[8] Other frequent contributors, mostly based in New York City, include Isabella Bannerman, Sue Coe, Scott Cunningham, Eric Drooker, Sandy Jimenez, Sabrina Jones, Mac McGill, Kevin Pyle, and James Romberger.

This approach of incubating material around a different political concern or specific topic every issue has made the magazine an extremely diverse and unpredictable periodical anthology in the world of comics, and possibly the longest-running of its kind in print,[citation needed] at over 30 years of publication.

[10] The magazine initially began as a home for comic book work and graphic/illustrated storytelling that was anti-establishment and aggressively critical of the social and political right-wing conservatism in ascension after the election of President Ronald Reagan.

In the first decade of the magazine, its focus ranged from the global to the hyper-local, specifically addressing the politics and concerns affecting the neighborhoods of the Lower East Side of Manhattan: housing rights; gentrification; police brutality; racism; economic oppression.

When tensions brought the riot to its most dangerous points across the two-day conflict, much of the notable imagery associated with the grassroots resistance on improvised signage and wheat-pasted posters was appropriated from published work in the magazine created by Eric Drooker, Seth Tobocman, and others.

[citation needed] The partnership with Mordam Records continued late into the 1990s, until World War 3 Illustrated handed its distribution over to Chris Staros of Top Shelf Productions and Diamond Comic Distributors.