OK. I'll be happy to help however I can. The specific issues I have are #2 & 4 from Eclipse and 2-4 of Deep Sea.
Since the current title has 9 issues could that be converted to the Deep Sea series and then start a new one for Eclipse which only has 5 issues?
The Eclipse issues should start with #1-A as it is now however the C, E and F issues are not from this series but are a completely different comic altogether.
Eclipse published a Reid Fleming one-shot here:
This was in 1980 and had a print run of only 10,000 copies per this article:
The World’s Toughest Milkman Quote:The popularity of Reid Fleming led to Boswell self-publishing his first comic book in 1980, Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman. The comic features an introduction by Bob Mercer, the former editor of The Georgia Straight. From what I understand, most (if not all) of the strips in this comic are reprinted from the underground newspaper. The first printing of Reid Fleming # 1 had a print run of 10,000 copies, which was a gutsy move considering that Boswell did not have a distribution deal. However, Ron Turner from Last Gasp learned about the comic, ordered five hundred copies, and quickly sold out. Last Gasp kept ordering more and more. Eventually, the comic sold well enough that Boswell released a second print run. The first printing can be identified by the $2.00 cover price (as second prints were $2.50).
Afterwards Eclipse did the 5 issue series and when Deep Sea did their series the first six books were all reprints of the Eclipse material - the one-shot was #1 and #1-5 of the Eclipse series was renumbered 2-6. Numbers 7-9 of the Eclipse series composed of new material.
Quote:Unfortunately, Eclipse went out of business shortly afterwards and the character was left in limbo for several years. This changed in 1996 when Boswell brought the characters back under the imprint Deep-Sea Comics. The new company reprinted the original 1980 issue of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman and all of the Eclipse issues too (with the “Rogue to Riches” series now being renumbered as issues # 2-6). Deep-Sea also reprinted the 1984 Heartbreak Comics one-shot and released a softcover graphic novel called Origins of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman, which reprinted all of the original strips from The Georgia Straight. Beyond this, Deep-Sea released three new issues of Reid Fleming (issues # 7-9) from 1997-1998 and a new one-shot called Ray-Mond was released towards the end of 1998. Unfortunately, the new run of Reid Fleming comics was intended to be a five-issue miniseries, but issues # 10 and 11 were not released at the time.
What we have as #1-F should be 1-A of the Deep Sea series I believe? Corey, it looks like you have one listed. Is 6th printing correct? And is it Eclipse or Deep Sea?
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