Solson Publications

Could this company have produced the world’s worst comic books ?? Perhaps. Amongst the couple of dozen black and white comics they issued in 1986/1987 lots of their books had the words “ninja” and “samurai” in the title which is always a bad sign. One series called “Reagan’s Raiders” featured the then President Reagan as a kind of Sgt Fury costumed character !!

When Solson came up with “Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes” as a title they must have thought it would tick all the boxes. Alas it is let down by two things. The art and the story !! A government scientist displays his latest invention. A machine that can transform matter. He demonstrates by turning a dog turd into a gold bar! By an enormous leap of the imagination four teenage girls somehow deduce from this that the machine can transform THEM into super heroes. They sneak back at night and achieve their goal, albeit destroying the machine (and the surrounding area) in the process. Then the story gets really silly with Russian agents and alien vampires and …..oh ….I really can’t be bothered to use up any more brain cells thinking about it……………

The person ultimately responsible for Solson Publications was a Gary Brodsky who seemed to think it cute to explain in the company name that his father was Sol Brodsky. Rich Buckler was somehow involved also. I had previously enjoyed his run on The Fantastic Four and it was no doubt his name on the cover that prompted me to pick up these books (out of the bargain bin) 20 years ago. Was the advertised third issue ever published? Even these two books are missing from the GCD Comic Database.

PS: As a side-line Solson also had an “Exotic Pet Catalog” as well as their far from exotic comics. I presume this advert for “Live Man-Eating Piranhas” is for real. Sure makes the old adverts for “Sea Monkeys” seem tame.

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