Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #54

Originally Posted on 03/26/2003 by Jeff Harris

Aside from watching a drug and gambling-filled edition of Toonami (very kick-ass episode of Kenshin today) and witnessing commercials lauding the wide-market release of Miyazaki's Spirited Away, I noticed that those crazy guys at Marvel are getting ready to relaunch their classic creator-owned line Epic.

Kinda.

They're giving you a chance to either work with their current stable of characters, incorporate your characters within the Marvel Universe, or just create your own universe.

Earlier today, Marvel Entertainment Company announced the resurrection of the Epic line, which made a huge impact in the 80s with several publications, including the original run of Akira in the US. The only major catch is, um, they're not entirely creator-owned.

See, like CrossGen's new CG Entertainment unit, if you're gonna publish a creator-owned project by Marvel, you will now share ownership with Marvel. It's not exactly an Image-type situation when you own your property lock stock and barrel, but you could use your talents to create something that could make an impact in the Marvel Universe, and you own a piece of it. Plus, if the book does well, you could get rewarded handsomely by the company. It's something Bill and Joe (Jemas and Quesada, not Hanna and Barbera) are calling "creative freedom over creators rights."

If you're into the world of comics and want to get your feet wet in the house that Stan built (I prefer that title over their "House of Ideas" title), log on to Epic's official site for further ddddddddddddddd - -

*begin transmission*

(GREETINGS . . . FROM THE FUTURE! Oh, I'm sorry, but you can't visit their official site because it no longer exists. And quite frankly, the whole Epic project was a joke and scrapped because, well, Marvel didn't know how to operate it, plus, they prefer professionals than amateurs. Of course, professionals used to be amateurs before they became professional, but newbies don't bring in fanboys. -jh, 4/20/06)

*end transmission*

Why am I making a big deal about a comic news byte on a site dedicated to action-animation? Who knows? Who cares? It's a slow news week and I have to divert attention to other news of interest once in a while.

Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
March 26, 2003