Vortex Comics: Difference between revisions

Vortex was founded by 20-year-old high school dropout<ref name="DAK40">{{cite news | first = Marty | last = Herzog | date = November 1986 | title = Bill Marks | work = [[Comics Interview]] | issue = 40 | pages = 50–65 | publisher = [[Fictioneer Books]]}}</ref> William P. "Bill" Marks of Toronto in 1982, with its first title being an anthology comic of the same name. Marks recalled, "[Comic books] had a lot of potential for growth that I could see. I could see a revolution happening. By this time ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark|Cerebus]]'' was doing extremely well. ''[[Elfquest]]'' was a runaway success in the bookstores and on the best-seller lists. [[Eclipse Comics|Eclipse]] was just starting up and shortly thereafter [[Pacific Comics]] started to get quite big."<ref name="DAK40">{{cite news |last=Herzog |first=Marty |date=November 1986 |title=Bill Marks |pages=50–65 |work=[[Comics Interview]] |publisher=[[Fictioneer Books]] |issue=40}}</ref> Vortex received good distribution in both the U.S. and Canada,. and theThe company proved to be a major force in Canadian comics publishing throughout the 1980s.

HardHowever, hard times hit the comics industry in 1988, however, and Vortex, like many other small publishers, suffered. The company was able to launchlaunched a few new titles in 1988, most notably [[Howard Chaykin]]'s erotic thriller ''[[Black Kiss]]''. ''Black Kiss'' became one of the most controversial North American comics of the late 1980s, due to the comic having the sort of explicit scenes of sex and violence unseen in most comics published at the time. In addition, Vortex's printer at the time, Ronald's Printing, refused to print the book due to its content.<ref>"Ronald's Printing Drops Black Kiss," ''The Comics Journal'' #126 (January 1989), p. 32.</ref> To help retailers who had worries over selling what could be described as [[pornography]], Vortex released the series sealed in a plastic bag. (This meant that casual browsers could not open the comic, or obviously see the internal content.) The publicity over ''Black Kiss'' didn't necessarily lead to strong sales, however, and by the end of 1988 Vortex's publishing schedule was erratic. Nonetheless, in January 1989, Vortex declared itself the third largest North American independent comic book publisher.<ref>"Vortex Pronounces Itself 3rd Largest Independent," ''The Comics Journal'' #126 (Jan. 1989), p. 32.</ref>

After a brief career as a race car driver, publisher Marks went on to produce and direct numerous feature films. Vortex was re-branded by Marks in 2009 as '''Vortex Words + Pictures''', and most recently Vortex has produced the [[George Hickenlooper]] film ''[[Casino Jack]]'', starring [[Kevin Spacey]], ''[[A Dark Truth]]'' with [[Andy Garcia]] and [[Forest Whitaker]], ''[[Compulsion (2013 film)|Compulsion]]'', starring [[Heather Graham]] (with cinematography by the legendary [[Vilmos Zsigmond]]), as well as ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'', and the indy hit ''Wolfcop[[WolfCop]]''.

== Titles publishespublished ==

* [[Mike DringingbergDringenberg]]