Solar (comics)
Solar is an American comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appeared in other incarnations in books published by Valiant Comics in the 1990s, Dark Horse Comics in the 2000s, and Dynamite Entertainment in the 2010s.
Publication history
Gold Key Comics
Solar was created in 1962 by writer Paul S. Newman and editor Matt Murphy, with illustrations from artist Bob Fujitani, for the Silver Age comic book publisher Gold Key, a new company formed by Western Publishing who, earlier that year, had ended its business arrangement with Dell Comics. The character premiered in issue #1 of Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom in Summer 1962 in the first batch of comics released by Gold Key, with Solar being Gold Key's first original character.Though Gold Key did not have as large a distribution network as Dell Comics, their comics stood out on the newsstand shelves because of their cover art and their 12 cent price, a bargain when contrasted with the 15 cent price on Dell's books. Early issues of Solar out sold Superman two to one. The first two issues of Solar appeared with cover paintings by Richard M. Powers; after the second issue the cover paintings were done by George Wilson. The interior artwork in the first few issues also had unique features: the superhero, Dr. Solar, did not have a costume until the fifth issue, rectangular word balloons and no black holding line around each panel. Following the practice of Dell Comics, and thanks to Western Publishing's reputation of publishing other child-friendly books, Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom was able to be distributed without the Comics Code Authority symbol. The original creative team of writer Paul S. Newman and artist Bob Fujitani lasted until issue #5 when Frank Bolle took over the art work. With the exception of issue #7 written by Otto Binder, Newman wrote the comic book until issue #10, when Dick Wood took over for the remainder of the series. Other artists who contributed included: Mel Crawford, Win Mortimer, Alden McWilliams, Ernie Colón, José Delbo.
The popularity of this original series peaked in 1965. With a price increase to 15 cents with issue #25 in 1968, and a general decline in sales in the comic book industry in the late-1960s, Gold Key cancelled the series in 1969 with issue #27. In one of Gold Key's few cross-overs, Doctor Solar re-appeared in the 1975 comic book The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor #14. In the early-1980s, with another industry contraction, Gold Key withdrew from distribution to newsstands and began publishing comics under the Whitman Comics imprint. These were distributed to retail stores in poly-bagged packages of three comic books. For this purpose, Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom was restarted at #28 with Roger McKenzie writing and Dan Spiegle drawing. This initiative was short-lived and the series was cancelled again after only four issues.
Valiant Comics
Solar next appeared in 1991 when Valiant Comics restarted the series with a new premise. Western Publishing had been distributing Valiant's Nintendo and World Wrestling Entertainment comics and agreed to allow Valiant to license characters from the Gold Key library. Valiant intended to use successful Gold Key characters to launch a superhero line of comics and spin-off original characters under the direction of editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who had previously, unsuccessfully launched the Marvel Comics superhero line New Universe. With Valiant's video game and wrestling comics experiencing limited success, they launched the new line in 1991 with Magnus, Robot Fighter, followed by Solar, Man of the Atom a couple of months later.The new Solar series began with three multi-part stories all written by Jim Shooter: "Alpha and Omega" with artwork by Barry Windsor-Smith and Bob Layton, spanned the first ten issues and told of the origin story of how the protagonist, Phil Seleski, became Solar, until the time he accidentally destroys the world; "Second Death", with artwork by Don Perlin, Bob Layton and Thomas Ryder, spanned the first four issues and tells of Seleski's attempt to prevent another version of himself from destroying the world; "First Strike", with artwork by Don Perlin and Stan Drake, spanned issues #5 to #8 and follows Solar as he fights spider aliens. These first year stories included first appearances by Eternal Warrior, the Harbinger Foundation, Geomancers, and the X-O Manowar armor - all of which would be spun off into their own series.
File:ValiantDoctorSolarByBWS.jpg|thumb|Valiant Comics' version of Solar by Barry Windsor-Smith
With its US$1.75 cover price, and benefiting from Valiant's heavy promotion of its superhero line and its combined direct and newsstand distribution network, Solar was returning a small profit with print runs of approximately 60,000 copies of each issue in the first year. The second year began with two tie-in issues with the "Unity" storyline with Solar appearing in the other Valiant titles that also tied into that storyline. The popularity of "Unity" significantly raised demand for Valiant products, including new issues and back issues. Solar's print run rapidly grew to peak at 360,000 copies of issue #23, which by that time, mid-1993, had a cover price of US$2.25. Following Shooter's ouster from Valiant Comics in 1992, Kevin VanHook took over the writing job and Solar editor Bob Layton also became Valiant's editor-in-chief. Steve Ditko pencilled issues #14 and #15 before Pater Grau took over until #35. During that time Solar appeared in other Valiant titles, such as Archer & Armstrong, Rai, Secret Weapons, X-O Manowar, and Harbinger Files, as well as Deathmate, and The Chaos Effect.
