By Svetlana Fedotov
A quick note before I delve into the sordid history of Chaos! Comics. If you’ve been a fan of Brutal as Hell’s comic coverage, you probably noticed that the usual author Comix has now been replaced by the hard-to-pronounce writer, Svetlana Fedotov. Well fear not, gentle reader, for it is I, Comix, now writing under my given name, Svetlana, as per request by my bosses. I suppose it’s to give a more cohesive understanding with my other work (go ahead, google me), so from here on out, I’ll be writing under my original, goofy name.
Anyhoo, with that cleared up, let’s dive into this article.
Chaos! Comics is the quintessential poster child of the nineties comic boom. A time of sparkly, alternative covers, flash-fire new characters, and superhero cartoons with bad-ass theme songs, Chaos! fit right in to the rising wave of new comic fandom. Unfortunately, to quote Hunter S. Thompson, when that wave finally broke and rolled back, Chaos! Comics was the first to drown under the tide of disinterest. With the recent re-release of Evil Ernie and Chaos! from Dynamite Press, it’s perhaps time to look back at this bizarre footnote of comic history and the recent attempt in bringing the forgotten characters back to life.
Chaos! Comics debuted in 1994, founded by writer Brian Pulido (and his wicked mullet) and artist Steven Hughes. They had originally teamed up in 1991 to create the genocidal teen character Evil Ernie, who managed to find a solid audience with their then publisher Eternity Comics. If you haven’t read Evil Ernie, the comic is basically about an undead, rage-filled teen who aims to bring about the apocalypse with the help of his talking smiley button, Smiley, on behalf of his lover, Lady Death. Trust me, it was pretty awesome. After the positive reception at Eternity Comics, they broke off and formed Chaos! Comics, aiming to bring a more extreme edge to Ernie, free from the watchful eye of a parent company. Though it was a tricky roll, they managed to pull it off, bringing in even more fans with their over-the-top writing mixed with splatter art and surprisingly grounded characters.
Following the success of Evil Ernie, the company began to expand their repertoire of characters, starting with giving Lady Death her own comic. Fans went wild for the big haired, big breasted beauty and Chaos continued on their “bad girl” parade, adding the demon Purgatori, the vampire Chastity, the Asian vampire Jade, among other ladies, each intertwining with other stories in the Chaos! universe. That was probably the biggest appeal of the Chaos! Comic’s line, that all the original characters ended up playing a role in Ernie’s megadeath, which, after years of careful planning, came to fruition on January 1st, 2000. I can’t imagine the amount of planning that it took to pull that off, but it was one of the most anticipated stories of the late 90’s.
Aside from their original characters, Chaos! Comics also delved into publishing comics for bands, wrestlers, and horror movies, each earning success in their own right. Always eager to give their fans a little more, a lot of those comics came with little goodies, such as the Insane Clown Posse issues each coming with a previously un-released track that, when all collected, formed an entire album. Along with collectable trading cards, toys, busts, and alternative covers up the ying-yang, Chaos! Comics was living the dream. From a two man operation to working with some of the biggest talents in the industry (especially WWE, who at the time, was HUGE,) the company was riding high and living low.
Until it all crashed.
Now I can go on and on about why the comics industry fell apart in the early 2000’s, but that’s a whole different article. Fans weren’t reading comics anymore, their collectable issues proved to be not so collectable, and I’m sure the arrival of a non-dialup internet didn’t help. In short, come 2002, Chaos! Comics was forced to file for bankruptcy. Like many companies at the time, Pulido and Co. auctioned off the rights to everything they owned, including the name Chaos!, only keeping the character Lady Death for himself.
Attempting to revive Ms. Death, Pulido first went to Crossgen Entertainment and gave her a medieval origin. When Crossgen as well went under a few months later, he took her to Avatar Press where she found moderate success. After hanging out there for a few years, Pulido decided to launch another company called Boundless Comics as an Avatar imprint, specifically for Lady Death. After a few story arcs, this too went by the wayside and as of 2012, there has been no word of her return. In fact, if you were to go to the Boundless Comics site, all that’s left is an ominous message that states “boundlesscomics.com shall return.” Spoooooky.
The rest of the star-crossed cast ended up in the hands of comic retailer Tales of Wonder who sold the collection to Devils Due Publishing. They restarted several of the series under the Chaos! imprint, but as with Crossgen, also went under and the characters moved to Dynamite Press, which brings us to the present.
In celebration of Chaos! Comics 20th anniversary, Dynamite Press will be releasing a brand new title with old-time favorites simply titled Chaos!. Previously, the company had released a new Evil Ernie comic, currently collected in a six-issue graphic novel and piggy-backing on its momentum, have decided to release the new work centered around Ernie, Chastity, and Purgatori kicking ass and taking names! WOOH! If they manage to capture the old spirit of Chaos! Comics is yet to be seen, but with Tim Seeley at the helm, who had previously worked with Evil Ernie in a Hack/Slash crossover, it’s definitely bound to turn a few heads. Keeping with traditional Chaos! methods, there will be variant issues. Hell, there’ll be variant issues of variant issues, creating a collectable market similar to what the original company was doing.
Of course, with the recent revival of Evil Ernie and now the comic Chaos!, it does bring some concern to how long this incantation of the characters is liable to last. It’s hard not to see the connection between the current interest in all things nineties and the sudden appearance of these demonic classics, making one wonder what Dynamite’s true intent is. Are they really planning to keep these guys around for the long haul or is it just a flash-in-the-pan gimme gimme for the flavor of the month club? Of course, even if they are just rehashed to make a quick buck, you can’t blame Dynamite for doing it. Comics are a business after all and business is good. If the roaring masses are demanding a reappearance of the hottest new characters of 1998, by God, it’s their duty to give them what they want!
Either way, I’ll probably be picking up the new works. Chaos! had been a huge part of my interest in comics and I’m excited to see what the new company is going to with these guys. I’m a sucker for an old dog story; maybe it’s about time these old dogs got another chance at the spotlight.