A Tale Beyond Time: Part 1

Many fans or peripheral readers of comics may wonder how certain books make it to the shelves. The old adage "if it's a good story, someone will find it" is partially true, but nowadays if your title doesn't have an "X-" attached or a Batman cameo, it's hard to get noticed, let alone be successful.

So we decided to follow Beyond Time Comics as they prepare for the launch of their first title, Black Tiger: Legacy of Fury.

The principals involved are John E. Hervey II (director of finance and operations, and book's writer) and Priscilla A. Tjio (director of sales and marketing). They are nearing the March 10 date when the series (4-issue limited) hits the shelves, so much of the hard work has been done. But it was not an easy road ...

How did you come up with the concept for the book?
John E. Hervey II: Initially, it was an idea that was intended to be made into a screenplay, but as I developed the characters and the world around them it became apparent that a single screenplay could not do the story justice.
Priscilla A. Tjio: John had asked me what I thought about his idea, and the more we talked about it, the story began to come together. I remember John commenting that he would like to put it into comic book form, and next thing I knew, he had contacted some artists and the book started production.

What were your first thoughts about how you'd bring the comic book to the shelf?
JH: The idea of self-publishing can be a daunting one. Priscilla and I began discussing the pros and cons of self-publishing versus looking for a publisher the first day we committed to producing a comic book. Priscilla was always a staunch believer that we should self-publish, and as production of the book progressed I came to the same conclusion.
PT: I think aside from the self-publishing issue, we were also concerned about how to market our book so that retailers would order it from Diamond Distributors. We had to figure out how we, as a new independent publisher, would generate interest for our book considering the hundreds of books that are put out every month. We are still working on that.

Who did you contact first and why?
JH: Being the writer, the next link in the chain that we needed was a penciler. We contacted a couple of pencilers initially, but weren't able to get the kind of consistency we needed to publish a series. Via the wonder that is the internet, we contacted Rod Pereira, who was just coming off another project. He liked the vision of our Black Tiger series and showed he could consistently produce quality work.

How'd you choose an artist, a cover artist, describe the book's tone in relation to the cover.
JH: Previous to contacting any artist, I would evaluate their style to see if I thought it would be appropriate for the book. There is so much diversity in the characters within the series, that it requires a team of artists that can do justice to these diverse elements. At times, the book has a dark edge to it, and the book needed artists who could deliver that as well as portray some good old fashioned martial arts ... Regarding cover artists, I had a dream list that consisted of no more than four artists. I took a chance and reached out to them. Greg Horn was gracious enough to respond to my email. From there we developed a discourse online and when he saw we were committed to making comic books, he agreed to do the covers for our first four issue mini-series. This was fortunate for us, because about a month later he received a large influx of work from movie and video game companies that has not let up. I talked with numerous people when looking for an inker and chose Arne Starr because not only is he a comic book veteran, but he had the most fire for the project. I was fortunate when it came to letters and inks because Legio Studio was one of the first companies I reached out [to], and they quickly responded with high quality work.

[Seems simple to hear it explained, but success comes from following a process when creating a book. We'll cover some of the pitfalls and unexpected hurdles they encountered, next week.]

Biblical Sequel

Wonderland Revisited

Musical Chairs

And now, the news:

Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad plugged the company Thursday to investors in New York, saying Marvel stock is a great investment and that it is trolling for intellectual property aquisitions. The story, in Friday's Daily Variety, is quite a switch from a few years back, when the firm struggled to stave off bankruptcy liquidation.

Morgan Freeman has joined the cast of Chris Nolan's "Batman: Intimidation," set to start shooting March 16. Freeman will play Lucius Fox, a long-standing character from the comics who oversees Bruce Wayne's businesses. Also, Liam Neeson's role, as the mentor Ducard, was revealed.

Rob Bowman is being courted to direct "Elektra," with Jennifer Garner set to reprise her role as the sexy assassin from "Daredevil."

