Arrow Comics was one of the original independent publishers of black-and-white comics in the mid-1980s, the first truly creator-owned comic companies, started in Ypsilanti, Michigan, by founders Ralph Griffith (24 April 1960–11 December 2020) and Stuart Kerr. History Origins Griffith and Kerr were just getting ready to publish a local comic fanzine called Fantastic Fanzine (a name which they later discovered had already been used in the seventies by Fantagraphics founder Gary Groth), when the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out. Spurred on by the success of this fairly low production level book, Griffith and Kerr set about to gather their own 'bullpen' of local comic creators and start a comic company, using Fantastic Fanzine as a springboard. With their motto "Our Target is Entertainment; Our Aim is Quality", they intended to bring to the black-and-white comic book market their idea of quality work, in comparison to what they thought was sub-par work intended only as a source of revenue for the larger publishers. Fantastic Fanzine ran thirteen issues in its first volume, during which time Griffith and Kerr discovered local Michigan artists Randy Zimmerman, Guy Davis, Vincent Locke, Susan Van Camp, Mark Bloodworth, and Tim Dzon. In December 1985, Tales From The Aniverse by Zimmerman and Van Camp was published, followed shortly thereafter by The Realm, Deadworld, and Nightstreets. Other titles included Legend Lore: Tales from the Realm and System 7, but it was not long before Arrow found itself caught up in the infamous "black and white bust", and the revenues from their highest-selling titles were held up in the bankruptcy hearings of several major comic book distributors of the day. In 1989, in order to salvage their legacy, Griffith and Kerr agreed to the move of their most popular titles, The Realm and Deadworld, to Caliber Comics. 1993 revival After publishing three issue of Fantastic Fanzine volume two throughout 1992, Griffith and Kerr announced the return of Arrow Comics in a single issue of Fantastic Fanzine volume four in December 1992, this time explicitly under the Arrow Comics banner. In January 1993 they released the first issue of The Dead, a horror title written by Griffith and Kerr themselves and penciled by Jason Moore (later of Evil Ernie inking fame), that pushed the envelope on gore even farther than their earlier Deadworld. Despite the first issue being labelled "For Mature Audiences Only", the violence