Star Reach was an influential, American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 comics anthology

Comics anthology

Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...

 published from 1974 to 1979 by Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics...

. It is unrelated to the early MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

 computer game of the same name.

Publication history

One of the first mainstream independent comic books, and the first with any significant distribution, Star*Reach bridged the gap between the countercultural underground comics and traditional Marvel

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

/DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 fare, providing mature genre stories for an adult audience. The fan press of the time referred to this and the comics

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal (magazine)

Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...

as "ground-level publications". Along with such other examples as Flo Steinberg

Flo Steinberg

Florence "Flo" Steinberg is an American publisher of one of the first independent comic books, the underground/alternative comics hybrid Big Apple Comix, in 1975...

's Big Apple Comix

Big Apple Comix

Big Apple Comix is an early independent comic book published by Flo Steinberg in 1975. An historically important link between underground comix and what would later be called alternative comics, this 36-page, 6 3/4" x 9 3/4" hybrid with glossy color covers and black-and-white interiors contains 11...

, published in 1975

1975 in comics

This is a list of comics-related events in 1975.- Year overall :* Following up their various Giant-Size series from 1974, Marvel publishes a number of one-shot Giant-Size annuals featuring reprints of "classic" Captain America, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Invaders, Iron Man,...

, and Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar

Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...

's naturalistic

Naturalism (literature)

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...

 Everyman

Everyman

In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...

 series American Splendor

American Splendor

American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by the late Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the most recent in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals...

, first published in 1976

1976 in comics

This is a list of comics-related events in 1976.- Year overall :* American Splendor, Harvey Pekar's long-running autobiographical comic book title, publishes its debut issue.* Fantagraphics Books, Inc. founded by Gary Groth and Michael Catron....

, Star*Reach was a forerunner of the late-1970s

1970s in comics

See also:1960s in comics,other events of the 1970s,1980s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: 1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1973 - 1974 - 1975 - 1976 - 1977 - 1978 - 1979-1970:See also: 1970 in comics...

 rise of the modern graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

, and of the 1980s

1980s in comics

This article lists major events in the field of comics during the 1980s.Publications: 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989-1982:*Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo debuts in Young Magazine.- March :...

' independent comics.

Eighteen issues were released between 1974

1974 in comics

This is a list of comics-related events in 1974.-Year overall:* From May to September, Marvel debuts their Giant-Size series, mostly double- or triple-length comics featuring their most popular characters...

 and 1979

1979 in comics

-Year overall:* The "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and John Romita, Jr., runs through Iron Man ....

. Contributors included such Marvel

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 and DC

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 writers and artists as Howard Chaykin

Howard Chaykin

Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book writer and artist famous for his innovative storytelling and sometimes controversial material...

, Jim Starlin

Jim Starlin

James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters...

, and Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith, born Barry Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States....

. It also included prose short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 by such respected authors as Roger Zelazny

Roger Zelazny

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...

, who wrote the 13-page "The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth", with illustrations by Gray Morrow

Gray Morrow

Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics.-Biography:Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Morrow is best known as art director of Spider-Man between 1967 and 1970 and as illustrator of the syndicated Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant comic...

, in issue #12 (March 1978).

Friedrich's company grew into a small publishing house, also called Star*Reach, that published the comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series Quack; Imagine; and Lee Marrs

Lee Marrs

Lee Marrs is an American comic book writer, animator, and one of the first women underground comix creators. She is best known for her comic book series, The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, which lasted from 1973 to 1978.-Underground comics:Marrs was a frequent contributor to...

' Pudge, Girl Blimp, along with a number of one-shot comics. The company ceased publishing in 1979

1979 in comics

-Year overall:* The "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and John Romita, Jr., runs through Iron Man ....

.

Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...

repackaged some of the original Star*Reach and Imagine material as Star*Reach Classics in 1984.