Anatomy of a press release: Disney acquires Radical’s OBLIVION

I’ve looked at some of them. None have really thrilled me enough to actually buy.

I reviewed the first issue of the previous Hotwire series by Steve Pugh and Warren Ellis here. It was pretty good.

Radical used to send me free copies of all their stuff for review, but Hotwire was the only one they sent that was anywhere near worth spending money on.

I purchased one issue of Hercules and then dropped it. I’m a comics geek; I loves me some violence. But watching Herc and co kill and mutilate dozens of people turned my stomach.

Calibur was a smart and well-done western with mystical overtones, incorporating the King Arthur story. It was hard to differentiate between each character’s facial features, however, which made the action somewhat confusing. Sure was painted purty, though.

What is “RADICAL” about their comics? When you compare them to Marvel, DC and Dark Horse? It sounds like a description of their product and not just a cool publishing name, lets say like, BONGO. No I don’t them, not yet.

“As for the OBLIVION movie…well, don’t hold your breath. The odds are STILL against it getting made…”

Getting a movie made in Hollywood – especially something in the $100M range – is like aiming to hit a 1cm bullseye from 5 miles out during an earthquake.

I wish the comics folk would work smarter and build their franchises instead of tying up all of the rights to their work when you know it’s going to sit on the shelf. We need more good comics content released into the wild regardless of the budget or the medium. Production technology is getting that good and there are a lot of talented people out their to ‘plus’ the property and build its audience.

But hey – who am I to begrudge someone getting a $500K payday?

The only book of theirs I’ve read was Caliber, which I thought was terrible.

But on the more positive side, I’ve heard really good things about Hotwire. The new series coming out this month is actually a sequel series so it must have done decent, plus, hey, Steve Pugh art. *thumbs up* I also thought The Last Days of American Crime (written by Rick Remender) had an interesting premise and some nice looking art, but I don’t personally know anyone who has read it.

I remember looking through a couple of Radical books that were incentive priced at $1`.00 for the first issue, and thinking they had high production values, but that I’d wait for an eventual discounted trade to continue the stories, if ever.

I do recall the Virgin books with Nicolas Cage and Deepak Chopra’s names attached, and all of Tekno’s books had some celebrity or near celebrity tie-in (Was Neil Gaiman known outside the comics world much at that time?) But what were the Crossgen celebrity books? I can’t think of them.

I’ve picked up the first two issues of Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini’s Last Days of American Crime and loved them. Fresh ideas and Tocchini delivering a quantum leap in artwork, it’s totally entertaining. I could easily see it transforming into an HBO, AMC, BBC shortform series.

I read the HOTWIRE: REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD tpb and thought it was brilliant. Steve Pugh’s art is some next level sh!t. I have the trades for CITY OF DUST and SHRAPNEL: ARISTEIA RISING in my “to read” pile. I am keeping my eye on Radical – at least they are publishing some original and different material than the Big Two.

Everything I’ve read from Radical read like a cheap movie pitch, with the exact level of quality that entails. Last Days of American Crime had pretty good art, but the story was pretty lackluster and I think the Spanish dialogue was lazy in some spots, but it’s been weeks since I even thought of the series.

Good for those guys, I guess, but I think making actual comics would make them a more interesting, but maybe less profitable, company.

Read Last Days of American Crime and Time Bomb. Both read like movie pitches but in their creator’s storytelling style. In other words, if you like Remender or Palmiotti/Gray creator owned stuff I would think you would like the stories. $5 a pop is tough even at 50 pages of story though.

I seem to recall that towards the end Crossgen was teaming up with a bunch of underemployed directors like Chuck Russell and Bob Gale; i.e.
>>>>Cornerstone’s “Meridian” option deal was initially revealed during a CrossGen panel discussion at Comic-Con, where Larry Whitaker was joined on the panel by other CrossGen production partners, including Chuck Russell (director, “The Scorpion King”), Bennett Schneir (VP at Bob Zemeckis’ ImageMovers), Larry Kasanoff (president, Threshold Entertainment, “Mortal Kombat”) and led by Branded Entertainment’s Michael Uslan (Batman franchise, Carmen Sandiego).