Even though it began as a radio serial and not a comic book, "The Green Hornet" film is pretty much a comic book movie. That must be one of the reasons ultimate fanboy Kevin Smith signed on to write and direct for Miramax.

Image Comics chief Jim Valentino has handed the reins of the company over to fellow founding partner Erik Larsen, according to Comic Book Resources. Larsen will continue to produce his Savage Dragon comic while running the company from his home base in Oakland.

Silver Bullet Comics reports that the makers of the popular online animated comic "Broken Saints" have signed a deal with Dark Horse for the comics publisher to develop the property on multiple fronts, including film.

Comings and goings in the biz include the cancelation of Marvel's Epic Anthology after one issue and the end of CrossGen series The Brath, with issue 17, and Way of the Rat, with issue 24. DC is ending its Batman Adventures series, based on the popular animated cartoon series. It will be relaunched to coincide with the new animated "The Batman" series coming to TV. Warren Ellis makes a surprise return to Marvel, apparently taking over the reins of Ultimate Fantastic Four starting with issue 7. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray assume the writing chores on Hawkman for DC. Marvel's May X-Men spotlight event, Reload, morphs several titles, with New X-Men going back to just X-Men under writer Chuck Austen and artist Salvador Larocca. Other highlights include John Cassaday of Planetary being set to draw "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon's 12-issue run on the new Astonishing X-Men; New Mutants is canceled and relaunched as New X-Men: Academy X; and writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Brandon Peterson take over Ultimate X-Men. And longtime comicbook letterer Bill Oakley has died of cancer.

Blacksuperhero.com

Blacksuperhero.com

The Storms, Green Lanterns, Spawns, and Statics (now popular as a WB Kids star) of the comic world do have a history that's worth exploring at the Museum of Black Superheroes.

Chronicling the history of blacks in comics, site creator Omar Bilal has gathered all of the black super heroes that he could find (though I think he missed Mike Wellman's Mac Afro!). The site sports "exhibits," which spotlight different publishers' black characters (for example, in the TV/Movies section he even describes Jazz from the Transformers - the car's voice being distinctly African American); a gallery with drawings from independent artists; and an articles section compiling numerous stories related to black super heroes and general diversity in comics from fan perspectives like Fanzing: The DC Comics Fan site to mainstream sites like the New York Daily News.

The takeaway is that the portrayal of blacks in comics has gotten more inclusive over the years, but still has room to improve. Early on, stats were hard to come by, but heroes like the Black Panther (introduced as a villain and whose possible movie seems stalled) and Luke Cage (stereotypical at the time, but a breakthrough hero) helped open the door for today's popular characters.

Marvel covering up; Joss branching out

Marvel Comics announced they will introduce a new and improved comic stock for their Ultimate line of comics. The quality of the existing cover stock had been a persistent complaint among fans.

The comic book line will include the new 100# UV-coated covers starting in April 2004.

The change will take effect with Ultimate Spider-Man #56, Ultimate Fantastic Four #5, Ultimate X-Men #44 and Ultimates Vol. 2 #1.

And on the heels of the announcement that The WB's "Angel" is not returning next season, Newsarama is reporting that the new X-Men Reloaded crew will include "Buffy" boss Joss Whedon as he debuts Astonishing X-Men #1. This was expected, but had not been confirmed.

Hopefully, Whedon will continue thrilling "Buffy" and "Angel" fans with his Tales of the Vampires stories from Dark Horse.

Fight Quietly ...

Making 'History'

The latest news from the comic-book corner of the office:

David Cronenberg is set to direct an adaptation of "A History of Violence," John Wagner's graphic novel published by Paradox Press/DC Comics, for New Line, Daily Variety reports. Paradox also published "Road to Perdition," the film version of which was released in 2002.

