Posted in: Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Dynamite, Image | Tagged: Gold Key, Magnus, robert kirkman, skybound, Solar, Turok

SCOOP: Robert Kirkman Brings Gold Key To Image: Magnus, Turok & Solar

Robert Kirkman gets the Gold Key licence for Image Comics with Magnus Robot Fighter, Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Solar Man Of The Atom

Bleeding Cool gets the word that Robert Kirkman, co-creator of The Walking Dead and Invincible, founder of comic book publisher Skybound Entertainment, partner of Image Comics, and current publisher of Transformers, GI JOE, Universal Monsters comics and Battle Beast, has some new toys. That he, or they, have signed a deal to publish comic books based on the fifties/sixties Gold Key characters, and that means Solar: Man Of The Atom, Turok: Son Of Stone/Dinosaur Hunter and Magnus: Robot Fighter. more recently associated with Valiant Entertainment. We expect to hear a lot more, including creative teams and to see first artwork in July, for San Diego Comic-Con. Will Robert Kirkman, Skybound and Image Comics be able to do for Magnus, Solar and Turok what they did for Transformers, G.I. JOE and M.A.S.K? Other Gold Key properties were recently Kickstartered by Gold Key Entertainment, but this seems very separate from that.

Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing, active from 1962 to 1984, that emerged when Western ended its packaging arrangement with Dell Comics and began publishing comics in-house under its own branding, for the American newsstand. They became well-known for a huge array of licensed titles based on popular TV shows, cartoons, and properties, including Disney characters, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and many others. Imagine IDW crossed with Dynamite Entertainment.

But alongside licenses, it created several original superhero and adventure series, often with a distinctive style. Gold Key's original heroes, such as Magnus The Robot Fighter, Solar: Man Of The Atom, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, gained cult followings and were later revived, most famously by Valiant in the 1990s from Jim Shooter and Barry Windsor-Smith, as part of the newly created Valiant Universe, alongside Harbinger, Bloodshot, Ninjak and X-O Manowar. Later Valiant revivals were unable to use the Gold Key characters; in later years, Dark Horse and Dynamite both had a crack at the licence with their own Gold Key titles.

Magnus, Robot Fighter debuted in 1963, created by writer/artist Russ Manning, and ran for over 40 issues. Set in the year 4000 A.D. in the futuristic city of North Am, Magnus is a human trained from youth to battle rogue robots that oppress or threaten humanity. He uses specialised martial arts techniques to smash robots (famously "hitting them in the right spot" to destroy them). The series nods to Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

Solar, Man of the Atom, launched in 1962 and was created by writer Paul S. Newman, Bob Fujitani, and Matt Murphy. In which nuclear physicist Phil Solar is exposed to a massive radiation accident at a facility called Atom Valley. Instead of dying, he gains the ability to convert matter into energy, and vice versa, granting him vast superpowers like energy projection, flight, and near-invulnerability. He adopts a superhero identity to fight threats while keeping his civilian life.

Turok, Son of Stone originated earlier but became strongly associated with Gold Key, first appearing in Dell's Four Color Comics in 1954, then got his own title. When Gold Key launched, it continued the series from issue #30 through to #125. Turok and his companion Andar are pre-Columbian Native American warriors who become trapped in a hidden "Lost Valley" filled with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. They fight for survival while seeking a way home, using bows, arrows, and wits against dinosaurs and hostile humans. Valiant made it more action-oriented with advanced tech, renaming the series as Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, and became a leading game for the N64 from Acclaim Entertainment

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