Brian Holguin (1964–2026), one of the most underrated writers of the 1990s, has passed away. Best known for his transformative run on Top Cow’s Cyberforce and his acclaimed work on KISS: Psycho Circus, Holguin brought structure, character depth, and real storytelling craft to an era often remembered only for flashy art and late books.

In this Top Cow Tuesday tribute, AKAPAD examines how Holguin stepped in as the true second-run architect of Cyberforce, navigating constant crossovers and creative chaos to deliver some of the series’ strongest character work and world-building — including key developments for Ripclaw, Misery, Killjoy, and the expanding Cyberverse. We also look at why his writing on KISS: Psycho Circus stands as a creative high point and why his contributions still deserve far more recognition.

A quiet titan of 90s comics is gone. Here’s a closer look at the work he left behind.

Remembering Brian Hulligan: Cyberforce’s Hidden Architect and His Impact on 90s Comics

Summary

This video offers an in-depth reflection on Brian Hulligan’s essential role in shaping the Cyberforce series during the mid-1990s, highlighting his underestimated contribution as the “second run architect” of the title. It situates Hulligan within the broader context of Top Cow comics, especially focusing on the creative struggles and narrative complexity during a period marked by multiple disruptive crossovers and publishing challenges. The video traces the evolution of Cyberforce’s storyline from its origins, through various shifts in writers and artists, culminating in Hulligan’s impactful run that brought cohesion, depth, and character development to a series often dismissed as plotless or artwork-driven spectacle.

It then transitions to advocate for long-overdue recognition of Hulligan’s work, particularly spotlighting his tenure on the Kiss Psycho Circus comic, a licensed property that showcased his talents more freely and solidified his place as a significant, though often overlooked, comic book writer of the 90s. The speaker blends personal nostalgia and critical evaluation to underline how Hulligan’s writing combined intricate storytelling with strong character foundation—elements typically lost in the noise of flashy 90s comic trends. The video ends on a somber but respectful note, lamenting Hulligan’s recent passing and urging fans and collectors to acknowledge the richness of his contributions beyond surface-level appreciation.

Highlights

• 🎨 Brian Hulligan is recognized as the influential “second run architect” behind the Cyberforce series.
• 🕹 Cyberforce’s early issues were disrupted by multiple crossovers with other Image Comics properties, fragmenting narrative momentum.
• 🚀 Hulligan’s run (issues #18-25) deepened the franchise’s lore, exploring the Cyberverse’s ancient alien origins and complex character relationships.
• 🐙 Introduction of new, memorable characters like Kraken and Killjoy expanded Cyberforce’s mythos.
• 📉 Earlier criticism of the series as “late and art-focused” overlooks the intricate plotting and character work Hulligan injected.
• 🎸 Hulligan’s work on Kiss Psycho Circus is praised as his seminal, high-quality licensed comic series that merged strong writing with innovative design and thematic cohesion.
• 🕊 The video ends with a heartfelt tribute to Brian Hulligan’s legacy and an appeal to recognize his understated but critical role in 90s comics.

