Galactic Gladiators Brand Report #7
07-05-09
The on going saga of building a brand:
Stage 11
After the first draft of the Galactic Gladiators screenplay was completed, I filed copyright and had my Trademark Agent – Brian Long register the title with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Estimated cost of $1,000 when hard costs, agent fees and miscellaneous were incurred. This process took almost a year waiting for government approval. Once we received the Trademark certificate, we were ready for the next stage.
Stage 12
The process to obtain international distribution with Diamond Comics (distributor for Marvel, Image, Darkhorse, Top Cow, DC comics and pretty much every other important comic/graphic novel and related merchandise), was more complicated than expected. They required that before approving any book from a new independent comic company they would need to see a completed first issue and enough story for four issues.
The period of brainstorming to design each character’s look and wardrobe for all the humans and aliens took just under a year. This included the look and feel of the environments, planets, spaceships, technologies and other items people don’t realize have to be created from our imagination. I would write a description of say – the protagonist Tessa or the extraterrestrial species known as the Psions and Scott would draw his version of those characters until they were perfect. This pre-production phase was a most enjoyable process for me.
Stage 13
We raised the initial funds to retain Scott Lee (artist), Ben Prenevost (colorist) and Rachel Moffat (graphics) to start the first book. Page by page, the first issue of Galactic Gladiators came together. I was surprised that the pre-production cost for issue one was around $30,000. This was more than we budgeted for, but this had to be done before confirmation of distribution by our potential major distributor.
After incurring all these costs to draw the line art, ink pages, color and letter the first issue and make prototype mock-ups that were sent to Diamond for approval, I was totally shocked when they declined the comic book series for distribution because they did not like the title.
People who know me, know that ‘NO’, to me means ‘Not Right Now.’
Diamond explained that the Galactic Gladiators title was too – Battlestar Galactica or 1980ish and declined to market my comic. I was devastated because of all the money and time that we had invested into this project and how important having Diamond involved was. This of course, was prior to Battlestar Galactica being remade for Space Channel and it becoming a huge hit on television. However, it took a movie called GLADIATOR, starring Russell Crowe to change Diamond’s mind. Gladiator was a huge hit!
Also, a bit of quick talking on my part helped as I explained that my title was perfect, catchy and a brand name worthy of a comic series they should market. I reconfirmed that I already had the Trademark secured in Canada and an application filed in the United States of America. They reconsidered their previous decision and now ‘got it’ and decided to handle my brand.
The rest is history.
Next Report will be #8.
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FROM THE MIND TO THE MARKE – Pre-Order this ebook by sending an email to info@Playdigm.com (put title of book in the subject line). This ebook is expected to be available in late 2009. Reserve an issue with no money down. Payment to be required later.
(c) Sandford Tuey All Rights Reserved.
Tags: Ben Prenevost, comics, Diamond Comics, Galactic Gladiators, marketing, Sandford Tuey, Scott Lee, Tuey