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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Striker 3D lands War of the Worlds Comics Deal
First comic to be launched with release of Spielberg/Cruise movie in 2005.
Striker 3D lands War of the Worlds Comics Deal I know, I know -- I promised you some thoughts on the state of British comics this column from UK creators. However, the news below was too interesting to pass over in favour of my ramblings, and indicates there are still publishers here in the UK willing to try something new to recreate the generally lost world of "boys adventure" comics here. 
Striker 3D -- publishers of the UK's weekly Striker comic, which sold shares in that title to its own readers to stay in business -- have just acquired the exclusive world-wide comic and graphic novel publishing rights to The War Of The Worlds. Yep, the classic novel written by H.G. Wells in 1895 about a terrifying Martian invasion of Earth that Steven Spielberg is busy making into a major movie with Tom Cruise. The first in a series of monthly 3D-generated comics will be launched in May 2005. The monthly comic and eventual graphic novel -- titled Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds -- will be based on the memorable artwork and storyline in Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of The Worlds, adapted from the novel by HG Wells. Publication coincides with the release of Steven Spielberg's movie starring Tom Cruise in June in the United States and July in the UK. With an anticipated budget of more than £300million, it's expected the film will easily eclipse Titanic as the most expensive movie ever made -- and if the initial trailers are anything to go by, it's going to be a great film. Striker 3D, run by the Striker strip creator Pete Nash, acquired the rights from New York-born composer Jeff Wayne, now living in Hertfordshire, who released the legendary War of the Worlds musical album in 1978 and which has hardly been out of the charts since. Wayne bought much of the Intellectual Property rights from the H.G. Wells estate when he released the album. "Our comics -- which will be dramatic, atmospheric and genuinely terrifying," says Pete, "will also tie in with Sony's multi-million world-wide re-launch of Jeff's re-mastered album next year. He's also planning a world-wide stage tour." I talked to Pete about the project last week, and he's clearly delighted to have secured the deal. Artwork should be available to view sometime in January and Comics International have expressed interest in a cover. "Negotiations with Jeff had been taking place since early September when I first approached him," Pete reveals. "He's awarded the rights to us over other interested publishers because he was so impressed with our enterprise, vision and innovative style of 3D computer-generated comics. It really is a fantastic opportunity." The deal should benefit Pete's Striker weekly comic, launched 16 months ago with the £300,000 equity in Pete's house after ending the soccer strip's 18-year run in The Sun, a national UK newspaper owned by Fox Network's Rupert Murdoch. The computer-generated comic (which also includes reprints of classic British soccer strips such as Billy's Boots and Kangaroo Kid) is now created each week in two UK locations -- one in Kent and the other in Wolverhampton. Generous local subsidies to promote the creative industries mean Pete has been able to set up a great studio in Wolverhampton to create comics art. The WOTW deal comes four months after Striker's readers invested nearly £200,000 in the cash-starved company to save it from going bust. "We couldn't raise finance because nobody believed Striker had a future as a stand-alone comic aimed primarily at adults," says Pete. "We were losing £3,000 a week and I was six weeks away from losing my house. "The only people who had faith in our product were our readers, so we decided to become a Public Limited Company and sell shares to them. We have almost 1,000 shareholders who invested an average of £200 each." After cutting costs, the company is now operating at break even on sales of 15,000 a week. It eventually hopes to achieve sales of 40,000 a week following further investment to boost pagination and fund an advertising campaign. "The WOTW deal means we can license our comics to other publishers around the world, including Dark Horse Entertainment in the US, who have first option on all our material," Pete explains. "This could open the door to collaboration with Dark Horse on further projects. "We still need further investment to exploit our full potential," he feels, "but TWOTW contract will make it easier to attract backers." The first story, adapted from the original book, will be released from May next year and will take about six months to tell in comics form. It will then be compiled into one graphic novel to be released at around Christmas (and might also be sold as a box set with TWOTW album). The monthly comic will then hopefully continue by leading the story into contemporary times with different scenarios and new characters. The original story by H.G. Wells -- most recently revisited in comics form by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume II -- describes how the invasion began when a number of cylinders landed on Horsell Common in Surrey. Martian fighting machines then emerged from these cylinders with various terrifying weapons at their disposal, including incinerating heat rays, a lethal black gas and a choking red weed that covered parts of the landscape. The Martians were also known to have fed on captured humans to sustain themselves. "We'll be creating in 3D various landmarks from Victorian Britain," Pete explains, "including a scene not described in the book where the black gas descends into the newly-built London Underground stations, where hundreds of people have escaped to seek refuge." Pete told me that he's particularly interested in bring Victorian London to life. The Underground was still very young in the period WOTW was originally set, but was the biggest underground public railway in the world at the time. "We will also want to concentrate more heavily on the characters than H.G. Wells did," Pete says. "The original novel is first person, and there are plenty of opportunities to develop the narrative and address some of Wells stereotyping, he feels. "Our comics will certainly not be pulling any punches. We'll endeavour to capture the sheer terror that the people of Victorian Britain -- which was the mightiest empire in the world at the time -- would have felt when confronted with a cold and evil race that was infinitely more advanced than theirs." Striker fans have been told they need not worry the new project will divert attention from their much-loved and popular comic. "This deal will in no way mean a diversion of resources from Striker. There's even the possibility that we may even be able to recruit a whole new team of 3D artists -- but that's another story. "All of our supporters should be delighted -- especially our shareholders!" This is a coup for a small British publisher. I know computer generated art isn't everyone's cup of tea, but some of the storytelling on Striker is excellent, even though some of the actual art can be stiff at times. Pete Nash's scripts -- he's been writing Striker for years -- always make up for any art issue, with great characterisation and plotting. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the final product. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! John Freeman WHO OWNS THE WAR OF THE WORLDS?"Why does Striker 3D even need to negotiate rights to publish a graphic novel, I hear some of you ask? After all, surely the original novel is now in the public domain? Well yes -- but not everywhere. Pete Nash told me negotiating the rights and finding out who owns what was no easy task -- and it took his team some time to get a deal with the various rights holders that would enable him to secure world-wide rights to any graphic novel. A world deal was vital to make the project economically viable and enable Striker to resell that material to other publishers such as Dark Horse in the US. Although the original War of the Worlds is in the public domain in the United States and Asia, the Wells Estate holds onto nearly every copyright they can. According to the HG Wells Society within the United Kingdom and all other countries of the European Union, and also within Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Norway and Romania, the works of H.G. Wells remain in copyright until 31 December 2016. Striker 3D is of course a British publisher, so that copyright applies to their project in the first instance. Within the United States, any book first published before 31 December 1922 is in the public domain. Works published after that remain in copyright for 95 years from first publication. Full U.S. copyright laws can be found online here. Elsewhere in the world, the works of H.G. Wells which were published during his lifetime are now in the public domain in other parts of the world, such as Canada, Australasia, and Africa. "In 1975, when Jeff Wayne wanted to create the TWOTW album, he needed to acquire the rights from the HG Wells estate," Pete explains. "The movie rights at that time had already been passed to Paramount by the estate back in the 1940s or 1950s. "Jeff did a deal to acquire virtually all the rights from the HG Wells estate except the original book," Pete continues. "These original book rights are now managed on behalf of the estate by the literary agents A.P.Watt. The rights that were acquired by Jeff Wayne include all comic book and comic strip rights, all audio rights, all merchandise rights and all rights to use TWOTW title. These rights are exclusive in all territories around the world except those countries where it is in the public domain, which primarily consist of North America and most of Asia. "This means that anyone could sell TWOTW merchandise or publish a comic book in territories where it is in the public domain, but they would not be able to do so in the rest of the world. This is why Paramount have had to a deal with Jeff Wayne to sell movie-related merchandise in the exclusive territories (and, ironically, why Jeff Wayne has to deal with Paramount in order for him to sell a movie version of his musical). So in order for us to sell our comics and graphic novels around the world, we had to do a deal with Jeff Wayne. "Jeff and I have agreed that our comics and graphic novel will use a logo based on his Victorian-style logo from the album cover," Pete reveals. "This will give us a chance to pursue marketing opportunities with Sony, who are re-launching a modernised version of his album next year, and sell our graphic novels in music stores as a box set with his album. It will also allow us to sell our graphic novels at theatres during his planned world-wide TWOTW stage tour." WAR OF THE WORLDS WEIRD FACTIn the 1970s, the original Planet of the Apes comic was published weekly in the UK, and proved a huge success. However, the weekly format soon meant the reprinted strips quickly caught up with the American monthly originals. To solve this problem, Marvel UK reprinted old "Killraven" strips -- a freedom fighter battling War of the Worlds Martians -- from Amazing Adventures. The art was altered so Killraven -- renamed "Apeslayer" -- was fighting apes instead of Martians. Bizarre as it may seem, "Apeslayer" is still a firm favourite with many UK Planet of the Apes fans. 
Cover to "Killraven" #31.
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This interior panel from #24 of POTA Weekly sees a character talking to "Apeslayer", then "Killraven" almost immediately afterward!
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A full page of the doctored "Killraven strip" from POTA Weekly #24
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Black and white scan (not very good) of the cover of Planet of the Apes #24 UK, featuring WOTW spin-off character Killraven as "Apeslayer", battling Apes instead of Martians.
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Thanks to the excellent Planet of the Apes fanzine Simian Scrolls for the "Apeslayer" scans. Web LinksStriker 3D The Official Steven Spileberg War of the Worlds Film Site Pendragon Pictures War of the Worlds Pendragon Pictures plan to release a film based on the original H.G. Wells novel, but there are rumours release has been squashed as the Spielberg project ramps up. However, this site includes two trailers from the film War of the Worlds - Past Comics Covers and information on past WOTW comics War of the Worlds Great news site about various WOTW projects Eve of the War Another site with news about the upcoming film Eve of the War UK Another WOTW news site - including cover images of Marvel's original War of the Worlds comic The Complete War of the Worlds Guide to the War of the World -- not updated for a while but very informative Project Gutenberg Online Version of the novel Make your own Martian Fighting Machine!
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