Key Insights

• 🚀 Narrative Resilience Amid Disruptions: The Cyberforce series faced significant challenges including multiple major crossovers with titles like Jim Lee’s Wildcats and Chris Claremont’s Huntsman. These disruptions fractured continuity and momentum, a common issue for 90s comics catering heavily to event-based sales tactics. Despite this, Hulligan’s stewardship helped maintain coherence in the storytelling, a testament to his ability to bring structure and character-driven plots to a chaotic publishing environment. This demonstrates the importance of a consistent narrative voice during turbulent creative phases.
• 🧠 Psychological and Thematic Depth: The Cyberforce arcs penned by Hulligan delve into mind games, implanted memories, and questions of reality versus illusion—reflective of larger mid-90s comic trends informed by sci-fi and cyberpunk motifs (e.g., the “Cyberforce matrix”). These themes added layers of complexity that elevated Cyberforce beyond mere action, marking Hulligan as a thoughtful writer who embraced genre tropes to probe identity, memory, and trust in a fractured team dynamic.
• 🐙 Expanding the Mythos with Alien and Emotional Stakes: By introducing elements like the ancient cyberverse explorer, the transformation of love into the Kraken entity, and characters like Killjoy, Hulligan enriched Cyberforce’s worldbuilding. The fusion of alien technology and personal, emotional motivations gave the series both epic scale and intimate stakes, underscoring effective storytelling that balances spectacle with character depth.
• 🛠 The Role of Secondary Characters for Narrative Momentum: Characters such as Ripclaw, Misery, and new figures like Killjoy and the Kraken served as narrative focal points through which Hulligan advanced the plot while maintaining audience engagement. Their evolving relationships, mysteries, and internal conflicts demonstrated a nuanced approach to ensemble cast dynamics that many contemporaneous comics lacked, revealing Hulligan’s skill at layered character interplay.
• 🎭 Kiss Psycho Circus as a Creative High Point: Unlike Cyberforce’s often fragmented run, Kiss Psycho Circus allowed Hulligan more creative freedom. Collaborating with Todd McFarland and Angel Medina, the series combined licensed IP with strong visual storytelling, inventive design, and thematic consistency. This run is praised for its tight pacing, mood, and how it leveraged the popularity of the band KISS in an innovative multimedia rollout. This serves as a model for how licensed comics can transcend marketing gimmicks to become genuinely great storytelling vehicles.
• 💔 Underappreciation and Legacy in Comic Fandom: The video critically calls out the comic community’s neglect of Hulligan’s contributions, reflecting on how many readers remain fixated on flashy art and headline creators while overlooking foundational writers who shape narrative substance. It laments that Hulligan’s untimely passing has not brought him due recognition, highlighting a broader cultural phenomenon where behind-the-scenes creators are often overshadowed despite their lasting influence.
• 🕊 The Importance of Remembering Creators: Beyond celebrating Hulligan’s writing, the discussion underscores the human aspect—recognizing creators as real people whose work enriches the medium and whose legacies deserve curation and respect. It advocates for deeper engagement with lesser-known talents to appreciate the full tapestry of comic history, promoting a richer understanding of 90s comics beyond surface nostalgia.

00:00:15
I feel like I’ve been up all night. I did sleep a little bit, aka Patter. But before we get into anything, uh, somber episode today, Top Cow Tuesday. Welcome back, Brian Hulligan. uh who I view as the second run architect of cyberforce. I’m gonna do my best and and what while I’m talking here maybe like over here I will I’ll put this picture up. This this is also I’m projecting what I’m going to do in post. This is a photo uh photoshopped Todd McFarland out. Uh this is a picture with Brian and Todd

00:00:54
McFarland uh at some meters. Uh I think it’s a perfect picture. I think it’s it’s his like his pose, his gesture, the look on his face. Like this is the vision of the comic book writer of the comic book creator. But it’s Tom Cal Tuesday. So we’re going to edit out Todd McFarland. I want to do my best and and we’re going to end this episode with Mc with McFarland. I’m going to do my best to illustrate the work O’Brien here uh within his X Force arc because there is something uh

00:01:33
unspoken of something in my view like you know like a little bit extraordinary but 100% overlooked because you know a lot of people don’t give credit to the level of work from this era. They will say that the books were late. They were uh only focused on artwork. Plot meant nothing. Character meant nothing. Uh you guys know, anyone that follows TopCow Tuesday, uh we get into the characters, we get into the plots. Uh sure, right? It’s not perfect, but boy, they’re a lot more fun than even you remember. So,

00:02:10
Cyber Force kind of begins like this, right? Let’s just go through the stack. We’re [snorts] we’re going to go through by by sections [cough] section one, right? Miniseries, miniseries, Mark Sylvester, Eric Sylvestri, uh Eric Sylvestri, as far as I know, right? He I think he became an entertainment lawyer, right? But Cyber Force one, we get Cyber Force Zero that takes place kind of before the mini and right like we start rolling with the monthly. But this this is a little bit of the plight of Cyber

00:02:55
Force and and again we’re two years out of Brian walking into the title. Cyber Force is plagued with just like momentum because within two issues, right, we get this Killer Instinct crossover. So now he’s like Cyber Force now is crossing over with Jim Lee’s Wildcats, but then we get a little bit of a break, right? We’re we’re still with Mark and Eric Sylvestri. We get some new characters. These are the gunmen. Yeah. We get into a little bit of ballistics background. We get into all the ripclaw stuff is prime. But

00:03:34
again, you know, like and now this is this is actually a really good issue. I like this issue. Uh, Eric Mark Sylvestri, we have a boat. We have impact. This is a lot about impulse. I I I need this to kick in. I I haven’t slept. It’s not impulse, it’s velocity. But we start getting into the velocity ballistic relationship. uh the team kind of separated and then it’s like the the beginning of mind game and mind game’s a villain but the series does march towards this like what is

