Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publishing imprint of Dynamic Forces[1] that primarily publishes adaptations of franchises from other media. These include licensed adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator and RoboCop, and licensed or public domain literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Red Sonja, Tarzan (as Lord of the Jungle) and John Carter of Mars (as Warlord of Mars). It also publishes superhero books such as Project Superpowers.
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Parent company | Dynamic Forces[1] |
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Founded | 2005 |
Founder | Nick Barrucci |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Mount Laurel, New Jersey |
Distribution | Diamond Book Distributors (books)[2] |
Key people | Nick Barrucci (CEO / Publisher) Juan Collado (President / COO) Brandon Dante Primavera (Vice President of IT & Operations) Alan Payne (Vice President of Sales & Marketing) Joseph Rybandt (Executive Editor) Matt Idelson (Senior Editor) Cathy Heard (Art Director) |
Publication types | Comics |
Fiction genres | |
Official website | www |
Creators who have produced Dynamite's books include Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Matt Wagner, Garth Ennis, Howard Chaykin and Frank Miller.
History
Dynamite Entertainment was founded by Nick Barrucci in 2005, first producing two Army of Darkness limited series published through Devil's Due Publishing until self-publishing their titles later that year. After devoting itself to publishing only Army of Darkness, a year later Dynamite published Red Sonja, starting with a 25-cent issue #0. It sold 240,000 copies. Issue #1 of Red Sonja, the first to sell at the full cover price of $2.99, sold 100,000 in initial orders, securing a stable position in the American comic book industry.[3] By 2009, Dynamite was publishing 14–20 comic books and 2–10 collections per month.[4]
Dynamite Publishing
Dynamite Entertainment focuses primarily on comic book adaptations of existing properties, with most of its original properties being new interpretations of the classic monsters Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman. The company holds or has held the rights to publish titles based on films (Army of Darkness, Darkman, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, RoboCop, and Highlander), television series (Xena: Warrior Princess) and literature (Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Dracula and Zorro). It also has a license based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Infinity and the sequel Terminator: Revolution produced by the writer Simon Furman.[5] Other properties include Buck Rogers,[6] and Sherlock Holmes.[7]
Two additional crossovers have been released through other companies. One, titled Monster War released through Image Comics in 2005, pitted its monsters against Top Cow published characters Witchblade, the Darkness, Magdalena and Tomb Raider. The other was a 2006 crossover between DC Comics' Claw the Unconquered and Red Sonja via WildStorm Productions.
In 2007, Dynamite took over the publication of Garth Ennis' The Boys after it was dropped by WildStorm.
Among its licensed properties are Red Sonja, Army of Darkness, Battlestar Galactica and the Lone Ranger.
In 2010, Dynamite began publishing comic books based on The Green Hornet, beginning with a miniseries written by Kevin Smith and followed by Green Hornet: Year One, which was written by Matt Wagner, and another written by Brett Matthews..[8]
It is also due to publish new stories featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom.[9]
In May 2010, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the Chaos! Comics' library and all associated assets (with the exception of Lady Death). These include the publishing labels Black Label Graphics, Infinity Comics and the properties Evil Ernie, Smiley The Psychotic Button, Chastity, Purgatori, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon and many more.[10]
In October 2013, it was announced that Dynamite would relaunch several titles originally published by Gold Key Comics and that Magnus: Robot Fighter, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, Solar: Man of the Atom and Turok would be the first titles of the new line.[11]
In July 2016, prior to Comic-Con International, The New York Times ran a story about Dynamite Entertainment. In it, best-selling author Andy Mangels was revealed to be writing a prestigious new intercompany crossover mini-series for the company, in conjunction with DC Comics: Wonder Woman '77 Meets The Bionic Woman, bringing together the Lynda Carter television character with Lindsay Wagner's fellow 1970s television super-heroine. The series was set to start in Fall 2016.[12]
Titles
Comic books published by Dynamite in the format of ongoing or limited series include:
- A Game of Thrones[13]
- Grumpy Cat and Pokey
- Army of Darkness
- Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters[14]
- Athena
- Bad Boy[15]
- Battlefields[16]
- Battlestar Galactica
- Betty Boop
- The Bionic Man
- The Bionic Woman
- Black Terror
- Black Bat [17]
- Bob's Burgers
- The Boys
- Brickleberry
- Buck Rogers[18]
- Captain Victory
