Classic tales of Heroic Publishing’s FLARE and the CHAMPIONS are now available on the comic book industry’s premier digital distribution system, with new issues arriving every two weeks! In each issue of FLARE, follow the adventures of comics’ shining goddess of light, as she navigates the pitfalls of juggling her career as an international supermodel with the demands of being one of the world’s foremost heroines. In each issue of CHAMPIONS, enjoy solo adventures of GIANT, ICESTAR, SPARKPLUG, the TIGRESS, and other members of the LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS. Flare and the Champions are two of the longest-running series in the history of independent comic book publishing. For 28 years, beginning in the summer of 1986 and continuing through today, Heroic Publishing has produced fully 60 issues of Champions and 42 issues of Flare. Flare, in particular, has been a ground-breaking title. Until late 1988, when the first issue of Flare appeared in comic book stores nationwide, conventional wisdom in the comic book industry (Wonder Woman to contrary) held having a female as the title character was death to sales. FLARE changed that.
At a time when most comic books were selling at a dollar or less, the super-sized $2.75 first issue of Flare flew off the shelves, causing Heroic to go back to press in order to meet demand. What was it about Flare, both as a character and a comic book, that struck a chord with readers that continues to ring to this day? Many theories have been proposed. Some suggest that it was the insouciant charm of the character herself. Flare is, above all else, a vibrant and aggressively assertive young woman with just a tinge of darkness in the midst of the light she brings to the world, a woman who knows the difference between who she’s been in the past and who the heroine she wants to be. Some suggest it was the wonderful artwork of Tim Burgard and Mark Beachum, a level of quality in presentation that has continued throughout the series with contributions from Mark Propst, Gordon Purcell, and many other talented contributors. Some suggest it was the underlying seriousness in what at first glance seemed to be a lighter, tongue-in-cheek approach to storytelling by writers Dennis Mallonee and Wilson Hill. We think it’s a combination of all these things that makes Flare unique in the history of comics. For those of you who haven’t yet been able to enjoy the adventures of FLARE and her friends in the LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS, who may not have been able to find these and other Heroic Publishing titles in your local comic book store, their arrival on ComiXology is a wonderful opportunity to step into a world you’ve never seen, a world that focuses not on darkness, but on the light of what it truly means to be a hero.