Disney really sees Tron Legacy as their next big franchise, really. This totally perplexes me, the original Tron movie while arguably a financial success was not a hugh hit and except for an arcade game didn’t really inspire much marketing back in the day. At the time Disney was highly criticized for passing on huge blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET to spend money developing a computer generated movie. Now that seems to be thinking that’s decades ahead of it’s time, but back in the 80’s it was the brunt of a joke. And except for a few dedicated fans, (and there are always a few dedicated fans) the film was largely forgotten. The idea that they think there’s an audience enough for a 30 year later squeal never mind making it the next big franchise is just something I don’t get.

Wow … just lovin’ the hoity toity vibe on this page … I’m not a comics art critic, nor do I know nearly as much about the industry and history of comic books as I’d like to … so I’ll just have to be content with being an average Joe reader and say… YEAH … I’ve bought, read, enjoyed AND enthused about a Radical Comic … “Shrapnel”, to be precise. I also enjoyed (but didn’t rave about) F.V.Z.A. I like the artwork … the stories … and I REALLY like that I actually GET something for the $4 that I pay for their books.

What IS a “real” comic book after all? Jeepers creepers! Radical’s books look and smell like comic books to me.

ChristopherH-

Perhaps. Certainly there isn’t any reason not to call radicals books comic books, and as Mike Myers said, “I don’t believe in high comedy or low comedy. I just think poo is funny.” There is a very real sense one gets when reading a comic that is intended for another medium however, that the comic is a bit of an afterthought, much the same as reading a novelization of a movie feels.

So by the same token, since no one would expect a film director to stand up and proclaim the novelization of her film to be of any intrinsic value, comic creators often feel a fair amount of umbrage at their chosen medium being used treated as a rest-stop on the road to the big screen.

This is an informative piece regarding business issues that others do not discuss.

I would appreciate more articles of this sort.

– Thanks

I’ve purchased and read every single book Radical has published (I’m probably the one one…). While some of the stories are weak, the art work is fantastic. Favorite series to date: Last Days of American Crime, Hotwire and FVZA.

Will I continue to purchase Radical books? Yup….

@William: It seems to me that this concern about the comics-to-movie model is merely an extension of a long-standing European-derived cultural bias that has led people to dismiss comics for decades. In the European intellectual/cultural tradition, “pure” art forms (literature, art, music, etc.) have traditionally been lauded while work that combines forms (like comic books which combine image AND text) are held in disdain.

This feels to me like a similarly constructed bias. Innovation in form has not always been successful, but “Shrapnel” and “F.V.Z.A.” certainly haven’t felt like afterthoughts to me. They had well-designed narrative arcs and really incredible artwork.

I don’t think they were afterthoughts for David Hine and Nick Sagan either.

To each his own.

@ChristopherH

I can personally vouch that on all of the projects I worked on, there was not a screenplay first approach taken to the comics but I did keep the possibilities of other media in mind. I wanted first and foremost to make them all work as comics first.

I have always preferred to work on projects that were short form (ie: mini-series and graphic novels) to long form (on-going comics). All the projects I developed I worked closely with the creator to be mindful of their larger universe and if they hadn’t thought about it, urged them to do so.

With David Hine he needed no such urging and we had a real blast fleshing out the worlds of FVZA and moreso on RYDER ON THE STORM.

I think that many people confuse the shorter narrative of a mini-series or graphic novel as purely a way to sell a film. The European format of graphic novel series has been doing this for years and is, I believe, a healthier approach to the medium for the mass market.

Btw: HOTWIRE was totally conceived as a comic and Steve Pugh has always approached it as such.

Btw2: The piece of art everyone keeps using for OBLIVION was actually painted by Ri Kai Lim of Imaginary Friends Studios.

Hey Dave, thanks for chiming in with your facts and insights.

“And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie.”

Wanted and Kick-Ass. He may try and skirt the issue, but Mark Millar always had it in mind to create these comics (and now Nemesis and Superior) so they could then be made into movies.

“And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie.”

Bulletproof Monk was probably the first.

@Dave Elliott: Thanks! BTW, I love Radical and have really enjoyed the work I’ve read thus far. In my comments, I was actually taking issue with some of the criticism being posted. You guys are awesome. Chris

This is old news even a cranky guy like me is tired of complaining about. When was Tekno Comix launched people? 1995? This is old news, there’s just more of it. Move on.

And Heidi, didn’t you freelance edit titles for the Fox Corp short-lived comics line/property development arm? I’m not throwing rocks, I’m just saying, come om now.

