Sunrise Distribution#Publishing ventures

Sunrise Distribution evolved from Rosenberg's mail-order comics business, Direct Comics, which he had founded when he was 13 years old.Ehrenreich, Ben. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E2DF173EF932A25752C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "PHENOMENON; Comic Genius?" New York Times magazine (November 11, 2007).]

In early 1986,{{cite comic|writer=David Lawrence|story=An Explanation|title=Lawrence & Lim's THE NEW HUMANS|volume=1|issue=1|date=July 1987|publisher=Pied Piper Comics}} income from Rosenberg's comics distribution business allowed him to privately finance Eternity Comics, originally based in New York City and helmed by Brian Marshall.{{cite news|title=Distributor Finances Five Publishers|url=http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/mrri/malibuz.htm|accessdate=February 5, 2016|work=The Comics Journal|issue=115|date=April 1987|pages=12–13}} Writer/editor David Campiti worked as a packager to supply content for Eternity.

Beginning in the summer of 1986, after disputes arose between Marshall and Campiti, Rosenberg (along with fellow investors Paula Brown, Mitch Everitt, and Jules Zimmerman) provided capital for Campiti to form two new small publishers: Amazing and Wonder Color, with business offices for both publishers based in the same location in Long Beach, California. Marshall, meanwhile, retained control of Eternity.

Amazing and Wonder Color were affiliated with another publisher with which Campiti was involved: Pied Piper Comics. The plan was that Campiti would package comics for all three publishers through his studio Campiti and Associates,{{cite web|url=http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=CAMPITI+AND+ASSOCIATES|title=Campiti and Associates entry|work=Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999|access-date=Dec 25, 2021}} with Pied Piper handling projects in the form of posters and graphic novels. Amazing published black-and-white comics, while Wonder Color published comics in color.

Wonder Color's staff included investor Paula Brown as publisher, editor-in-chief Campiti, and consulting editor Roger McKenzie.{{cite comic|title=Hero Alliance|issue=1|date=

May 1987|publisher=Wonder Color}} Writer David Lawrence edited a few titles.

Near the end of 1986, Rosenberg and his investors financed two new publishers: Imperial Comics, based in Brooklyn, New York, and helmed by Marshall; and Malibu Comics, based in Calabasas, California, headed by Dave Olbrich (previously an employee of Sunrise Distribution){{cite magazine|work=The Comics Journal|number=114|location=Seattle, WA|publisher=Fantagraphics Books|date=Feb 1987|title=Black and White Explosion Slowing Down, According to Comics Distributors|page=26}} and cartoonist Tom Mason. John Arcudi served as an editor for Imperial Comics.

==== Mergers ====

In the spring of 1987, Sunrise announced that due to cash flow issues, it would not be able to pay its client publishers until July.{{cite magazine|title=Sunrise announces it may not pay some publishers until July|work=The Comics Journal|number=115|date=April 1987|page=24}}

Concurrently, Rosenberg revealed his connection to Amazing, Eternity, Imperial, Malibu, and Wonder Color, and declared that he was assuming direct control of all five publishers.{{cite magazine|title=New Goals... New Directions... New Management...! A Re-Organization of Amazing Comics|first=Scott |last=Rosenberg|author-link=Scott Mitchell Rosenberg|date=March 1, 1987|work=Amazing Comics Premieres|issue=5}} At this point, Rosenberg shut down Amazing, Imperial, and Wonder Color, while keeping Eternity Comics as a Malibu brand. Some Imperial titles moved to Malibu/Eternity; a few Amazing and Wonder Color titles were retained by Campiti and moved to Pied Piper Comics.

Sunrise went bankrupt and abruptly folded in the summer of 1988, during the "black-and-white implosion".{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} This left a number of small publishers without the cash flow to continue, and they, too, went out of business.{{cite news|last=MacDonald|first=Heidi|url=http://comicsbeat.com/the-utterly-insane-world-of-platinum-studios|title=The utterly insane world of Platinum Studios|work=The Beat|date=January 17, 2013}} Two of Sunrise's clients, the West Coast publishers Blackthorne Publishing and Fantagraphics, sued the distributor,{{cite magazine|title=Two Publishers Sue Sunrise Distributors|work=The Comics Journal|number=120|date=March 1988|page=8}} but ultimately, neither publisher was able to recoup its losses.{{cite magazine|title=Sunrise Creditors Meet|work=The Comics Journal|number=122|date=June 1988|page=22}}

Rosenberg continued with Malibu, which survived into the mid-1990s, with many ups and downs, before being acquired by Marvel Comics in 1994.{{cite magazine|last=Reynolds|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Reynolds (comics)|title=The Rumors are True: Marvel Buys Malibu|work=The Comics Journal|number= 173|date=December 1994|pages=29–33}}