- The Complete Alice in Wonderland[19]
- The Complete Dracula[20]
- Damsels
- Dark Shadows[21]
- Dan Dare[22]
- Dead Irons[23]
- Devolution
- Elvira: Mistress of the Dark[24]
- Eva - Daughter of Dracula
- Expendables
- Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash[25]
- A Game of Thrones
- The Green Hornet[8][26]
- Grimm[27]
- Highlander
- Intertwined
- Sherlock Holmes VS. Harry Houdini
- James Bond
- Felix Leiter (Spin-off)
- Jennifer Blood
- Jungle Girl
- Just a Pilgrim
- Kato
- Kid Kosmos
- Killer Instinct[28]
- Kirby: Genesis
- The Lone Ranger
- The Man with No Name[29]
- Masks
- Masquerade[30]
- Mercenaries
- Mighty Mouse
- Ming The Merciless
- Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys[31]
- Painkiller Jane
- The Phantom
- Project Superpowers[32]
- Project Superpowers: Chapter Two
- Prophecy
- Queen Sonja
- Raise the Dead[33]
- Red Sonja
- Re-Animator[34]
- RoboCop[35]
- Savage Tales
- Scout
- The Shadow
- Silver Star
- Six from Sirius
- The Shape of Elvira
- The Spider
- Stargate[36]
- Super Zombies[37]
- Terminator
- The Twilight Zone by J. Michael Straczynski
- Turok
- Thulsa Doom[38]
- Vampirella[39]
- Vampirella and the Scarlet Legion
- Vampire Huntress[40]
- Voltron
- Voltron: Year One
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- Zorro
Public domain
Some of the titles published by Dynamite are based on franchises where the early stories are now in the public domain. In cases where Dynamite did not have a licensing agreement with the related trademark holders (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. for example), Dynamite did not use trademarked terms in the comic book titles.[41] Dynamite and ERB, Inc. eventually reached an agreement by which the latter agreed to let Dynamite publish material based on Burroughs' work.[42]
- Warlord of Mars – based on John Carter of Mars[43]
- Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris
- Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom
- Warriors of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the Green Men of Mars
- Dejah of Mars
- Lord of the Jungle – based on Tarzan
- Lords of Mars – a "Warlord of Mars" / "Lord of the Jungle" crossover
Notes
- "Diamond Distribution, Dynamic Forces announce new international partnership" (Press release). Diamond Comic Distributors. CBR. May 12, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
- "diamondbookdistributors.com - Publishers". www.diamondbookdistributors.com. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- Manning, Shaun. "Dynamite Celebrates Five Years". Comic Book Resources. April 16, 2009
- "Dynamite: Five Years and Counting". Publishers Weekly. November 16, 2009
- Phegley, Kiel. "Furman on Making Dynamite's Terminator Revolutionary". Comic Book Resources. October 20, 2008
- "Dynamite Debuts Buck Rogers for a Quarter". Newsarama. February 23, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Back to the Future: Barrucci and Beatty on Buck Rogers". Newsarama. February 23, 2009 - "Dynamite's Nick Barrucci Talks Sherlock Holmes". Newsarama.March 9, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Dynamite Lands 'Green Hornet' Comic Book License". Newsarama. March 31, 2009
- Phegley, Kiel. "CCC09: Dynamite Entertainment". Comic Book Resources. August 10, 2009
- "Dynamite Acquires Chaos Comics". Comic Book Resources. May 19, 2010
- "NYCC EXCLUSIVE: Gold Key Revived at Dynamite by Pak, Van Lente & More!" Comic Book Resources. October 11, 2013
- Gustines, George Gene. "Dynamite Entertainment Taps '70s TV to Expand Lineup of Comics". The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- "Get Bundles of Horror Comics From Dynamite Entertainment and Groupees - Dread Central". www.dreadcentral.com. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- "Dynamite Lands Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters License" Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Newsarama. March 30, 2007
- Renaud, Jeffrey. "Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters Return". Comic Book Resources. October 11, 2007
- "The Return of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters". March 30, 2007 - Bad Boy details Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at Dynamite Entertainment
- Phegley, Kiel. "WW Philly: Ennis Tells Dynamite Stories of 'Battlefields'". Comic Book Resources. June 1, 2008
- Callan, Jonathan. "WW Philly: Garth Ennis Q&A". Newsarama. June 2, 2008 - "The Black Bat Like You Have And Haven't Seen Before - Bleeding Cool News And Rumors". bleedingcool.com. May 6, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- Brady, Matt. "Drawing the Future: Carlos Rafael on Buck Rogers". Newsarama. March 9, 2009
- Brownfield, Troy. "Moore & Reppion on Adapting Alice in Wonderland". Newsarama. May 29, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Moore & Reppion on 'The Complete Dracula'". Newsarama. January 30, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Colton Worley - Defining Dracula for Dynamite". Newsarama. February 3, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Moore & Reppion to Discuss The Complete Dracula in Dublin". Newsarama. February 24, 2009 - "Soap Vampire Barnabas Collins Returns in DARK SHADOWS Comic". Newsarama. August 22, 2011.
