I am a longtime comic book reader as well as analyst and podcaster. I have spent a great deal of time over the last 5 years close to the comic book industry. With that information, I say the following without malice, but as an honest, educated opinion.

Radical is one of the least successful comic book publishers when it comes to selling comic books. Their work is created for no other reason than to be optioned. They do not create comic books, they create pitch material. I've been buying comics for over 25 years and I have never purchased a Radical comic.

Obviously it has worked for them, but I doubt we will ever see an actual film from any of their optioned products.

Radical did do Last Days of American Crime, which is fabulous, but so much of their work is not stellar (not the stories or the art), and sometimes not even original (Gene Simmon's son got tagged for plagiarism (Radical very quickly responded and pulled his work)). Any work involving a celebrity is likely published by Radical.

Possibly best work (if measured by emotive power) on that list is 3 Story (artist and writer, Matt Kindt, what a talent), though I don't know that I need to see it in film (too darn poignant; internal/external conflict? disassociation). There's some other very good work on the list, and some not so good work. All in all, it seems an influx of original stories into Hollywood can only be good. And yay Matt Wagner! (He did Mage (writing and art) in college (classmate of my darling), so nice to see a film may come of it.)

Thank you for this list, Scott!!

Since the summer of Batman in '89, people have been recognizing that publishing comics and graphic novels are a brilliant and cheap way of securing part [or sometimes all] of the rights to exciting new IP.

Regrettably, comics have a work for hire history that means all often brilliant talents have signed away their creations for a paycheck. You only need to look at the long list of lawsuits for character rights to iconic US superheroes to see what's at stake and the bitterness the IP land grab has caused.

Latterly, companies like Radical and Platinum have set themselves up with the specific aim of commissioning material with cross-media exploitation potential. Graphic novels get optioned for films long before they ever get published - if they ever get published. Cue big announcement, usually just in time for Comic-Con.

It'd be fascinating to track how many of the projects you've listed ever make it to a screen.

From the film side of things, I was just going to add that the production company arm of Radical actually hasn't had anything made yet.

Out of all those on the list, I'd bet on Saints for Sinners making it through the development wilderness. Barry Levine is producing that one (exec at Radical), but I'm not sure Radical is technically carrying that one. Legends and Damages have sold pretty recently, and I think Legends has a script in.

Whether or not all of these will go through to production, who knows. Unlikely, I would think, but I might go out on a limb and say that graphic novel/comic book adaptations probably have a better track record of going from "rights sold" to "filmed" than most other properties. Look at any big producer or production company's slate and there will be about 15-30 projects that have "optioned properties" or "pitch" as their status. 90 percent of those never see the light of day.

So. Seems like Radical is just playing the odds right now. Not that farming out the hot medium for optioning money is the greatest thing in the world, but I have to say that I prefer that to studios getting so scared all they can do is pick through their own catalogs and remake movies that were shitty in the first place.

Hi guys. Looking for some advice here. This isn't a pitch, but let me just describe my situation:

My script is very graphic novel-friendly. It's a gritty, urban, paranormal mystery thriller with a NYC homicide detective protagonist, homeless kids, violent Miami street gangs and... well, "paranormal beings".

So far, the feedback has been that it's very four-quadrant (is it still okay to use that term?). It's placing well in contests and professional feedback (Pilar Alessandra) has been extremely positive.

I've contemplated trying to team up with a local (Boston) comic/graphic novelist - to either create some pages to use as pitch material, or try to create a "backdoor" into film (i.e. create the full graphic novel and hope that it gets discovered by the film industry).

So my question is:

For material such as this, would it be best to continue along the traditional screenplay route (i.e. contests and queries, and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite) and try to get it optioned/bought? Or might I have better luck going the "graphic novel" route?

Thanks.

The projects seem interesting. But what is depressing about this list is the lack of female voices. Today women/girls read comic books openly yet it still looks like a fortified boys club. There were only two female names listed and each time they were co-creators along with men. Are there no singular female writers in comics? What about the spec sales? Are those all men, too? Or are the sales more balanced?

It's disheartening in this millennium that male success is so transparent and female success remains mildly opaque. I'm sure there are women involved in those projects behind the scenes, but can't say for certain. In 2010, I'm considering adopting a pen name because from these lists it looks like a woman has no chance. Does anyone know if a female name on the title page negatively affects the reader's opinion?

To everyone who's interested in graphic novels and comic books, I'm trying to line up a Q&A with someone who writes for a comic book company, get their take on things.

@Ron C: Do you mind if I re-post your query as a GITS post? I'm sure there are others in a similar situation. Hopefully we can stir up some responses from people who work in the graphic novel business.

@Brion: Thanks much for your informed take.

Go for it, Scott. I'm really interested to hear responses from those on the inside. Thanks.

Great discussion! I'm glad this topic led me to discover your blog.

One correction: All the press referring to our Boilerplate book as a "graphic novel" is mistaken. It's a book with a lot of graphics in it, but it's decidedly not a graphic novel. You can see examples of the interior layout on our publisher's web site at http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/Boilerplate-9780810989504.html.

This leaves me wondering why The Hollywood Reporter described it as a "hybrid picture book/graphic novel," a description that has now propagated all over the Web. We did a previous book called Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate, which combined both forms, so maybe they got the two works confused? Or is everyone in Hollywood just graphic-novel-happy these days?

@januaryfire: Yes, there are women doing comic books (as writers, artists, and as parts of teams), but not so many, and the good ones, like the good men, stand out (and get lots of work). For a writer, Gail Simone comes immediately to mind (god she's good). Simone wrests compelling stories from characters and material that might have been humdrum in someone else's hands (check out Secret Six, so many pleasures, including what she's done with Rag Doll, sublime). And, one of Scott's UCLA students, Lisa Joy, now a TV writer (Pushing Daisies, Burn Notice, fantastic work), is making a foray into comic books (Kick Start).

Also, when talking about comic book readers, keep in mind that the audience is actually tiny (selling 100,000 is a rare home run, and even award winning series like the fabulous Walking Dead (writer Robert Kirkman, soon to be AMC series directed by Frank Darabont) sells only (eg, issue 71) 24,500 copies). And it is mostly men who buy them.

Lots of women bought the Scott Pilgrim comic, but movie was substantially recalibrated (got to make some cuts going from 1500 to 120 pages, so fights kept, relationship stuff cut, time compressed, and Pilgrim's character arc (necessary I think to actually like him) is severely truncated), am curious to see how it will do at box office (theater and dvd) among women.

Keep your name, write fabulous work, the rest will largely take care of itself (fingers crossed). And, very important, get steeped in the history of comics, read a ton of comics, and get familiar with the publishers (what they each like, what their script format is, etc.).

@Anina B: Glad you found the blog, too. Would you mind emailing me? Would like to follow up re "Boilerplate." And congrats!

scottdistillery@gmail.com

Special find (don't come across these often), comic pitch to DC.

Came across link here.