The Malcontents by Roger Slifer

-

How Does one publish a completely original graphic novel these days?



I'm going to share this for several reasons:

1) It's instructive as to how independent publishing attains resources.
2) It's based on an idea that feels socially relevant and contains possibilities of surprise and characterization that transcend product-driven comics.
3) Roger's worked hard on this and he asked me to consider it personally, along with some funny stories about communist black-listed DEFENDERS stories and meeting RUSH. Personal touches are everything!

Personal touches, for that matter, are the reason he's self-publishing. From his site linked here:


THE MALCONTENTS GRAPHIC NOVEL

The Concept


The Malcontents appear to be random casualties of the health care system run amok, treatments gone terribly, terribly wrong. A popular movie actress, scarred beyond recognition. A visionary artist, blinded and left destitute. A loyal soldier, whose loss of limbs came not from battle, but betrayal. And a desperate doctor, whose unspeakable tragedy brings them all together.


Their incidents seem random. Unrelated. But are they? Who are these Malcontents? And why were they targeted?


The Malcontents must help each other overcome their handicaps and prevent other innocents from becoming victims of the shadowy Echelon.

THE GRAPHIC NOVEL


This project is to be an all-new 100-page graphic novel (hopefully, the first of many!) based on some new characters I've created. I've already invested months of my time developing the characters and writing the first storyline. But now it's time to hire appropriate artists with the style and élan to draw and ink the graphic novel.






WHY NOT GO TO AN ESTABLISHED PUBLISHER?


I can't tell you how excited I am about The Malcontents. Frankly, I don't really want an outside publisher to be in control of their destinies. I've been telling stories for a long time and feel I'm more qualified than most to bring these characters to life.


I know exactly what I want to do with them, how I want their stories to unfold, and how I want the graphic design to contribute to that development. If you look back at my track record of TV shows and comic books I've supervised and helped develop, I think you'll have to agree.
And WHO is Roger Slifer? Well since you asked...
from the site:

WHAT DO YOU BRING TO THE PARTY?


Well, I've written, produced, and/or story edited some of the most popular animated series of the 80's and 90's, including Tranformers, G.I. Joe Extreme, JEM, Bucky O'Hare, Conan, the Adventurer, etc. I also co-produced the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh here in the U.S.


In comics, I wrote the Omega Men, co-created Lobo, and was an editor at both Marvel and DC. I was also DC's first Direct Sales Manager to the comic book stores so I know more than a bit about the sales side of the business. I also published one of the first graphic novels here in America, "Manhunter, the Complete Saga" which collected the classic stories by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

"Slifer's done it again! He's created bold, new graphic novel characters worthy of big-screen adaptations. It's high concept with an actual intriguing concept." --Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief Papercutz/Former Editor of Spider-Man


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition- this day, 1985!

-
Image
Thirty three years ago, today! (That is, August 27th, 1985) Oh, the stories these opened up for me. Alphabetically, fans could find every character still living who'd made at least three appearances, as well as many brand new lights. Origins, major life events, stories from twenty-five years of great Marvel continuity. You could even find out how tall, how heavy, or what color eyes the character should have, which sort of personalizes them and makes them all the more easy to imagine. You could find some description of every single power a character has, and often, see an Eliot R. Brown- illustrated blueprint for their best known weapons, vehicles, and acoutrement. But what could ever be more fuel for debate than : STrength Level! I was eleven when the series started, so of course I still found this part cool and interesting. Fans have been debating the strength levels of their favorite heroes and villains since comics began, so here was the sometimes controversial but ...
Read more

Eminem's Rap God sample: that's Captain America and the Falcon, from Power Records!

-
Image
What do Eminem and most Integr8d Fix readers have in common? Comic books, man. As a boy, I had two Power Records, a brand that released dramatized versions of comic books on 45 rpm, complete with a book sampling most of the comic's artwork. The first was a stand-alone Superman adventure I think was written by Elliot S! Maggin, where aliens fell to earth in the form of silver-hued bullets. The second one, I only had the record, but it was intense: Captain America and the Falcon confront the mystery of The Phoenix, a man whose thirst for revenge is born from Cap's battles in the world war before his frozen suspension. I didn't get hooked on Eminem's 2013 release "Rap God" until I was putting together a hip hop playlist this September. Not unlike when Anj and I discovered Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre back in college, I was wrestling with an angry mood over someone who cheated me of recording time after I gave up eleven Sundays of my life to give...his initials ...
Read more

Lost World of Apes: the Bili and Mangani

-
Image
Mangani is the name of a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of the invented language used by these apes. In the invented language, Mangani (meaning "great-ape") is the apes' word for their own kind, although the term is also applied (with modifications) to humans. The Mangani are represented as the apes who foster and raise Tarzan. Dr. Peter Coogan wrote a page on the synthetic language created for the Mangani and Tarzan, provided here in pdf: http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Mangani.pdf The language of the great apes of Africa that Edgar Rice Burroughs depicts in the Tarzan novels is not some simple, made-up collection of sounds substituting for English. It is a representation of a deeply structured, complex linguistic sign system with a grammar and syntax of its own. This grammar has never been worked out because its last living native speakers (with the exception of Tarzan himself) went extinct in the last century. Unfor...
Read more