Old, easy target we can do little about. People will start companies for reasons other than to create comics for us lowlies who still read them faithfully. They don’t succeed at anything in general except to suck PR from other projects and take up some space in Previews for their life cycle. Old news, easy to understand why they do it, easy to ignore.

Evan: And thou shalt be re-christened “Bucket of Cold Water” :D loverly-jubbly.

Also –why doesn’t anyone ever seem to bitch about the growing number of creators who are jamming their movie pitches through Previews? Just because a project isn’t under the tent of one of the IP-daily outfits, doesn’t mean it isn’t of the same stripe. It’s easy to knock the suits, but the creators don’t seem to get tagged for this stuff.

Anyway, don’t look at me to name names, I’m friends with some of these people. And I have to get back to work on my tweener time-travel/zombie/vampire/kung-fu/social media/Emily Bronte pastiche.

Evan: If I were to restrict myself to only elements that had never been addressed before, this would be a very brief blog. You know it’s always someone’s first sharp slap of disillusionment!

As for Fox, as I mentioned, an increasing number of people are making money from “pitch comics.” The actual books FA put out were sequels and adaptations, although original stuff was in the works.

I’ve followed a lot of radical titles.
Harcules: average
Caliber: good but need some others stories, it’s just an introduction
Freedom Formula: forgot about it
Hotwire: good
City of Dust: good
Incanate: despite the manga copy (I wasn’t aware of), I enjoyed it.
FVZA: I had a lot of hope in that but it was average.
Last Days of American Crime: waiting for the next issue. :)
Lords of misrule: interesting reading with a Lovecraftian / Silent Hill feeling.

Mostly, Radical publishes some nice looking comics (especially with the digital colors) but I’ve yet to be blown up by one of their titles. Can’t wait for Palmiotti & Gray’s Time Bomb though.

Anyone who releases a comic and states that they DON’T have an eye on what it could make as a movie or TV show in this day and age is a bloody liar. My own two pence, but you can’t HELP but consider this as a writer. Even novelists find themselves doing it. Anyone who’s read a Stephen King book past MISERY can see he’s had one eye on the ‘how can this be adapted’ ball.

As for ‘Vanity’ comics, that’s a large brush you’re tarring with, Heidi. It might be hard to believe but there are actually ‘celebrities’ out there who enjoy comics, want to work in comics. Seth Green, Brea Grant, Thomas Jane, Sam Jackson, Jonathan Ross – there are countless people I can mention who enjoy writing comics and the whole idea of what they put together becoming a TV show / movie is totally secondary. Yet your piece seems to claim that all projects involving a ‘celebrity’ are only aimed at one end. and I call bullsh*t on that.

I know that I’ll get tarred with this brush when Agent Mom comes out because Alaina Huffman is ‘that woman from TV’. The fact that she grew up reading Manga and has had this idea for well over ten years and we had to fight hard for the main character to even bear a passing similarity to her is irrelevant though, right?

I purchased “Yoshitaka Amano’s Mateki: The Magic Flute”, which isn’t a comicbook per se… more of a richly illustrated novel. I probably wouldn’t have purchased it had he not done a signing during the NY Anime Festival a few years ago.

Their books are beautiful, but they don’t appeal to me. From the recent FCBD offering, it seems they are aiming for a Métal Hurlant style. They are still in business, they have various properties in development, and they are distributed by Random House,

Hmmm… here’s a dichotomy or two… comics use words and pictures to tell a story, with the story many times being written in full script form, which is similar to a screenplay. Movies use pictures and sound to tell a story, and frequently use storyboards to plan the action of a movie. Comics are not movies, but they share some similarities.

Now… adaptations happen quite frequently (see Mozart above), both within the medium (different sets and staging of operas) and without (different adaptations of classic novels).

Sometimes, a work is adapted not from the actual production, but from the original text (how many adaptations of Hamlet are based on a specific movie or performance; how many are based on Shakespeare’s text?) So, is a screenplay adapted into a comic that’s then adapted into a movie inherently inbred? Does it lose something in the transliteration?

So perhaps I have an idea for a screenplay. Perhaps the concept doesn’t sell. So I’ll write a comicbook or novel to make some money on the idea, and maybe someone will see the book (which is more lawyer-friendly) and decide to option the property.

It worked for Neil Gaiman, except that he wrote a novel based on his “Interworld” script instead of a comicbook.

