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About This
Series: The publishing history of The Fly character can be
difficult to follow. For the large part of the character's life,
The Fly has always been connected to the Archie Comics publisher, but
he's usually been published under various imprints.
The Fly made his debut in the comic book "The Double Life of Private Strong" #1. However, the character made his first full-length appearance, with his origin story, in his own series, "The Adventures of the Fly" #1 (August, 1959). At this time, the Fly's own series was published by the Archie imprint, Red Circle Comics, as part of the Archie Adventure Series line-up. Red Circle Comics primarily published superheroes, where "regular" Archie Comics titles published comics of the Archie characters or other funny characters.
The Fly was created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby. In the first phase of The Fly's own series, he was a straight-ahead, "serious" superhero in the tradition of DC, Marvel, and other superhero publishers. However, The Fly and many of his colleagues from Archie/Red Circle/Archie Adventure Series (whatever you want to call it), were "camped up". "Adventures of the Fly" was cancelled with #30 (October, 1964). It was restarted as "Fly-Man" with issue #31 (May, 1965) and lasted through #39 (September, 1966). "Fly-Man" was renamed to "Mighty Comics" with issue #40 and lasted through #50 until the series was completely finished. As "Mighty Comics", the series became an anthology series that featured the many various heroes of the Mighty Comics line-up.
"Adventures of the Fly", and its two later incarnations, had been over for a lot of years before the character was again given his own series. That brings us to THIS series, "The Fly", which was published under the Red Circle Comics imprint again. This is the first time his own series was simply called, "The Fly". It lasted for only nine issues, from May, 1983 to October, 1984. The last issue barely wrapped up the ongoing storyline, where our hero was framed for a crime he didn't commit.
"The Fly", like other Archie superhero characters, seemed to loosely pick up where they left off in the 1960s. The titles seemed to follow some kind of continuity. In case of The Fly, he seemed to pick up his adventures where "Adventures of the Fly" ended, and almost entirely ignored the hokey "Fly-Man" era. The Fly was once again partnered with Fly Girl, who was a great character. This title lost a lot of its appeal when Fly Girl was phased out of the saga. From the very start, this series seemed troubled. Great writing and artwork, but no cohesiveness. It seemed to start another direction almost every issue. This could be due to the fact that the creative team changed almost every issue. Archie/Red Circle always had problems keeping writers and artists for the long haul. "The Fly" #9 is the last time we'll ever see anything that remotely resembles the original Fly character.
In 1991, Archie Comics gave DC Comics the license to "reboot" all of their superhero characters, under the ill-fated Impact Comics imprint. Like most of the Archie superhero characters, the new version of the Fly, again in a series called "The Fly", was a huge departure from the original character. DC/Impact's "The Fly" ran for 17 issues from August, 1991-December, 1992. The Impact Comics line, despite producing excellent comics, suffered from people who just didn't work well together. It's a shame.
Issues:
The Fly made his debut in the comic book "The Double Life of Private Strong" #1. However, the character made his first full-length appearance, with his origin story, in his own series, "The Adventures of the Fly" #1 (August, 1959). At this time, the Fly's own series was published by the Archie imprint, Red Circle Comics, as part of the Archie Adventure Series line-up. Red Circle Comics primarily published superheroes, where "regular" Archie Comics titles published comics of the Archie characters or other funny characters.
The Fly was created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby. In the first phase of The Fly's own series, he was a straight-ahead, "serious" superhero in the tradition of DC, Marvel, and other superhero publishers. However, The Fly and many of his colleagues from Archie/Red Circle/Archie Adventure Series (whatever you want to call it), were "camped up". "Adventures of the Fly" was cancelled with #30 (October, 1964). It was restarted as "Fly-Man" with issue #31 (May, 1965) and lasted through #39 (September, 1966). "Fly-Man" was renamed to "Mighty Comics" with issue #40 and lasted through #50 until the series was completely finished. As "Mighty Comics", the series became an anthology series that featured the many various heroes of the Mighty Comics line-up.
"Adventures of the Fly", and its two later incarnations, had been over for a lot of years before the character was again given his own series. That brings us to THIS series, "The Fly", which was published under the Red Circle Comics imprint again. This is the first time his own series was simply called, "The Fly". It lasted for only nine issues, from May, 1983 to October, 1984. The last issue barely wrapped up the ongoing storyline, where our hero was framed for a crime he didn't commit.
"The Fly", like other Archie superhero characters, seemed to loosely pick up where they left off in the 1960s. The titles seemed to follow some kind of continuity. In case of The Fly, he seemed to pick up his adventures where "Adventures of the Fly" ended, and almost entirely ignored the hokey "Fly-Man" era. The Fly was once again partnered with Fly Girl, who was a great character. This title lost a lot of its appeal when Fly Girl was phased out of the saga. From the very start, this series seemed troubled. Great writing and artwork, but no cohesiveness. It seemed to start another direction almost every issue. This could be due to the fact that the creative team changed almost every issue. Archie/Red Circle always had problems keeping writers and artists for the long haul. "The Fly" #9 is the last time we'll ever see anything that remotely resembles the original Fly character.
In 1991, Archie Comics gave DC Comics the license to "reboot" all of their superhero characters, under the ill-fated Impact Comics imprint. Like most of the Archie superhero characters, the new version of the Fly, again in a series called "The Fly", was a huge departure from the original character. DC/Impact's "The Fly" ran for 17 issues from August, 1991-December, 1992. The Impact Comics line, despite producing excellent comics, suffered from people who just didn't work well together. It's a shame.
It's been rumored
since the 2000s that the Archie superhero characters would be revived
again as mainstream heroes in the DC Universe. Whether this
happens or not, it's highly unlikely that The Fly and his friends will
become A-list superheroes. But things can change, can't they?