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Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,011
www.hollywoodreporter.com

The Next Marvel? Indie Publishers Race to Mine Comics for Film, TV

New competitors including Artists, Writers & Artisans; AfterShock; and Valiant Comics focus on a leaner publishing output and an eye toward adaptations.

To Axel Alonso, there's something that comic books are capable of that no other media can match. "Comics are the ideal medium for producing truly ground-breaking work that creates IP that can come alive for generations," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Comic fans are in the vanguard of pop culture — they are incredibly discerning, so when a character, story or series resonates with them, you know you have a hit on your hands."


Alonso knows what he's talking about. As editor, and later editor-in-chief, of Marvel Comics from 2000 through 2017, he was a key figure in guiding the company from bankruptcy to the cultural behemoth it became, returning key franchises such as Spider-Man and the X-Men to fan-favorite status. Since 2018, he's been chief creative officer and editor-in-chief of start-up publisher Artists, Writers & Artisans, one of a new generation of comic publishers positioning themselves as the next Marvel to not only fans, but potential investors and business partners.

Valiant publishes a Marvelesque shared universe of superhero properties, while AfterShock focuses on unrelated sci-fi and fantasy series envisioned as mini-franchises. (Two such successes: Animosity, optioned for a movie at Legendary, and Undone by Blood, being developed for TV via Norman Reedus' Bigbaldhead productions.) AWA features a shared universe guided by Sense8 writer J. Michael Straczynski that's published alongside properties created by the likes The Boys co-creator Garth Ennis.

JMS means whatever it is won't be done before the heat death of the universe. JMS Makes RR. Martin look like a speed demon
 

Lulu

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
26,680
Who has the rights to MHA in the west and why aren't they using it?
 

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,365
Valiant was completely gutted to chase the dream of a cinematic universe, and now that Sony booted everything off but Bloodshot, that dream itself was completely gutted. Tragic. They had some bright years there in the mid-2010s.
 

Lulu

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
26,680
But who's fault is that? Like I said, there's nothing in MHA more ridiculous than actually comics on paper.
 

Z-Beat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,831
Make Hack/Slash and bring in whoever you need to. The horrorverse
 
OP
OP
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,011
But real talk it is a crime no one has done Atomic Robo, animation or live action it would be money
 

Oneiros

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,957
Its too bad they made that poorly received Bloodshot movie because Jeff Lemire's run is fantastic (see my avatar). Matt Kindt's XO Manowar is also rad, but I don't think Hollywood would give that a chance.
 

Watchtower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,631
Valiant was completely gutted to chase the dream of a cinematic universe, and now that Sony booted everything off but Bloodshot, that dream itself was completely gutted. Tragic. They had some bright years there in the mid-2010s.

Sony absolutely fucked up not capitalizing when they could and Bloodshot's thoroughly mediocre but I was pretty sure Valiant walked away themselves. New owners had some real serious beef with the old EIC who was pretty closely involved with the initial Harbinger Wars plans.

Its too bad they made that poorly received Bloodshot movie because Jeff Lemire's run is fantastic (see my avatar). Matt Kindt's XO Manowar is also rad, but I don't think Hollywood would give that a chance.

I've actually never been the hugest fan of Lemire's run, ngl.

Building it off the bones of an underutilized female character getting needlessly fridged is enough to throw you straight on my shit list so y'know.
 

Saifu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,869
LOL I love how Valiant is at the fucking bottom.
Hope Invincible can open doors to more animated series adaptations from Image/Skybound.
 

Jarmel

The Jackrabbit Always Wins
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,296
New York
There's tons of anime/manga/LN stuff that could work. Just get talented staff working on adapting it. All You Need is Kill/Edge of Tomorrow/Live.Die.Repeat turned out pretty good.
 

andymcc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,264
Columbus, OH
There are so many (probably cheap to license) old manga properties of finished franchises that would be very good as inspiration. Surprised it hasn't happened more.
 