Batman was all over Variety this week, starting with a cover story on Chris Nolan's new film version and a sidebar discussion with DC publisher Paul Levitz about what makes the character work. Also, "The Batman" is returning to animation next year for Kids WB and Cartoon Network. The new series will focus on his earlier years as a crimefighter.

Daily Variety broke the news that director Bryan Singer and his X2 writing partners Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty are slated to write a year's worth of Ultimate X-Men comics for Marvel.

Dirk Deppey announced on his Journalista weblog that he has been promoted to managing editor of The Comics Journal, replacing Milo George. The blog will go on temporary hiatus.

Time's Andrew D. Arnold writes about girls reading more manga and reveals DC's plans to start a manga line of its own called CMX.

Tokyopop announced six new manga series will start in August.

DC will go back to press on two issues of its relaunch for Superman. DC ran out of copies of Action Comics #812 and Adventures of Superman #625 to provide to retailers before the books went on sale.

Writer Warren Ellis announced in his email list, Bad Signal, that Colleen Doran will be the artist on his graphic novel, Stealth Tribes, coming at the end of this year from DC/Vertigo. They last collaborated on the graphic novel Orbiter. The long-delayed final issue of Ellis' Ministry of Space miniseries will see print at last in April, according to publisher Image Comics.

Writer Mark Millar, who's released a string of creator owned projects in the past weeks, has announced on his online forum that one of those projects, Run, a one-shot from Image Comics, has been canceled. The rest of his projects, Chosen, Wanted and The Unfunnies, are continuing.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York will be moving into a bigger space in SoHo.

Julius Schwartz: 1916-2004

D.C. Comics released a statement on the passing of Julius Schwartz.

Julius Schwartz, one of the best-loved and most influential members of both the comics and science fiction communities, died Sunday morning, February 8, in Winthrop Hospital in New York from complications from pneumonia. Schwartz was 88 years old.

Schwartz, who was popularly called "a living legend" and served as DC's Editor Emeritus, will be remembered as one of the founders of science fiction fandom, as a comic-book editor whose vision spanned five decades with DC Comics, and as the architect of comics' Silver Age, revitalizing the careers of such super-heroes as Batman, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern and The Justice League of America.

"DC has lost a living legend this weekend and a true original," says Paul Levitz, DC's president and publisher. "Julie was an editor who entertained and educated millions over three generations, performed the near-impossible feat of getting great work out of his contributors without ever ruffling their feelings, and taught many of us our craft. If the measure of an editor is the respect of his peers, he was immeasurable -- for his peers who loved and respected him were often legends in their own right. Most of us were simply left in awe.

To read the full statement, go to the DC site.

Top Comics; Batman Tidbit

A quick look at the top ten comics for January as "Fantastic Four" continues its popularity.

1. ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #2 $2.25 (MAR)
2. NEW X-MEN #151 $2.25 (MAR)
3. NEW X-MEN #152 $2.25 (MAR)
4. MARVEL 1602 #6 (of 8) $3.50 (MAR)
5. WOLVERINE END #2 (of 6) $2.99 (MAR)
6. ULTIMATE X-MEN #41 $2.25 (MAR)
7. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #52 $2.25 (MAR)
8. ULTIMATE SIX #6 (of 7) $2.25 (MAR)
9. UNCANNY X-MEN #437 $2.25 (MAR)
10. BATMAN #623 $2.25 (DC)

And speaking of Batman ...

The Hollywood Reporter is ... reporting that Liam Neeson is in final negotiations to star opposite Christian Bale in Warner Bros. Pictures' upcoming Batman movie being directed by Christopher Nolan and produced by Emma Thomas.

What the story doesn't say is exactly who Neeson will play.

Convention Mentions

The Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention, held this past weekend in Pasadena, didn't boast a huge showroom or spectacular giveaways, but a few events caught my attention.

