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Brian Fowler

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"Legion of Hollywood"? "Fredericks' Legion"? Something of the sort... What has always puzzled me is how Bill Black has seemingly gotten a pass for F.E.M.force for all these years. Not that there's anything particularly offensive about F.E.M.force, (though the entire enterprise exists for the dual purpose of featuring GGA and public domain super-heroes), and compared to the grotesque excesses of Chaos, Verotik, and even Image, Bill Black's fascination with pin-up girl as super-hero doesn't seem quite so offensive. Still, I'm surprised that in these days of perhaps excessive political correctness that no one has opted to wag the finger at a comic book dedicated to portraying pretty girls in sexy costumes.

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2 minutes ago, Betsy Zeidler said:

I turn a blind eye because they help fund the GA reprints that make up the majority of the line :)

Yes, one of these pays for a lot of Green Lama and the original Daredevil... We are horrible people. ?Femforce Pin-Up Portfolio #2 1988 FN Stock Image

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27 minutes ago, OSJ said:

"Legion of Hollywood"? "Fredericks' Legion"? Something of the sort... What has always puzzled me is how Bill Black has seemingly gotten a pass for F.E.M.force for all these years. Not that there's anything particularly offensive about F.E.M.force, (though the entire enterprise exists for the dual purpose of featuring GGA and public domain super-heroes), and compared to the grotesque excesses of Chaos, Verotik, and even Image, Bill Black's fascination with pin-up girl as super-hero doesn't seem quite so offensive. Still, I'm surprised that in these days of perhaps excessive political correctness that no one has opted to wag the finger at a comic book dedicated to portraying pretty girls in sexy costumes.

I think part of it is that it comes out relatively rarely, isn't digitally distributed, and at a high price point, so it just doesn't have the visibility of a company like Avatar/Boundless, let alone the naughtier Big Two releases.  Its relative invisibility beyond the die-hards means that the people who'd be most apt to complain probably don't even know it exists since nobody's scanning it to post random pages to a blog.  Hell, every time I see it on the weekly release list, I realize I'd forgotten it exists because I haven't seen a copy in a store this century.  

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1 minute ago, Cliff Hanger said:

I think part of it is that it comes out relatively rarely, isn't digitally distributed, and at a high price point, so it just doesn't have the visibility of a company like Avatar/Boundless, let alone the naughtier Big Two releases.  Its relative invisibility beyond the die-hards means that the people who'd be most apt to complain probably don't even know it exists since nobody's scanning it to post random pages to a blog.  Hell, every time I see it on the weekly release list, I realize I'd forgotten it exists because I haven't seen a copy in a store this century.  

I think you're probably right, AC Comics is one of those things that you're either going to see at a Comic Con, your LCS guy recommends it or you're probably never going to see any of their stuff as their marketing is pretty much non-existent . I finally threw in the towel around F.E.M.force #130, when I realized that I was buying the book reflexively, not because I actually wanted it. As I understand it, they're still going strong, after debuting in 1985 or 1982 if you count the fanzine stuff as Paragon Comics; so around 35 years as an indy, often published in B & W. They must be doing something right, they've outlasted several competitors, including a couple of incarnations of Valiant Comics, and others with much larger budgets.

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56 minutes ago, Betsy Zeidler said:

They know their audience well.  The most recent issue (182!) had a cover price of $9.95, ye gods!

$9.95 for 80 B & W pages??? The website isn't specific, but I am assuming that a lubricant is provided with the package...

I'm afraid my estimate of Bill Black changed over the years from that of a really cool eccentric fighting a Quixotian battle to publish a cool indy comic and preserve great stuff from the Golden Age to that of just another cynical publisher dramatically cutting product quality and raising prices to increase profits as he (figuratively) bends his customers over the desk, chortling at his cleverness. 

Yeah, we are not amused.

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