are the history of Robotech and Macross comics?

In some of the production art from the two pallets of Comico production art you will see references to Robotech and Macross.  These legendary comic series were one of the first major introductions of Japanese anime characters and story lines to enter the American comic scene.  For collectors wanting to come up to speed on the history of Macross and Robotech I would like to draw your attention to this History of Robotech  created by one of many fans of the series to this day.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

So Who Saved The Comico Production Art? We Did!

Greetings All,

If you have been following the story of the Comico Art auction that was listed on ebay you may have noticed the blogosphere buzz about the mystery lot came to an abrupt end on December 1, 2010. With no additional mention of it again until we put up this website dedicated to the Comico Production Art Archives. The story picks up again on April 6th as the Comico Production Art Archives arrived in Arizona and now has a new home at Collector Haven Comics.


Fate decided to bring this fantastic collection our way, when we are in the middle of setting up a new store, and have the Phoenix Comicon right around the corner to prepare for. The art archive weighed over 2500 pounds and consists of thousands of pieces of production art from the legendary Comico Comics. We will release more information about what is actually in the collection as we begin the process of cataloging it and uploading the auctions to our ebay store. This is an exciting time for us as we were also big fans of Comico and being able to share this fantastic experience as it unfolds is one of the reasons we set up this site.


Rick Funk, Owner 

The Two Pallets Of Comico Production Art Have Arrived at Collector Haven, Mesa, AZ!

















To see a VERY small sample from the two pallets just click here for Comico Production Art samples.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Who bought the Comico Production Art offered on ebay?

The Comic Company was headquartered in the town of Norristown in Pennsylvania, and was an pioneering American comic book publisher.  Founded in 1982 when a group of friends who worked on a local school paper, called Duckwork, wanted to form their own publishing company.  The founders were Gerry Giovinco and Bill Cucinotta but several notable editors and artists worked for the company such as Geraldine Pecht as art director and Bob Schreck, also as art director and such notable artists as Doug Wildey (author of the Comico Jonny Quest series) and Matt Wagner (creator of Grendal and Mage: The Hero Discovered).  The first issue was a black and white book called Primer #1 and by 1984 they were publishing color books and gaining attention for their Robotech adaptations, Evangeline and Elementals.  They used that success to license properties such as Jonny Quest, the Star Blazer series, Space Ghost, and The Rocketeer.



Sadly their entry as a distributor into the newsstand market in 1986 was the beginning of the end even as more titles were published and distributed.  In 1990 Comico filed for bankruptcy and the company was sold to Andrew Rev who attempted to revive the company and sporadically published books until 1997.



Normally this would be the end of the Comico story but in 2011the name appeared in an ebay auction.  The owner of a storage unit was advertising 1500 pounds of Comico production art for sale on ebay.



Bloggers immediately asked about the contents of that huge bundle of Comico artwork.  Was it production art or line art? 



Blogs like the Comics Alliance:  Who owns the Comico art for sale on ebay?
drew comments from some of the Comico founders.



Other posts appeared on Comics Beat and Comic Art News asking the same question.


A Comico founder, Gerry Giovinco, also weighs in Co2 Comics.