In 2015, Tom Mason, a co-founder of Malibu Comics, described Rosenberg's operations this way:

{{cquote|He secretly financed four (yes, that’s right) comic book companies with the idea that they would publish comics, he’d push them through his existing distribution channel at Sunrise, then sell individual copies by mail order through yet another company of his called Direct Comics. Having a distribution company that distributes books from multiple publishers, then expands to publishing its own books while also running a mail order division isn’t a bad way to create a vertically-integrated company without many assets. Unfortunately, he did it in secret, and had been trying to manipulate the market to create "hot" comics that could be sold at higher prices post-publication, and it all went bad when the bubble of inflated high-priced "hot" comics burst. Sunrise was bankrupt and shut down leaving behind a trail of bad debt that hurt a lot of small publishers at the same time Malibu was launching.{{cite web|title=Dinosaurs for Hire: Tom Mason interview...|first=J.C.|last=Vaughn|work=Overstreet Comic Book Marketplace Yearbook 2015-2016|date=2015|publisher=Diamond Comic Distributors|url=https://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1017?articleID=195091|access-date=March 16, 2023}}}}

• Amazing Comics Premieres #1–5 (Feb.–Aug. 1987) — showcase title; contributors include Roger McKenzie, Kevin VanHook, David Lawrence, Sam Kieth, Ron Lim, and David Campiti
• Barney the Invisible Turtle{{cite web|url=http://comicattack.net/2009/11/25/wcwbarneytheinvisibleturtle1|title=Wacky Comic Wednesday: Barney the Invisible Turtle #1|website=ComicAttack.net|access-date=10 August 2013|date=November 25, 2009|author=Andy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130912091308/http://comicattack.net/2009/11/25/wcwbarneytheinvisibleturtle1/|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 Sep 2013}} #1 (1987) — by Rick Rodolfo
• Blip and C.C.A.D.S #1–2 (1987)
• Daemon Mask #1 (1987) — by Stuart Hopen and Russ Martin
• Domino Chance: Roach Extraordinaire (1987) — by Kevin Lenagh
• Ex-Mutants: The Special Edition (Spring 1987) — reprinting the first issue as published by Eternity
• Ex-Mutants #2–5 (1987) — by David Lawrence and Ron Lim; moved to Pied Piper Comics
• The Gajit Gang #1 (1987)
• Jack Frost #1–2 (1987) — by Kevin VanHook
• Phigments #1 (1987) — art by Evan Dorkin; later acquired by Pied Piper Comics
• Tales of the Sun Runners #3 (Feb. 1987) — by Roger McKenzie and Glen Johnson; acquired from Sirius Comics
• The Sun Runners Christmas Special #1 (Mar. 1987) — contributors include Roger McKenzie and Kelley Jones
• Wabbit Wampage #1 (1987) — by Stephen D. Sullivan; based on a board game he had earlier developed with Pacesetter Ltd{{cite web | url = http://www.alanemrich.com/CSR_pages/Awards%20Pages/CSR1985.htm | title = Charles S. Roberts Award Winners (1985) | accessdate = 2008-06-11 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080828034244/http://www.alanemrich.com/CSR_pages/Awards%20Pages/CSR1985.htm | archivedate = 2008-08-28}}

• G.I. R.A.M.B.O.T. #1 (Apr. 1987)
• Hero Alliance #1 (May 1987) — moved to Pied Piper Comics
• Power Factor #1 (May 1987) — moved to Pied Piper Comics
• Terraformers (2 issues, April–May 1987) — art by Kelley Jones

• Battle to the Death #1 (1987) — moved to Eternity Comics
• Blackstar (2 issues, Dec. 1986–Feb. 1987) — by Jenkins, Matthews, and Phred
• Dark Comics #1 (1987)
• Nazrat (4 issues, Nov. 1986–Apr. 1987) — by Jerry Frazee; moved to Eternity Comics
• Probe (2 issues, Feb. 1987–Apr. 1987) — by Frank Turner; moved to Eternity Comics

• Capital City Distribution
• Pacific Comics
• New Media/Irjax

{{reflist}}

• {{gcdb publisher|id= 550 |title=Amazing}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id=515|title=Eternity Comics}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id= 2975 |title=Imperial Comics}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id= 612 |title=Innovation}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id=613|title=Malibu Comics}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id= 532 |title=Pied Piper Comics}}
• {{gcdb publisher|id= 2508 |title=Wonder Color}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Comics industry

Category:Defunct companies based in California

Category:Defunct comics and manga publishing companies

Category:1988 disestablishments in California