The fan press of the time referred to this and the comics magazine Heavy Metal as "ground-level publications".

[2] Along with such other examples as Flo Steinberg's Big Apple Comix, published in 1975, and Harvey Pekar's naturalistic everyman series American Splendor, first published in 1976, Star*Reach was a forerunner of the late-1970s rise of the modern graphic novel, and of the 1980s' independent comics.

Contributors included such Marvel and DC writers and artists as Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, and Barry Windsor-Smith.

It also included prose short stories by such authors as Roger Zelazny, who wrote the 13-page "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth", with illustrations by Gray Morrow, in issue #12 (March 1978).

[3] Friedrich's company grew into a small publishing house in Hayward, California, also called Star*Reach, that published the comic book series Quack; Imagine; and Lee Marrs' Pudge, Girl Blimp, along with a number of one-shot comics.