Gorilla Comics was a short-lived American comic book

American comic book

An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

 launched in 2000

2000 in comics

-February:*Strange Adventures vol. 2, #4, final issue cover-dated February - January :* January 5: Goseki Kojima, co-creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, dies at age 71.* January 6: Mad magazine fixture Don Martin dies at age 68....

 by creators Kurt Busiek

Kurt Busiek

Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...

, Tom Grummett

Tom Grummett

Thomas "Tom" Grummett is a Canadian comic book artist and penciller. He is best known for his work as penciller on titles such as The New Titans, The Adventures of Superman, Superboy, Power Company, Robin, New Thunderbolts and Heroes.During his run on The Adventures of Superman, Grummett and...

, Stuart Immonen

Stuart Immonen

Stuart Immonen is a Canadian comic book artist. He is best known for his work on Nextwave, Ultimate X-Men, The New Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man...

, Karl Kesel

Karl Kesel

Karl Kesel is an American comics writer and inker whose works have primarily been under contract for DC Comics...

, Barry Kitson

Barry Kitson

Barry Kitson is a British comics artist best known as a penciler of major superhero comic books published by Marvel and DC.-Biography:Kitson's first professional work was Spider-Man for Marvel UK...

, George Pérez

George Pérez

George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...

, Mark Waid

Mark Waid

Mark Waid is an American comic book writer. He is well known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America...

, and Mike Wieringo

Mike Wieringo

Michael Lance "Mike" Wieringo , who sometimes signed his work under the name Ringo, was an American comic book artist best known for his work on DC Comics' The Flash and Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four....

. Characters were creator-owned, and books were published through Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

.

Titles

• Crimson Plague by George Pérez (originally published through Event Comics)
• Empire
  Empire (comics)
  Empire is an American comic book limited series published by Gorilla Comics and DC Comics, created by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson....
  
  by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson (later completed through 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...
  
  )
• Section Zero
  Section Zero (comics)
  Section Zero is an American comic book series, published in 2000 by Gorilla Comics, a minor comic book company that also acted as an imprint of Image Comics. It was written by Karl Kesel with artwork provided by Tom Grummett....
  
  by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett
• Shockrockets by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen
• Superstar by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen
• Tellos
  Tellos
  Tellos is a comic-book fantasy series created by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo and published by Image Comics. Three issues at the end of the initial run were printed through Gorilla Comics, which was co-founded by Wieringo). After that company folded, the book returned to Image as a series of...
  
  by Todd Dezago
  Todd DeZago
  Todd Dezago is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with penciller Mike Wieringo on The Sensational Spider-Man and their creator-owned fantasy series Tellos, which premiered in 1999, as well as for co-creating Young Justice with artist Todd Nauck in the 1998...
  
   and Mike Wieringo (originally published through Image Central)

Closure

The founders intended to finance the company through a comics-themed website, eHero.com, which proved unsuccessful. This left creators financing their own books, and only a handful of issues saw print. Only Shockrockets and Tellos completed their initial storylines. The last Gorilla Comics book, Superstar, consisted of a single issue printed in 2001.

Shockrockets was later reprinted in trade paperback by Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

 in August 2004. It was reprinted by IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...

as a hardcover in November 2010. Further Tellos stories were self-published directly through Image Comics. Empire was later completed as a mini-series at DC Comics and released as a trade paperback in June 2004. Superstar will see a release from IDW Publishing in March 2011.