At a 1985 San Diego Comic-Con panel featuring Champions RPG creators Steve Peterson, George MacDonald, and Ray Greer, an audience member asked when these characters were going to be adapted into comic-book form.
Mallonee added one of his own Champions characters to the comic, a wheelchair-using man who had been a hero under the name of Doctor Arcane, solely as someone who would explain all the essential Demon backstory that would have otherwise been covered in the short solo stories.
1 sold very well, but sales hit a sharp decline in other issues, and this convinced Eclipse to leave Champions as a six-issue limited series.
Mallonee founded comics-publishing company Hero Comics (later renamed Heroic Publishing), and included an ongoing Champions series in its launch lineup, with the first issue dated September 1987.
In 1992, the League of Champions and Flare were teamed up with the Southern Knights (originally published by Comics Interview) for a multi-part story called "The Morrigan Wars".
In 1988, The United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled that Marvel had abandoned its trademark of the name and could no longer use "The Champions" as the name of a comic book series — thus also paving the way for Mallonee to publish his Champions comic books.