Saucycarpdog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,293
User Banned (2 Week): Inflammatory Generalization
But who's fault is that? Like I said, there's nothing in MHA more ridiculous than actually comics on paper.
I guess if you believe the pedo audience is an untapped market, then yeah let's adapt an anime where 15 year old girls wear skimpy clothing with plenty of upskirt shots.
 

ev0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,423
I love Froppy but I dont think I need to see a live action version of that tongue
 

Sesha

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,807
In terms of anime/manga, at least, they had the perfect IP for a movie franchise with Alita, and they managed to poop all over it. If they manage to fuck up that, most other things don't stand a chance of getting the proper treatment.

Anyway, you need a popular IP, or a successful movie/series, or both, to get a franchise going. Making half-baked movies off of smaller IP isn't gonna get these studios to where they wanna be.
 

Sketchsanchez

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,702
Just license Invincible so I can get an Atom Eve and Rex Splode movie.
 

Jarmel

The Jackrabbit Always Wins
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,296
New York
Do a high budget Fullmetal Alchemist TV series/movie. There's so many manga/anime IPs that would work great in a live action format.
 

Mortemis

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,410
It's Harry Potter with super heroes. It already prints money and an ok live adaptation would open the floodgates even more.
Going to a hero school isn't a super original idea though. I'm not opposed to an MHA adaptation but it shouldn't be hard to make a hero Harry Potter like film series in the west. Just depends on the talent behind it, which would be the same for an MHA adaptation.
 

Lulu

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
26,680
I guess if you believe the pedo audience is an untapped market, then yeah let's adapt an anime where 15 year old girls wear skimpy clothing with plenty of upskirt shots.

bro what?
The whole anime community calls them trash from hardcore weebs to big names in the community like RDCworld and you trying to push it why?

Cause the whole anime community is a bunch of cynical weebs afraid of change? Who the fuck cares about them when MHA is perfectly adaptable or at least as adaptable as any cape comics.

When it stops being ass maybe we will lol
This is fair but MHA is a good place to start. I mean much better than OP and that's already happening. MHA is way more popular here and way more adaptable, plus superheroes. I'm just saying, people are sitting on a gold mine.
 

Wes D. Mess

Avenger
Aug 11, 2018
1,553
Chicago
But who's fault is that? Like I said, there's nothing in MHA more ridiculous than actually comics on paper.


MHA could work, but only if it has a big budget. Unfortunately I don't have faith in Hollywood to fund such a project since the adaptation would primarily have a Japanese cast.

Of course they could take the basic story of MHA and put it in a western setting, but that tends not to go over well, and for good reason.
 

flaxknuckles

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,299
Valiant was completely gutted to chase the dream of a cinematic universe, and now that Sony booted everything off but Bloodshot, that dream itself was completely gutted. Tragic. They had some bright years there in the mid-2010s.

XO Manowar was their best shot at success but they made Wolverine without knuckle knives instead.

There are so many (probably cheap to license) old manga properties of finished franchises that would be very good as inspiration. Surprised it hasn't happened more.
Hollywood will Dragonball Evolution nearly all of those when they finally notice manga and anime.
 

Oneiros

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,957
I've actually never been the hugest fan of Lemire's run, ngl.

Building it off the bones of an underutilized female character getting needlessly fridged is enough to throw you straight on my shit list so y'know.
I didn't know any of Kay's history prior to the book, so that didn't bother me. Plus, the series has several great female characters like Magic, Jessie, and Agent Festival.
 

Lotus

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
105,617

I ain't touching that one lmao, also like, a Western adaptation can easily cut out shit like that anyhow lol

This is fair but MHA is a good place to start. I mean much better than OP and that's already happening. MHA is way more popular here and way more adaptable, plus superheroes. I'm just saying, people are sitting on a gold mine.

One Piece shouldn't be happening either, but it's out of my hands smdh

As for MHA, yea I get it, live action superheroes, we're obviously already doing that. But MHA IMO has such a specific tone, along with a bunch of anime ass designs, that it's still hard to picture doing it justice while still being able to take it seriously