After Acclaim Entertainment took over ownership of Valiant in Summer 1994, VanHook continued as writer but the penciller job was divided between Andrew Wendell and Louis Small until issue #41 at the end of the year. Stephen D. Sullivan wrote the next two issues with Scott Rosema as penciller, followed by two issues by writer Christopher Priest and penciller Rik Levins. Acclaim launched a publicity strategy dubbed "Birthquake" which attracted high profile comic book writers and artists to work on their titles. Dan Jurgens took over as writer and penciller, with Dick Giordano as inker, beginning with issue #46 until issue #51 when Tom Grindberg took over as penciller for four issues. As sales continued to fall, Tony Bedard took over as writer from #52, with Aaron Lopresti, Mike Manley and Jeff Johnson dividing the penciller job, until the series was cancelled with issue #60 in 1996.
Acclaim Comics
Acclaim cancelled the remainder of the Valiant titles in 1996 and restarted a select few under a new creative direction with Fabian Nicieza as editor-in-chief. They published the one-shot Solar, Man of the Atom with a May 1997 cover date, written by Warren Ellis, and penciled by Darick Robertson. It was followed by a second one-shot Solar, Man of the Atom: Revelations by Jim Krueger, Patrick Zircher and Jimmy Palmiotti. Acclaim's final attempt at Solar was the four-issue mini-series Solar, Man of the Atom: Hell on Earth by Christopher Priest, Patrick Zircher, ChrisCross, and Romeo Tanghal. While Acclaim continued to publish comics for several more years, the rights to Solar lapsed and reverted to Classic Media, which had acquired Western Publishing's properties in 2001.Dark Horse Comics
Amid an industry-wide resurgence in the popularity of publishing high quality reprint collections, such as Marvel Golden Age Masterworks and the DC Archive series, Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to reprint Dell and Gold Key comics. Dark Horse published a four volume hard-cover series that reprinted the entire Gold Key Doctor Solar series, including his appearance in The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #14, with the first volume being released in 2004 covering issue 1 to 7. The second and third volumes were released in 2005 and covered issues 8 to 22. The final volume was released two years later, in 2007, covering issues 23 to 31 as well as the Dr. Spektor issue.In 2008, Dark Horse Comics announced that the company intended to publish an original Solar series, as well as other Gold Key characters. A year later, at San Diego Comic-Con, Dark Horse announced Jim Shooter would be the new series' writer. The new Solar series ran for eight issues, plus a preview issue. A trade paperback collection was released that collected the preview issue and #1-4 of the comic in its first volume, and the remaining issues in its second volume.
Dynamite Entertainment
In 2013, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the publishing rights to Solar, Turok, Magnus: Robot Fighter and Doctor Spektor. Dynamite released a Solar: Man of The Atom ongoing series; it lasted for 12 issues, from March 2014 to February 2015.Fictional character biography
Gold Key Comics
The original Doctor Solar was a physicist named Dr. Phillip Solar who attempted to assist fellow worker Dr. Bently avert an imminent meltdown of the nuclear power plant where they worked. It had been sabotaged by Dr. Rasp, agent of an evil mastermind named Nuro. Bently lost his life trying to prevent the meltdown, while Solar absorbed a massive amount of radiation in the process. He survived and discovered that he had gained the ability to convert his body into any kind of nuclear energy. Using his new powers, Solar began searching for Nuro, who would become his nemesis. Nuro used a robot double of himself called Orun and later transferred his mind into it, calling himself King Cybernoid.The character was initially envisioned as a "post-modern superhero" who didn't wear a traditional superhero outfit, but readers wrote in and demanded a costume. In the fifth issue, Doctor Solar donned a superhero costume, and became known as "The Man of the Atom". In addition, his skin turned green whenever he used his powers. At about that same time, in an "Ask Doctor Solar" column, Gold Key Comics changed Solar's first name from Phillip to Raymond.