- "FULL ISSUE: Dan Dare #1 by Ennis & Erskine". Newsarama. December 22, 2008
- Brady, Matt. "Story of a Bad, Bad Family: James Kuhoric on 'Dead Irons'". Newsarama. October 9, 2008
- Phegley, Kiel. "Jae Lee Darkens 'Dead Irons'" Comic Book Resources. November 24, 2008
- Phegley, Kiel. "Alexander Draws Sights on 'Dead Irons'". Comic Book Resources. December 1, 2008 - "Elvira Returns to Comic Books With Her Own Line". Newsarama. April 5, 2018.
- "WW: Chicago - Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash Coming in November" Archived September 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Newsarama. August 12, 2007
- Renaud, Jeffrey. "MANO-A-MANO-A-MANO: 'Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash'". Comic Book Resources. August 21, 2007 - Bernardin, Marc. EW Exclusive: "Kevin Smith takes on Batman and the Green Hornet". Entertainment Weekly. May 13, 2009
- "Grimm Comic Series". Dynamite Entertainment. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
- "Killer Instinct Franchise Gets Comic Series by Ian Edginton & Cam Adams". bleedingcool.com. June 19, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- Brady, Matt. "Christos Gage on Dynamite's 'The Man With No Name'". Newsarama. 15 August 15, 2008
- "Wellington Dias Outdraws 'The Man with No Name'". Comic Book Resources. February 28, 2008
- "Man With No Name: The Good, The Bad And The Uglier #1" Archived December 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Newsarama. March 25, 2008 - Phegley, Kiel. "Phil Hester Talks 'Masquerade'". Comic Book Resources. January 13, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Phil Hester on Masquerade & First Look at the Trailer". Newsarama. March 9, 2009 - "Nancy Drew Reimaged As Femme Fatale in New Hardy Boys Comic". ew.com. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- "Ross! Krueger! Dynamite! 'SUPERPOWERS!'". Comic Book Resources. July 18, 2007
- Moore, Leah; Reppion, John (February 10, 2008). Raise the Dead Vol. 1. ISBN 978-1-933305-56-1.
- "Re-animator Dynamics Entertainment". DC. June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- Brady, Matt (June 10, 2009). "RoboCop Returns to Comics with Dynamite". Newsarama. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- "Dynamite Opens the Stargate". Newsarama. July 20, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Guggenheim & Gonzales on Bringing 'Super Zombies' to Life". Newsarama. November 5, 2008
- Phegley, Kiel. "Guggenheim Talks 'Super-Zombies'". Comic Book Resources. January 15, 2009
- Brady, Matt. "Launching a World of Super Zombies at Dynamite". Newsarama. January 16, 2009 - Brady, Matt (May 26, 2009). "And Doom is His Name: Arvid Nelson on 'Thulsa Doom'". Newsarama. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
- Phegley, Kiel (May 29, 2009). ""Doom" Comes To Dynamite". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved May 29, 2009. - "Dynamite Entertainment Acquires Vampirella". Comic Book Resources. March 17, 2010.
- Brownfield, Troy (May 7, 2010). "L.A. Banks' VAMPIRE HUNTRESS Stalks Dynamite in July". Newsarama. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
- Sunu, Steve (May 25, 2010). "L.A. Banks' "Vampire Huntress" Continues in Comics". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved June 6, 2010. - Kevin Melrose (staff writer) (February 17, 2012). "Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Sues Dynamite over John Carter, Tarzan" (Press release). Diamond Comic Distributors. CBR. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
- Kevin Melrose, (Staff Writer) May 20, 2014 Dynamite, ERB Inc. partner for ‘John Carter: Warlord of Mars’ (Press Release). Diamond Comic Distributors CBR. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
- "Dynamite Launches "Warlord of Mars"". CBR. July 19, 2010.
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dynamite Entertainment. |
- Official website
- Dynamite Entertainment at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Manning, Shaun"Dynamite Celebrates Five Years". Comic Book Resources. April 16, 2009