The Hellboy panel on Saturday featured director Guillermo Del Toro, star Ron Perlman (Hellboy), and co-star Doug Jones (Abe Sapien). Del Toro's jovial nature contrasted with Perlman's deep-voice, low-key wit in a fun Q&A session in which Del Toro expressed how he stuck as close to the comic as possible. The director commented on how the book uses shadows in broad daylight, and even in spots where it's impossible to have them, as a specific example of the difference between the page and the screen.

The crowd laughed and gasped when a questioner approached the mic and stated "I have a question for Peter Jackson ..." Del Toro, physically a match for Jackson, beard and all, took it in stride saying, "Well, I do have a fucking beard and an accent, so it's OK." After the question was asked, he made a reference to lighting Gandalf in "Hellboy."

When asked if there was a role they'd like to play, wirey actor Jones replied "That rubbery guy on the Fantastic Four." Perlman deadpanned, "Hellboy 2."

During the Teen Titans panel Saturday, producer Glen Murakami and the rest of the creative team revealed a couple of guest appearances on the show. Wildebeast, Speedy and more of Aqualad are scheduled. After speaking about drawing materials ("Pencils?"), how much time it takes to create an episode, and the music of Puffy AmiYumi, the inevitable movie question was asked. And the inevitable "You'll have to wait and see" was the reply from the assembled crew.

Other highlights included the "Dawn of the Dead" panel (looks great), and Robin Shou's appearance on Sunday with his movie "Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen." He was accompanied by stuntmen/martial artists and a female rapper (for a sample of the rap, click "Synopsis" at the "Red Trouser" site above), both of whom performed.

Something Stinks (But Not This Book)

Wheeling and Dealing

The Friday news wrap:

Today's Daily Variety reports a deal between Marvel and Electronic Arts to to create a new line of videogames based on Marvel characters as well as comicbooks based on EA characters.

DV says Marvel also signed a deal with China Youth Press to get its comics translated and reprinted for that nation. And Warren Ellis' comic Global Frequency is getting ready to shoot as a pilot for the WB, exec produced by Mark Burnett ("Survivor") and John Rogers ("The Core"), who will also write the script.

Jerry Seinfeld is reteaming with Superman for American Express, Ad Age reports. The actor will star in five-minute video episodes with an animated Man of Steel that will appear on the charge card company's website.

Dark Horse Comics announced this week that it will buy manga publishing and production house Studio Proteus. The acquisition will also include all Studio Proteus manga previously published with Eclipse and Innovation. Studio Proteus’s Toren Smith will retain the company’s name and stay on as a translator and manga consultant.

A benefit comic from Marvel to raise funds for ACTOR, which offers financial assistance to retired comics pros, has been canceled. But Marvel will still donate money to the fund.

"Hellboy" director Guillermo del Toro and star Ron Perelman are scheduled to appear at tomorrow's L.A. Comic Book and Sci-Fi Convention at the Pasadena Convention Center. The producers of Cartoon Network's Teen Titans also will be on hand for the two-day show. See you there.

A Monolithic Debut

Comics from Mars

The 1990s were full of talent such as Jeff Smith on Bone or David Lapham on Stray Bullets breaking into self-publishing and making a real go of it. Few who've tried it of late have met similar success, except for the Brooklyn-based team of Rick Spears and Rob G.

Their just-concluded, 8-issue, 254-page serial Teenagers from Mars has firmly established them in the comics world. Despite having lost his apartment in a fire, Rob G has done the art for Brian Wood's The Couriers and the duo have a backup strip running in DC's flagship title, Detective Comics. But Teenagers from Mars is so far their most distinctive work, telling the story of Macon, a teen-age comic fan who finds his small town less than receptive to his attempts to get more people to read them. Spurred on by a new girlfriend, he takes his mission to the next level, forming the Comic Book Liberation Army and ending up a rebel with a four-color cause.

The duo will be making a West Coast appearance at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco on Feb. 21-22.

Variety: What inspired you to get into comics in general and to do Teenagers from Mars in particular?

