Hws it going?

K.v
Vimanika Comics

check out SUPERMAN: RED SON by Mark Millar. It reimagined Superman as a communist and sold pretty well too.

–m

how you doin my friend?

K.v
Vimanika comics

Dennis Kitchen rulez…

Some of us in India are struggling with very different notions of the kinds of comics we’d like to see in this country - Virgin represented the worst element of that mentality - a plantation mentality. Virgin’s game plan was to milk creative talent in this country (giving them an oppurtunity) to create ‘product’ for the U.S market. In the 1800s till India’s independence in 1947, the East India Company would take cotton grown in India to mills in Manchester and ship the finished goods back to India - Virgin represented the new colonials for Indian comics - Other Indian comic publishing companies like ACK, IBH, Raj are solely Indian based. Virgin didn’t see India as a base for their comics - which is fine because its target audience was American. Virgin’s pay rate to some of the people I’ve met who have had the pleasure of working for them is really good - which is excellent because comic book illustration in this country is not seen a real career so few do it. My sole problem with Virgin remains with the issue of creator’s rights (which Ashok Banker - an Indian novelist and former writer for Devi can testify to) - Virgin would not give any of it’s writers rights to their creations. While you may point out the cases of Marvel and DC - almost every single alternative comic publisher in the states offers complete creators rights for any creator owned title under their banner from Avatar to Viper Comics (dunno about Zenescope). A lot of people may argue that if a company pays you to develop its own creations, you’re entitled to no rights for whatever you create. I totally agree with that point. But a lot of people don’t know is that almost everywhere else in the world (and entirely in Japan and Europe), comic book creators own their own creations. They exercise complete control.

I’m including here a letter I wrote and sent to several papers in Mumbai which were fawning over Virgin Comics. This letter was truncated and all remarks and criticisms of Deepak Chopra were removed when it was published because it appeared ironically (and as a complete surprise to me) on the one day when Deepak Chopra was the guest editor of the ToI..
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The first time I heard of this new venture, I decided to look into it. I’d heard Shekhar Kapur was going to do comics in India and I wanted to check out what was up and coming..

Here’s what I think after having looked at the venture- this is exactly the kind of rubbish that we don’t need here in India. I’m very tired of having to deal with glossy superficial patriachal Hindi films, dull plodding English verse by Indian authors and now in the one realm left in India so far untouched that actually has potential for writers and artists to find thier own idiom, We’re about to lose that too. See I’ve read ‘Spiderman India’; I read it at a friends place and I laughed my guts out.. This was possibly one of the worst comics I’d ever read.. worse than anything Image produced in the early 90’s akin to Rob Liefield’s best work or the half naked comics that Top
Cow publish. This was some horsehead’s impression of India. and this is what they believe the Indian market wants or India is like. I only buy Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday and the Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch from Gotham when they publish the books intermittently. They’re probably the most different and satisfying comics in thier lineup. The rest of the stuff is the commercial mass marketed flogged to death soap operatic storylines of the marvel and dc superhero camp- badly written, posingly drawn and all outtripe. I find it next to impossible to read Spiderman anymore- It’s just silly- I’ve got a cousin whose a teenager in the US and this is not the kind of book she would relate to. American mainstream comics are increasing turning towards an adult fanbase with the same fanboy taste as when they were 12.. The result is something halfbaked.

No one is really listening or feeling the pulse of the people or the youth here. Not in our media, nowhere. I believe that we need comics now more than ever given the impotence of the other media; to tell stories, all sorts of stories, not just the superhero or fantasy genre. I’m all for more black and white comics or two/four colour, for stories told on the dark side of Indian life, for more short story telling not in the present saccharine induced Tinkle way but with the more mature intimate manner of Ruskin Bond or Premchand, stories for teenagers that don’t talk down to them, comic journalism like Jo Sacco does or Angst ridden bios like Pekar. Keep it simple. Keep it cheap. And comics are cheap, very cheap to produce. It shouldn’t cost more to buy a comic than to buy a newspaper. That’s the level of cheap we should be looking for. And that’s what I intend doing- in the next two years. Comics have to originate as a form of expression from someone here not there. I loved Sarnath Banerjee’s Corridor- it’s an original. We need more original writing.

Why are NRIs producing these comics. I personally believe that they have nothing to offer us. No offence to Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapur, thier sons and daughters but please think about what you’re doing. I’m excited about comics. I’ve read and I know my history. You guys are gonna fold very quickly in the comic dept though maybe not the animation dept. You’ve not got the product quality to back you up, am saying this judging by the hype and absolutely no info about the writers and artists of the books themselves. That aside I will pick up Shekhar Kapur’s Devi - if it’s anything like the Bandit Queen, it will be class act in itself.
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Well a few comments to add to that - Gotham also published Waid’s run on the Fantastic Four (which is really great fun), Ultimate Spider-Man (the best spidey stories until the new bi-weekly series of AMZ) and there were some more including a nicer pocket size reprint of Miller’s DK - I gave all my old Gotham Comics a year back to a children’s library - but they were fun while they lasted..

I spent the last three years reading comics - and except for a few abortive efforts; did not end up making any. So I apologise for that remark.

I stand by what I said entirely - and while I deeply respect Shekhar Kapur for the movie ‘Bandit Queen’ - I didn’t like Devi one bit - the ‘Bad Girl’ genre of comics don’t interest me.