00:04:10
true what’s not what’s in your mind what’s not not what’s implanted and and they have uh upcoming they have like a couple issues where they go into like they almost go into like a matrix of their own but we’re marching right and we get this like little bit of a nice run here right like four, four, five, six, and seven, but then it’s image X over month. So all all of this like continuity momentum, it gets interrupted. But yeah, Tom McFarland puts together a nice issue. And this is also another

00:04:43
like of the mind issue where the villain in here is like, you know, making people see things and you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. Kind of cool. But nine, yet another crossover. Now we’re crossing over with Chris Clare Mount’s Huntsman who’s also at the time crossing over with Jim Le’s Wildcat. So we get Huntsman. We get Huntsman. Now we’re of the mind. We get into a little bit of what I like to call the cyber force matrix. And who’s working on this? We have Chris

00:05:20
Clare Mount and Mark Sylvestry. So, the book kind of doesn’t get this like momentum. It just it doesn’t really exist. Okay. Chris Claremont, Mark Sevestri, Eric Sylvestri. This is where Sideblade uh is essentially jacked into the matrix. That’s why we have a dragon on the cover. Little bit of momentum. 12 13 14 15 16 17 like uh Sylvester is fading from the title. Now we’re getting Brian Havlin and we have David Finch. So Havlin comes in and he helps carry the title towards 25. One of the bigger cooler plot points is

00:06:10
you see it here on the cover. See now, and also too, we’re we’re backtracking uh with Brian Hooligan, right? So, Brian Hooligan steps in at 18 and the backtracking begins and we have this really cool I love this issue. Hooligan comes in [snorts] and we establish that the history of the Cyber Force universe, right? The Cyberverse has ancient ties. It’s it’s alien and this explorer guy, you know, like kind of like same with Wiki’s uncle in Transformers. He he finds something, but

00:06:51
it’s also bound to his love. His love later becomes the Kraken. And now we have like Cyber Data, right? Cyber Data is close to meeting its end. Killjoy, who is one of Mark Sylvester’s absolute best designs, is a torso. Then we have a break 25. We’re going to put that to the side cuz issue 25 is what we like to call a filler issue. But 19, Mr. Huligan, right? We’re rocking and rolling. And now we have and it’s yet to be revealed this Kraken character that completely dismantles Ripclaw like right

00:07:31
here. This man’s Ripclaw really cool stuff. Great design. Uh very witchblade very species if you guys remember that movie. And there there’s a level of intrigue here but absolute deadliness. 21 22 we take a break we get the gray Kevin Lau issue but written by Brian Hulligan and this is like a filler issue okay AK patterns this is an issue that builds out the character of Impulse where she you know through her actions as dictated on the cover pretty much like saves the team but this is where they’re trying to find

00:08:17
like how true their memories are and they’re tracking down a cyber database and they got to go underwater. It’s a great like you you you might want to call it like inventory issue but it’s it’s a sidetrack that’s also in continuity and 25 hooligan here like he brings in misery he goes he goes all the way back right to Killer Instinct. Where the hell is Killer Instinct? right over here. He goes all the way back to issue three, right? Like, how substantial is that? He adds a little bit more context to

00:09:02
Misery, her relationship with Cyber Data, the Big Bad, the Kraken, and Ripclaw. In just a few pages, we we move all of these characters forward and we kind of end where things are with Ripclaw Misery where it’s always a mystery because we don’t know. And and tell me if this sounds familiar. Any fan of Grank Morrison’s X-Men, we we really don’t know if Ripclaw is drawn to misery because she’s in his head or not. And that’s how we leave it. And that’s the way it should be left. We’re one

00:09:38
away from 25. They kidnap Ripclaw. The team’s going to reform. Where’s Where’s my 25 at? 25 right over here. And then we get the conclusion of everything that first miniseries sets up. that first miniseries with all of the crossovers and interruptions, Mark Sylvester leaving, David Finch picking up, arc problems, deadline problems, all of it. Everyone ends up in the same place. Now, we still have the crawling. Look, AK Patter. This is comic book storytelling here. Look how far back we have to go

00:10:32
all all this time. 18 to 25, Killiljoy is still crawling around. She falls into what she believes is one of the uh or the base the uh oh what’s it the sanctuary the foundation I forget the name of the cyber force base but she falls falls in there blows it all up we get the team converging in Antarctica they meet the kraken they meet the old guy from all the way back and again we go all the way back to 18, right? This guy is this guy. Like really cool stuff, right? Again, comic book storytelling, but we essentially

