NOW Comics
comic book publisher
NOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comic books.
The company was headquartered in the Chicago Loop in Chicago, Illinois. Most NOW titles were the results of licensing arrangements with such companies as Columbia Pictures, Broadway Video, ELP Communications, CBS Entertainment, Inc., Speed Racer Enterprises, and Leisure Concepts, resulting in titles like Vector, Mr. T & The T-Force, Speed Racer, The Original Astro Boy, Alias, Terminator: The Burning Earth, The Real Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Fright Night, Married... with Children, and The Green Hornet.
History
NOW Comics started in late 1985 as a sole-proprietorship, with the first publications shipping in May 1986. It became Caputo Publishing, Inc. in 1987.
In a four-year period, CPI grew from a one-man operation with annual sales of $110,000 to an international multimillion-dollar corporation, with close to 100 full-time employees and freelancers, and the #3 position in comic book market share.
“NOW Comics” enters the record as comic book publisher. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Comics, comic and book can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“NOW Comics” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Comics, comic and book provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6954986. VIAF identifies the subject as 250543201. The Library of Congress control number is no2012074215. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1986 and 1987.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “NOW Comics”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow NOW Comics primary sources, NOW Comics archive and Comics research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “NOW Comics”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “NOW Comics” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.