Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (launched as Malibu Graphics) was an American
comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its
Ultraverse line of
superhero titles.[1][2][3] Notable titles published by Malibu included The Men in Black, Ultraforce, and Night Man.
The company's headquarters was in
Calabasas, California. Malibu was initially
publisher of record for
Image Comics from 1992 to 1993. The company's other imprints included
Adventure,
Aircel and
Eternity. Malibu also owned a small software development company that designed video games in the early to mid-1990s called Malibu Interactive.
In 1987, after Rosenberg's behind-the-scenes roles were revealed, he discontinued most of the other small publishers, merging some with Malibu and retaining Eternity Comics as a Malibu brand. At this point, Chris Ulm joined Malibu as editor-in-chief.[6]
From that point forward, the Malibu brand was used for superhero titles; while Eternity was used for the magazine line and also for
anime-inspired titles like Robotech; Adventure was used for Malibu's licensed titles, such as Planet of the Apes and Alien Nation; and Aircel was used for
Barry Blair's comics and Malibu's
adult line.
In 1998, the company also acquired the character Shuriken (a character that was self-published from 1985–1988 by Victory Productions) from its creator Reggie Byers.[9][10] Shuriken was published in three
limited series and two
one-shots by Malibu; later the character was introduced in the
Ultraverse imprint.[11]
1989-1992
By this time, the company was publishing a combination of new series and licensed properties. Later, after a legal battle with the creators, Malibu created a shared universe called Shattered Earth.[12]
In 1992, heroes from
Centaur Publications (a
Golden Age publisher whose properties fell into the
public domain) were revived in the form of the
Protectors, consisting of
Airman,
Amazing-Man, Aura, Arc,
Arrow, Ferret, Man of War and Mighty Man, among others. Several of these characters had short-lived spin-off titles of their own. The Centaur heroes and other characters from Adventure (
Miss Fury and
Rocket Ranger), and Eternity (
Dinosaurs for Hire,
Ex-Mutants) plus Dead Clown and Widowmaker, were put together in one Universe to form the Genesis line. This line, however, had a short lifespan.
Image Comics' publisher of record
In early 1992, Malibu served as
publisher of record for the first comics from
Image Comics, making the upstart creator-run publisher members of the Malibu Graphics Publishing Group,[13] and giving Image access to the
distribution channels.[14] This move led to Malibu obtaining almost ten percent of the American comics market share,[15] temporarily moving ahead of industry giant
DC Comics.[16]
By the beginning of 1993, Image's financial situation was secure enough to publish its titles independently, and it left Malibu.[17]
Malibu Interactive and Ultraverse
In late 1992, seeking to capitalize on the growing
video game market, Malibu merged with video game developer Acme Interactive to form Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc., with Malibu Interactive acting as a subsidiary.[18][19][20]
The
Ultraverse line was launched in June 1993[21] during the "boom" of the early 1990s, roughly concurrent with the debut of publishers such as
Image and
Valiant, and new superhero lines from
DC and
Dark Horse (
Milestone and
Comics' Greatest World, respectively). The line was in part intended to fill the gap left by Image's independence.
Establishing itself as the first company to use digital coloring for all its titles,[22] Malibu boasted improved production values over traditional comics, including higher-quality paper, and a roster of talented and respected writers and artists. Emphasizing the tight
continuity between the various series in the Ultraverse line, Malibu made extensive use of
crossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories followed. The Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog.