Can “screenplay” comics be awful? Sure.
Can they be good? Certainly.
But Sturgeon’s Law is almost universal.

@Tony: I’m not going to presume to know which celebrities are true fans of the medium, and which ones are just opportunistic self-promoters. I’m sure many of them are longtime comic book readers, or at least appreciate the medium.

But where was their “love” of creating/writing/drawing comics, say, 10-15 years ago? You know, before the entirety of Hollywood fell in love with the “cool” factor of comics (not to mention the billion dollar movies based on them?) Oh, that’s right. 15 years ago they would have been paid comic book money for their efforts (and probably ridiculed by their colleagues), whereas today they’re still getting paid comic book money, but at least with the slim hope of turning their project into a multi-million dollar movie franchise. And they get their names mentioned in all the right industry rags, etc.

I’m sorry, but I’m more apt to go with Heidi’s version of the story, than your passionate defense of this glut of vanity projects. Especially the ones where the so-called celebrity is just credited with “creating” the concept, while others do the actual hard work of writing and drawing it. Because, you know, when I was 12 I “created” a couple dozen different cool characters and concepts too. It’s doing the actual work that makes you a comic book creator, not lending your name of dubious value to a project.

End of rant.

Is this “pick on Radical day”?

They put out many a great book. I’ve reviewed their stuff since the start. Now, of course it is bothersome using Hollywood names to sell books, and it is self-destructive for the medium allowing Hollywood folks to cut in front of the long, long line of more earnest writers and artists who have been slaving for years for a chance at the limelight, or even to see work actually go to print.
Though Radical is guilty to a degree of this, they are far from being the only publisher responsible, not the first and certainly not the last. While many of their properties are self-contained, I really feel that it is the minority of books created with the sole aim of oneday seeing life on film. I say this as a fan who has followed their output all along, and I say this as someone who has shared words with many of their creative staff as well as persons behind the scenes. Gianluca Glazer in particular is more modest and honest and inoffensively efficient than any of the Marketing persons from fellow mid-range publishers on up to the big boys.
It was frustrating seeing the stoically talented Phil Elliott part ways, though David Wohl, Renae Geerlings, and the editorial powerhouse that is Marie Javins have done much to keep things moving forward. This despite the awkwardness of the Nick Simmons debacle, etc.
Just look at the roster doing work for the company. The end product that Radical releases is absolutely high quality stuff, and I wish more publishers had such a broad range in taste. Are there a mess of movie deals past and present, in the works? Yes. But the majority did not start out with those intentions, and considering the books that might indeed become film- they are far from any public stereotype of what constitutes a comic book…which must be a good thing ultimately. I am offended by the notion that comics in general can so easily be transferred cross-medium. Every medium has its distinctions, its own strengths. Thankfully, Radical is not at all opposed to putting out original, intelligent, and imaginative comics material, movies or no movies.

Far from Pick on Radical day, I think there’s been more positive recommendations about Radical titles in this thread than I have ever read on the internet! In fact enough to make me seek more of them out.

Tony: You forgot the biggest Nerd-lebrity writer of all — Gerard Way! And yeah all the folks you mention have definitely shown their dedication and talent in one way or another. Hey, my favorite tv show of all times was created by an actor.

I wouldn’t judge you or anyone for working on movie comics, as long as a fair deal is involved. As I said above, I don’t think its “less honorable” work than other comics WFH. And in some cases it definitely pays well. And likewise, getting a bigger media deal out of a comics property is part of the business these days.

Calvin Reid and I do a talk on the comics business every semester for SVA students. When talking about possible revenue streams I have a whole slide devoted to “movie comics.”

As for what “movie comics” have actually been turned into movies, someone privately mentioned 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, which started life as a screenplay. I’d argue that this, WANTED and KICK-ASS were created under a slightly different business model — and certainly if all movie comics were drawn by Ben Templesmith, JG Jones or JR JR the genre would get a lot more attention.

BULLETPROOF MONK — which came out from FLYPAPER, an Image imprint– is a more interesting example, as it was funded by Gotham Chopra, later of Virgin/Liquid Comic, and here was a legal battle after the original creator (Brett “WINTERMEN) Lewis had his name taken off the third issue. While, once again, the situation was a bit fuzzier than some more recent examples, I would have to amend my statement and say that BULLETPROOF MONK is indeed the role model for the comics-to-film business.

