Silverline Comics

Silverline Comics is an American genre-spanning independent comic book and graphic novel publisher. Originally formed by Roland Mann and Steven Butler as a packager in 1987. Silverline originally lasted as a packager from 1987 to 1994. It was brought back once again from 1997 to 2001 as a publisher. Silverline published thirteen comics in that time span.

A rebooted version of Silverline Comics was started in 2018, founded by Roland Mann, who was responsible for its original creation. Silverline Comics has sixteen titles and several more in active development. Silverline Comics titles include Cat & Mouse, SilverStorm, Divinity, Friar Rush, and Kayless. Silverline Comics is based out of Central Florida.

History

Silverline V1 (1987-1993)

Silverline began in 1987 at the University of Southern Mississippi. Roland Mann met Steven Butler and they would discuss the comic book industry and how to break in. Inspired by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the black and white boom, they originally tried to publish their comics under the Top Comics label but they couldn't acquire the funding.

Mann and Butler were picked up by a new publisher called EFG. They still wanted to brand their own line and maintain a unique identity. They decided on the name Silverline as they loved the Silver Age of comics. Steven Butler created a Silverline banner that would run the width of the comic at the bottom of the covers.

They planned on creating Cat & Mouse, the first Silverline comics title, which would be followed by a SilverStorm mini-series, a bi-monthly anthology title, and then a new ongoing series, The Hero Task Force, a series that teamed up characters from the SilverStorm and the unnamed anthology title.

But EFG folded before all the titles could come to fruition. Mann and Butler took their printed copies and stacks of photocopies of the work in progress and sent it off to a handful of independent publishers at the time. They talked with several but ultimately ended up at Aircel, an imprint of Malibu Graphics. Except, Aircel only wanted Cat & Mouse and SilverStorm.

The team packaged a few other titles, those being Mantus Files, Sirens, Pendulum, before Malibu Comics hired Mann as an editor. Mitch Byrd and Steven Butler had both moved on to other projects, so Silverline folded until 1997.

Silverline V2 (1997-2001)

Marvel Comics bought Malibu in 1994, turning Mann into a Marvel editor. Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy in 1996 and fired 400 people. Mann decided to use what he had learned and tried to publish again. Rather than try to come up with a new label, he used Silverline again and published comics from 1997 until 2001, those titles being Marauder, Switchblade, Cybertrash and the Dog, and others. Due to the comic crash of the late 1990s, Mann ended up losing more than $20,000 of his own money trying to make Silverline happen but he decided to call it quits in 2001.

Silverline V3 (2018-Present)

Not long after calling it quits, Mann went back to school, got an advanced degree, and started teaching at the university level. While doing research for a class, he stumbled across an Internet announcement looking for writers to adapt Huckleberry Finn into a graphic novel.

After doing graphic novel adaptations of Huckleberry Finn and Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Mann's love of making comics was reinvigorated. That, along with his wife, BJ, supporting and encouraging him to get back into comics, he started making them again, but as a side project to his day job as a professor. Mann recognized that he needed a publishing label, and once again resurrected Silverline.

In 2015, Silverline decided to venture into crowdfunding options. The first project was a Kickstarter for the comic Citizens, which didn't meet its funding goal. A year later the Kickstarter for the comic TINY was successful. In 2018, Silverline started a Kickstarter campaign for Cat & Mouse #1 Vol. 2. The creative team of Dean Zachary, Barb Kaalberg, and Kevin Gallegly encouraged Mann to restart Silverline as a publisher, which he did. Since rebooting as a publisher, Silverline Comics has had many successful Kickstarter campaigns and several projects that are in various stages of development.

In 2018, BJ and Roland Mann formalized Silverline Publishing LLC with the Comics Division.

Silverline Titles

• Bloodline
• Cat & Mouse V1
• Cat & Mouse V2
• Demon’s Tails
• Divinity
• Friar Rush
• Kayless
• Krey
• The Mantus Files
• Marauder
• The Scary Book
• SilverStorm
• Sirens
• Steam Patriots
• Switchblade
• Tiny
• Twilight Grimm

• Beah
• Silverline Team-Up #1 Featuring Champion and Ms. Fury

Silverline E-Sports

On January 6, 2021, Silverline Comics announced a new e-sports division.

References

This article "Silverline Comics" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Silverline Comics. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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