Studio Erbo Celebrates Adhesive Man and the Adhesiverse’s 25th Anniversary

To mark the milestone 25th anniversary of the Adhesiverse, Studio Erbo has revealed plans for a year-long celebration.

Highlights of the anniversary festivities include the long-awaited re-editing and colorization of the 2009 Adhesive Man series, the release of The Gnat’s shelved 2009 series, and the debut of a more traditional take on the Adhesive Man character, in this summer’s The Unbelievable Adhesive Man.

First appearing in the amateur comic book, Adhesive Man #1, in late 1992, featuring artwork and script by Eric J Cockrell, Adhesive Man immediately grew a small fanbase that clamored for more. The hero was quickly joined by Darren Fitzpatrick’s The Gnat, and a slew of other characters. The initial run of titles were released between 1992 and 1996, and in 1995 Adhesive Man ran as a comic strip in the Crete-Monee Catalyst High School Newspaper.

A revival of Adhesive Man saw two issues of a new standard comic book released by Imaginary Comics in 2009. The 2009 series was collected with two new issues of content in 2012’s Giant-Size Adhesive Man, which marked the official beginning of Studio Erbo’s foray into comic book publishing.

2015 saw the release of Defective Comics, featuring Adhesive Man. Defective Comics is an anthology that features a variety of stories, sometimes intertwining, of the colorful cast of the Adhesiverse, as the world of Adhesive Man and friends is referred to.

“Adhesive Man appears to be foremost a parody, but I tend to view him as much more of a celebration of the comics that I grew up with,” said Eric J Cockrell, President of Studio Erbo. “Walt Disney had his characters and Stan Lee had his characters. We wanted to have our own characters that were every bit as entertaining, and I believe we succeeded.”

Now, 25 years after Adhesive Man first saw print, Studio Erbo has big plans to celebrate the Adhesiverse. These plans include the following releases:

• Defective Comics #4 – #5 – The series returns. The anthology typically features art and stories by Eric J Cockrell, Darren Fitzpatrick, Eric F Myers, Ryan Heywood, and Adrian Puente.
• Adhesive Man (2009) #1 – #3 – The 2009 series in seeing its first full-color release and its return to single issue releases. Three issues of the series are officially planned for release in this year, with the possibility of a fourth. Art and story by Eric J Cockrell
• The Gnat (2009) #1 – The long lost return of The Gnat to comics is being remastered and colored for release by Darren Fitzpatrick. The first issue is expected late summer with a possible second issue by the year’s end.
• The Unbelievable Adhesive Man #1 – This all new, all different version of Adhesive Man is a glimpse into what the character would be like as a more traditional hero. All of his usual supporting cast appears in this issue written by Eric J Cockrell, with art by Elliot Scott.