People that actually make $100 m movies (making three as we speak) laugh at the people who make these deals- on both sides. Please don’t omit Boom next time you speak either- many options, no movie even close! And Cowboys wasn’t a comic it was a pitch taken from Scott Lobdell and then thrown around till someone bought it.

@The Beat: Thanks for the clarification on Crossgen. I was thinking you meant a “{Celebrity}’s potato-man” kind of title. I really, really liked a lot of what Crossgen ppublished, but Meridian was my favorite, and I would have loved to see a film, as long as Barbara Kesel was involved. Hey, now that there’s some interest in reviving the Crossgen properties, maybe there’s hope.

I’d be very surprised if Disney PAID money in the mid-six figures for an option. In my experience, comics companies grease their promo on the comics press not having a clue how things really work. I don’t doubt if there’s a press release Disney signed an agreement to pay mid-six figures for the purchase price of the property rights for Oblivion, but it’s highly unlikely they paid more than 10% of that upfront. The 10% is the option. The rest gets paid when principle photography starts, usually. But principle photography’s a looooooooooooong way away, and frequently an infinitely long way where Disney is concerned. In fact, a studio cutting a deal like this doesn’t come anywhere near meaning a film will ever be made. The number of deals made is a tiny fraction of the number of films in “development” out there, and the number of films made is a small fraction of the number of deals made. I’ve got a couple high-six-figure deals myself, and don’t get me wrong – I’m more than happy to get the option money, it’s still more than comics usually pay – but those “movies” only crawl forward, and I’m not holding my breath for The Big Payoff. And my option money gets split in a lot fewer directions than I assume Radical’s does.

As Tony mentions, most comics done today are done with an eye toward selling media rights. But in my experience it’s not worth tailoring material to Hollywood. Just do what you want to do, because it’s the stuff you’d never in a million years think Hollywood could dig that producers will come sniffing around for. (There was a ton of interest in Odysseus The Rebel at San Diego, and that’s about the last thing I’d ever have expected.) Hollywood doesn’t need you to mold your material to their needs; they can do that themselves. And you’ll always be behind the curve regarding their needs anyway. Just give ’em an idea they can sink their teeth into, do it however you want, and remember that your comic is your comic and their movie is their movie.

I don’t think Johnny Ryan sits around thinking Prison Pit’s going to be a Pixar movie. I’ve never done a project with Hollywood in the back of my mind, and I’m certain many others operate in the same manner. And no, I’m not lying, at least not at the moment. This doesn’t make me awesome,or an “artist”, it’s just that I don’t believe every cartoonist or creator out there has one eye on an option when making a comic, and I myself don’t sit around going through my files or wracking my brain for a pitch project to flesh out on funnybook paper as an IP placeholder and copyright protector. Maybe many of the action/adventure/horror creators do, I don’t know that end of the industry too well, but even there I’d say someone like Paul Grist isn’t killing himself to get a movie deal, he clearly makes Jack Staff out of his love of making a comic of Jack Staff. Something like Shark-Bear or Werewolves on the Moon, yeah, that strikes me on the face of it as pretty hopeful of a life beyond comics. Maybe I’m wrong, you never know, comics has its own sense and tradition of plain old high concept like any other medium. Still, that’s a pretty broad brush for a medium of so many folks that offers up work by Linda Barry, et al, as well as Mark Millar, et al.

Juts another two cents. Back to work on Robo-Hooker vs ProstiTut Ankh Amon.

Nothing really important to contribute.

Just wanted to let Heidi and Jason Green know that they don’t have to look too far for our books. Copies of Time Bomb #1, Hotwire: Deep Cut #1, After Dark #1, The Rising #0, Ryder on the Storm #0 and Shrapnel: Hubris #2 were mailed out to them last week as well as Driver for the Dead #1 being sent to them a month ago.

If ever you both want to check out our other titles, please let me know. For all things Radical, I’m your hookup.

Gerard Way is actually the exception. The guy wrote for Hart Fisher as a teenager (credited as Gary Way, I believe), worked in a comic shop, worked in animation, THEN got famous off of his band and used THAT celebrity to . . . go back and write comics. Not even remotely the same thing.

Wow I’m amazed by the number of celebrities posting about this story :) impressive.
As for my 2 cents Radical is a very good company to work for, they have a lot of respect for their creators.