The Bravura imprint, launched in January 1994, was Malibu's
creator-owned imprint. Founding members of the Bravura group were
Dan Brereton (Nocturnals),
Howard Chaykin (Power & Glory),
Steven D. Grant &
Gil Kane (Edge),
Dan Jurgens (Deuce),
Walt Simonson (Star Slammers), and
Jim Starlin (Breed, Dreadstar). The group was represented by attorney Harris M. Miller II.[23] The "Bravura Gold Stamp Program" encouraged readers to collect stickers from each issue of Breed, Power & Glory, Edge, Dreadstar, and Star Slammers to qualify for various offers, including "the rare" Bravura #0!"[24]
Malibu launched the Rock-It Comix imprint for rock music comics in early 1994. Malibu worked with the management firm Gold Mountain Entertainment in dealing with the musicians, while International Strategic Marketing distributed the line to comic book shops, music outlets, and newsstands.[1]
By early 1994, Malibu Comics Entertainment had large numbers of employees in various divisions, including editorial, design, the art department, coloring,
imagesetting, marketing, film, finance, and administration.[25]
Acquisition by Marvel Comics
As sales declined industry-wide in the mid-1990s, Malibu canceled lower-selling series.[26] But the company's biggest problem was its game division—started in an attempt to break into the
video game market—which cost Malibu more than $200,000 a month.[27] Nonetheless, the company's assets were still seen as attractive enough to garner interest from
DC Comics in the spring of 1994.[28] In addition, Rosenberg and Malibu signed with the
William Morris Agency.[29]
Because Malibu had sufficient
market share that an acquisition from DC would make the latter surpass Marvel's market share,[28] Marvel decided to purchase Malibu itself to prevent this from happening: on November 3, 1994, Malibu was purchased by
Marvel Comics.[30][31][32][33]
To slow down rumors that the Ultraverse titles would be canceled as soon as the deal closed, Malibu claimed that Marvel wanted Malibu because of its digital coloring system.[34] Meanwhile, in the middle of the following year, 1995, Malibu standard-bearers Mason and Ulm left the company.[35] Around the same, time in May–October 1995 (during the "
Black September" event)[22] Marvel re-launched a handful of the more Ultraverse popular titles as well as a number of
crossovers with Marvel characters. The "volume 2" series each started with "#
∞ (infinity)" issues — these were, however, canceled a short time later. With that, Marvel canceled the entire Ultraverse line. (Within the
Marvel Comics multiverse, the Genesis Universe is designated as Earth-1136 and the Ultraverse as Earth-93060.)[36]
Very little Malibu content was published after 1996.
Potential Ultraverse revival
In June 2005, when asked by
Newsarama whether Marvel had any plans to revive the Ultraverse, Marvel editor-in-chief
Joe Quesada replied that:
Let's just say that I wanted to bring these characters back in a very big way, but the way that the deal was initially structured, it's next to impossible to go back and publish these books.
There are rumors out there that it has to do with a certain percentage of sales that has to be doled out to the creative teams. While this is a logistical nightmare because of the way the initial deal was structured, it's not the reason why we have chosen not to go near these characters, there is a bigger one, but I really don't feel like it's my place to make that dirty laundry public.[37]
In May 2012,
Steve Englehart suggested in a podcast interview that the reason Marvel will not presently publish the Ultraverse characters is because five percent of the profits from those books would have to go to the Malibu creators who were still alive.[38] Marvel Editor
Tom Brevoort later denied that the five percent was what was holding Marvel back, but was unable to give a real explanation due to a
non-disclosure agreement.[39]
It has been speculated that Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's ongoing producer deal for all Malibu properties (and his alleged personal troubles) is another possible factor in why the Ultraverse has never been revived.[28][40][41][42]
Edge by
Steven Grant and
Gil Kane (3 issues,
unfinished, 1994–1995;
iBooks released a hardback collection of the complete first series in 2004 under the title The Last Heroes[44])
The Man Called A-X by
Marv Wolfman (6 issues, 1994–1995)
^
ab"Distributor Finances Five Publishers". The Comics Journal. No. 115. April 1987. pp. 12–13. About Rosenberg and Eternity Comics, Imperial Comics, Amazing, Malibu, and Wonder Color Comics.
^"Chris Ulm entry". Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
^"Eternity Merges with Aircel". The Comics Journal. No. 125. October 1988. p. 19.
^"Malibu Acquires Adventure". The Comics Journal. No. 127. February 1989. p. 21.
^The Masked Man (December 14, 2016).
"SHURIKEN!". aintitcool.com/.
^"Bye Bye Marvel; Here Comes Image: Portacio, Claremont, Liefeld, Jim Lee Join McFarlane's New Imprint at Malibu". The Comics Journal. No. 148. February 1992. pp. 11–12.
^"NewsWatch: Malibu Commands 9.73% Market Share". The Comics Journal. No. 151. July 1992. p. 21.
^"Malibu Moves Ahead of DC in Comics Market". The Comics Journal=. No. 152. August 1992. pp. 7–8.
^"Image Leaves Malibu, Becomes Own Publisher". The Comics Journal. No. 155. January 1993. p. 22.
^"Malibu to Produce Video Games: Comic publisher merges with video game developer Acme Interactive". Newswatch. The Comics Journal. No. 153. October 1992. p. 19.
^
abcTom Mason, quoted in MacDonald, Heidi (Nov 16, 2013).
"Quote of the day: get in the time machine". The Beat.: "Marvel bought Malibu for only one reason: to keep it away from DC which had been negotiating to buy the company since April/May 1994."
^"Malibu Signs with William Morris Agency". The Comics Journal. No. 170. August 1994. p. 40.
^Reynolds, Eric (December 1994). "The Rumors are True: Marvel Buys Malibu". The Comics Journal. No. 173. pp. 29–33.