Jimmy - I love your work on Painkiller Jane and man I gotta say - I love the Jonah Hex stories - They’re amazing and one of the few monthly comics I make it a point to read. I don’t doubt you had good dealings with Virgin. My own issues with Virgin are because they represent everything I’ve come to loathe about companies that pirate and ’strip-mine’ culture and myths. For another company similar to Virgin, look up Vimanika Comics.

Cheers all…

Abhay : Why does 17 books in two years deserve ridicule? A small rollout of books, to be sure, but preferable to the onslaught of anonymous drivel that Marvel and DC automatically put out every year without thinking.

This entire thread seems to celebrate the end of Virgin Comics, but why? What did they ever do to anyone, except put out interesting books? People’s jobs have been lost, don’t forget. Someone gets slighted at their NYCC booth, and suddenly can’t wait for their downfall?? Why is everyone so cynical? Do we want Marvel and DC to be the only publishers of comics??

And whilst Marvel and DC may have a pre-existing market, it’s evident they have no idea what to do with it or how to move forward from it. Their strangehold on the industry is indeed that, a strangehold, that suffocates diversity and true creativity. If they can’t embrace the new, well it seems why should anyone else.

Abhay : Why does 17 books in two years deserve ridicule? A small rollout of books, to be sure, but preferable to the onslaught of anonymous drivel that Marvel and DC automatically put out every year without thinking.

This entire thread seems to celebrate the end of Virgin Comics, but why? What did they ever do to anyone, except put out interesting books? People’s jobs have been lost, don’t forget. Someone gets slighted at their NYCC booth, and suddenly can’t wait for their downfall?? Why is everyone so cynical? Do we want Marvel and DC to be the only publishers of comics??

And whilst Marvel and DC may have a pre-existing market, it’s evident they have no idea what to do with it or how to move forward from it. Change/risk/fun isn’t in their publishing strategy. Their strangehold on the industry is indeed that, a strangehold, that suffocates diversity and true creativity. No wonder there’s cynicism.

~

Coat

Oh, easy: because every single thing they did was wrong. They launched too many books too fast, too many “imprints” that didn’t make any sense to anyone, none of their books were marketed properly, and absolutely none of them were built around talent. How many essays does Steven Grant have to write? They didn’t read the Steven Grant essays. You can read them for free online– he’s got an *archive*.

Instead of ideas, vision, creativity, or leadership, they got Jimmy Palmiotti to work on an idea Right Said Fred or Joey Lawrence was too busy to flesh out. They thought throwing money around was an adequate substitute for competence. 17 titles in two years? That’s not foolhardy; that’s ridiculous in the purest sense of “deserving ridicule.”

Untalented, unprepared, and foolish people failing isn’t a problem with the Direct Market or with DC & Marvel fans; it’s not a problem at all; it’s the warm glow of inevitability. I say, chuckles ahoy!

No, the cardinal sin was assuming that they could simply flood the market with a bunch of new titles and they would sell in sufficient numbers to justify the massive investment. Even established companies like Marvel and DC wouldn’t think of launching “a few dozen” unproven new properties within a short period of time like CrossGen and Virgin did.

“There’s simply not enough room for any diversity at all in the DM.”

New publishers such as IDW, Viper Comics, and Boom! Studios have been able find profitable niches for themselves (with very little superhero material) by starting out with a relatively small number of titles to establish their brand identity before expanding their line.

Apparently Virgin couldn’t even sell Virgin Comics at their own retail outlets (Virgin Megastores) or regular bookstores. It also looks like they didn’t even try to understand or reach out to the market that they were entering.

http://savagecritic.com/2008/08/touched-for-very-last-time-hibbs-on.html

Virgin Comics might have been a bit foolhardy in jumping in headfirst, but why do we accept, let alone take pride in, the restrictiveness of our chosen medium’s marketplace? When anyone besides DC and Marvel fails, we giggle and chuckle and point fingers. Am I the only one who sees why this is a bad thing?

Virgin comics didn’t, and did nothing to create one beyond assuming people would buy them, thus crashing and burning.

I think the CrossGen comparisons are apt. In both cases, the cardinal sin was assuming the Direct Market was diverse enough to warrant a full-scale investment of a few dozen properties, none of which were superhero titles. There’s simply not enough room for any diversity at all in the DM.

I know there are people who are clamoring to blame the quality of the titles themselves but were Virgin titles objectively worse than DC or Marvel? C’mon, people.

Well, here… Dirk Deppey says it best:

“The Direct Market caters primarily to a closed network of 25-35 year old men who’ve been reading Marvel and DC Comics for over a decade, and have next to no interest in buying anything that doesn’t cater to their narrow set of interests… Treat the Direct Market as though it were a healthy, diverse and dependable sales environment and you might as well be jumping off a cliff.”

My only hope is that they continue to produce new content via the Web. I am dying to see Morrison’s MBX. Keeping my fingers crossed for that one.

I did wonder about the big names swapping the content at Virgin. Ennis’s Dan Dare title is beautifully done by Erskine though.

Anything with Deepak Chopra’s name on it qualifies, then.

Sorry to hear the news and here’s to hoping the content finds a home online or elsewhere and that the company’s employees and freelancers find other gigs soon.

http://fakestanlee.blogspot.com/2008/08/well-thank-god-for-that.html

They treated fans and retailers with contempt, avoiding cons or special promotions.

They were too busy selling movies, but if what you put out is garbage, nobody will want to make a movie out of it.

Add to that the fact that the charlatan Deepak Chopra isn’t a draw and nobody cares that he created a concept and the writing was on the wall.