Rick Spears: After film school I moved to NYC and started writing and TFM began as a film script. I shopped it around a bit and got a lot of "It's young and hip but ... we don't get it." After that it just sort of morphed into a comic and since the story was all about comics it was a pretty simple move. The story itself grew out of living in Richmond, Va., (my own personal Mars) and what I'd learned about the Mike Diana Boiled Angel obscenity case.

Rob G: For me, I'd always enjoyed comics as a kid and was drawn to the visuals of the stories. As I got older, I started to appreciate storytelling a lot more. Comics are one of the most direct medias for raw storytelling, because of their usage of ideals and generalizations.

Variety: Do you think comics are under siege in real life as much as they are in TFM?

RS: Yeah, just go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website and see for yourself. People (Americans) think comics are just for kids and they get all in a tizzy when they find out they aren't.

RG: And recently the climate in the U.S. seems to have shifted even more in the direction of limiting a person's rights on what he or she can or can't see/read/hear.

Variety: How did you two meet up and how did you go about creating the comic?

RS: The "real" Macon is friends with Rob's roommate, J.J., and they put us in touch. It's funny, we never met until then because Rob and I have led sort of parallel lives. Both from Virginia, we went to the same college and both moved to Brooklyn. Because of our shared histories, we were pretty much instant friends. For TFM, the script was done in advance but because Rob knows Richmond and a lot of the people and places I was playing with, he was able to add a ton of detail and context. For instance, the zombie party was a real Halloween party that we both were at before we knew each other.

RG: Uh, yeah, what he said.

Variety: Why did you decide to self publish and are you pleased with the results now that you've finished the series?

RS: We decided to self-publish after being rejected or ignored by all the publishers we submitted to. It was the same problem with the movie people: they just couldn't seem to get it so, we did it ourselves. Now that it's done, I am very happy with how it came out. Sure, there are some mistakes and stuff, but that just ads to the raw energy of it. I also found out I love self-publishing, which was very much a surprise.

RG: Of course, there are things that I would like to have done better, but overall I'm very pleased with the way it came out. It really shows the growth of Rick's and my abilities as creators of comics.

Variety: When did you realize the book was finding an audience and why do you think it seemed to connect with readers when so many indy comics don't?

RG: Rick and I knew it was a real gamble when we decided to do it and I think it took a long time for us to really believe that people were really and truly liking it. I think it's appeal is mainly in the writing.

RS: The way I break it down, it's the artist's job to catch the eye and get someone to pick up the book in the first place. With that done, it's the writer's job to keep 'em coming back for more. You gotta have both or you're in trouble. As to when did we know it was moving, for me it was when Diamond called to distribute the book and we hadn't even sent them our submission yet.

Variety: How did you find your way from this project to working on more mainstream work, like Detective Comics?

RS: Nachie Castro, an assistant editor at DC, saw us at the MoCCA in NYC. We only had issues 1 and 2 at the time, but he liked what he saw. Then with Jim Lee on Batman and the books selling huge numbers I think the Bat group was able to take some risks on new faces.

Variety: What's next? Do you plan to do more comics or are you looking to expand into other areas?

RS: Well, we're definitely doing more comics. We've got the TFM collected trade coming out this year and then the second series, Curses of the Teenagers From Mars. We're also expanding into new areas. For instance we're doing a work for hire project based on a film franchise and I'm working on a film script that's planned to start production in the fall.

Catwoman Purrs for Oprah

If you've been wondering how Halle Berry would behave in the role of "Catwoman," -- and no, she's not DC Comic's Selina Kyle in this version (though she bears a striking resemblance to the current incarnation) -- you can get a sneak peek courtesy of Oprah Winfrey.

Well, not really Oprah, but her birthday. It was widely known that Halle sent Oprah a birthday wish as Catwoman: total garb, whip, and all. But the Movie Box has digitized the greeting for all to see.

Halle's site, Hallewood.com also has more pics of the movie (basically her in costume) you can peruse until the official site is up and running.