00:11:28
The foundry. Oh my god, I for I am Boulder Hill. What? I am just forgetting the name of their base, but Cyber Force has nothing. They don’t have a home base. The enemy and almost like the the core of cyber data like the the the individuals that would uh have like a DNA connection to cyber data. They have moved on to the afterlife. Very fulfilling, kind of touching, a little bit sad, but here we go. We get a new title cuz it’s 25 and 25 turns into this 26. But what happens with 26? This is

00:12:11
where it gets tough. We have a nice spooky villain. They have relocated. They have a new home base. Again, we still see Velocity and Ballistic like their relationship is still evolving, still growing. We still have Killjoy on the loose that here eats this little girl’s like cat to stay alive. [snorts] But the team is is a little bit separated. Ripclaw uh within the company is trying to uh be a professor. Yes, he has a solo series. The solo s we all detailed it all on this channel. Uh the solo series, but we end with a a

00:12:56
summoning. And this is like a good transitional issue cuz it just realigns everything. But we end with this. We call on Ash and mother efer yet another crossover. So we’re two two years deep and we’ve had like three major crossovers interrupting this entire run. But we cross over with Event and keep in mind event comics they wanted to be a part of Image. Tom McFarland I believe said no which is wild to me. Gabriel. The next issue we have Ash. But these are Here’s the thing. You kind I will say

00:13:40
this. Brian Hooligan writes cuz I read a lot of event after we event comics after we I did this video. He writes Gabriel awesome. He writes Ash awesome. Uh the way we pull in what I like to call the crow ripclaw inspired by the crow because he’s just like right like come on that’s bringing le crow right there. So he fills in like this gap, has a run, deals with all of these crossovers, brings it home with 25, and makes the title, in my view, highly highly readable. But here’s the funny thing. I think the

00:14:24
getting up to this point was so choppy because of these crossovers. Uh, I think when these books premiered, when they came out, they went over people’s heads. So, Kiss Psycho Circus, I am a mother effer. This is what I consider to be Tom McFarland’s greatest published comic book. It’s not Spawn, it’s Kiss Psycho Circus. Psycho Circus. Also, to contextualize what this even is, Kiss had disappeared for a little bit. They’re in it’s it’s we’re in the mid 90s. They’re coming

00:15:01
back. Psycho Circus was this giant media roll out. Awesome. Great album, by the way, guys. Lenticular CD cover. Tom McFarland story line. Todd McFarland comic book, right? Like you this the Kiss Psycho Circus made you love Tom McFarland more. Who’s the writer? I think you guys are going to be able to guess. It’s right here. Brian. That’s why this picture he he’s he’s with McFarland. Kiss Psycho Circus. Here’s the wild thing. This is why I’m pissing myself. I consider this a seinal work in the ‘9s.

00:15:45
You guys can tell just by look at the lettering, the lettering, the the design, the illustrations, storytelling, Angel Medina, the inking, and then yes, the story. It is perfect issue to issue. I loved reading this when these were coming out. The comic shops would have these in the dollar bins. I would just, you know, like I had almost the entire run at one time. [snorts] Had them, got rid of them. never got him back. My buddy Mark from Allstar Comics podcast also profiled on his channel. He ended up with an extra one of these.

00:16:25
He knows how much I love this series. I mean guys, [laughter] he knows how much this series means to me. Like here’s here’s the Psycho Circus like album cover that was like like lenticular. Here’s some of the action figures, right? Like AK patterns. I don’t care. I love the Kiss merchandise. I love the band. I think they great music here. We have a little bit of a profile of him, right? Like like cool stuff that you expect from uh if you’re going to do something in the magazine

00:16:56
like format. This this was a solid publication, but what he’s able to do here with a licensed property and you can tell he was able to stretch his wings. He didn’t have the confines of cyberforce. This is the definition in my view of a comic book writer. It’s sad that he’s gone. It’s more sad that his name isn’t repeated. It’s very sad that a lot of you a-holes out there, I mean, guys, I gotta call it out. Let’s Let’s just be straight. Let Let me get back to this because we

00:17:39
always end up with issue 25. You guys will You’ll repost this and be like, “I’m reading 90s comics.” You don’t know the names. You don’t know the plots. You don’t know the characters. You don’t know the story lines. And you don’t know that this man, this talent just passed away. And you don’t care. I know you don’t care because for you, you’re kind of still hooked into look at the pretty pictures and all of a sudden these people aren’t names to you. They’re not

00:18:12
real people. I it’s amazingly sad to me that this guy has one of the greatest licensed comics underneath his belt during a highly competitive time in American comics. And you you know that’s just me though. But guys, come on. I love you. RIP the passing of a titan. >> [music]

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.