Entertainment Licensing & Branding Blog

The San Diego Comic-Con is the world’s major pop culture event and happens annually in late July taking place at the San Diego Convention Center. This site becomes a bizarre geek-fest, uniquely charming, rare mix of amusement park, costume party and Mardi Gras.  I love it!

When my company exhibited there a few years back, I noticed a satisfying contrast between families pushing children in strollers, right beside die-hard fans dressed as their favourite comic, movie or animae characters. It was not unusual to see  Spider Man, Darth Vader, Iron Man, Vampires, Xena and a cornicopia of pop culture icons wander by our booth or even stop in and purchase some of our merchandise. Celebrities even don costumes so they can walk the floor anonymously.

First time I autographed Galactic Gladiators issues with Scott Lee (our artist), my wrist was sore for hours.  He had  a lot more fans than I expected and I made many new ones.  Everyone loved the look and story, which is always a good sign for a new book.  Next stage is to sell the Galactic Gladiators screenplay (call me).

What surprised me the most, is that all of Hollywood seems to move south for the weekend as filmmakers and stars descend on the event.   Comic-Con is the place to launch an upcoming new property, film, video game, toy or comic/graphic novel.   Exhibitors sell their wares, gaming companies display their newest products, even comic dealers and buyers look for excellent stuff to complete their personal collections.  After all, it is one of the biggest marketing opportunities of the year for companies involved in the entertainment and pop culture industries.

I highly recommend showing off your brand at San Diego, as it is a great way to get a buzz started on your upcoming project.  Word of mouth at this event can make or break a new entertainment property. Getting the Comic-Con stamp of approval is essential for those creative people inventing and designing the next big hit.

The Comic-Con has always drawn celebrity and superstars from the film, television, video game, comic and book publishing world and is the main reason I love this trade show. Where else can you meet famous science fiction and fantasy writers, watch premieres of movie trailers and/or films and animation shows,  while at the same time see legendary film, comic creators and artists past and present.

With over 125,000 people expected to attend this year as it is sold out. Expect line ups to see the more popular panels, guest appearances and presentations.  Be prepared to do a lot of walking, a lot of talking and having a lot of fun.   At Comic-con you will find tens of thousands of people just like you and me. Have a great time…

Cheers!

Sandford Tuey

info@Playdigm.com

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.

How to develop a brand using Galactic Gladiators as an example:

Stage 10

I called Diamond Comics Distribution while the process of choosing which artist, colorist and graphic designer was ongoing.  After this company merged with Capital, it became almost a monopoly distributor of comics and related merchandising to mom and pop, hobby, comic and pop culture stores throughout North America and Europe.  One powerful corporation.

What I learned was that if Diamond did not pick up your comic book, you were not going to get sales into the comic retail stores very easily.  So negotiations started and the first thing I was told was that management would need to see a full color sample of the first issue and a total of three more issues synopsis laid out and described in writing.

I explained that the Galactic Gladiators story was based on my screenplay and that there were only three issues marking the three acts.  They said it was their policy that a minimum of four issues had to be committed to and they needed to know that the story was ready or they would not handle the product.

One of the hardest writing assignments I have ever had to do was turn a three act screenplay into four parts and make it tell the same story.  Each comic ending had to be a climax to ensure readers would want to buy the next issue.  This was a longer and harder process than I expected.

Next Report will be #7.

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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.

The ongoing development of a brand.

Stage 9

Learning how to write a comic was the hard part compared to finding artists, colorists and lettering people. I took a three act sceenplay and broke it down into three comic issues of 22 pages each (this is the standard amount of story pages per comic these days).  Everything seemed fine.

I then searched the net and asked everyone I knew to recommend people to develop the screenplay into my comic book/story boards.

After compiling a list of potential candidates and reviewing their portfolios and previous work, it came down to three excellent artists.  There was a female who drew manga style (good for international markets but not what I really wanted), there was an unknown guy who drew very well but normal super hero style (which I knew would not translate well into the Asian markets)  and Scott Lee, who’s artwork was excellent and unique (might even go global if given the chance).

Scott’s characters are long, sexy and lanky. Very different style then what is out there.  His artwork is interesting and good enough that he has worked with Marvel, Top Cow/Image, DC comics and presently works with Radical Entertainment (one of Canada’s premiere video game publishers owned by Universal - Vivendi).  Picking Scott was the best decision I have ever made for designing new characters for a new brand.

The same process kind of happened with choosing the colorist but once Scott introduced me to the work of Ben Prenevost, it was an instant and wise choice.  His coloring technique was perfect for my theme and story. Plus he had worked with Scott before and together their style just works.

Next I checked out graphic designers who could provide lettering and page layout for printers.  I knew from the beginning that this person should be local (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) as I would need to work closely with them prior to it being submitted to the print company.

Rachel Moffat of was introduced to me and her graphic art experience is incredible.  Not only did she pick up the comic craft instantly, but we also designed our own dialog balloons (needed a special way to transmit thoughts from one Psion character to another character).  It was a pleasure working with her as the patience she needed to put the whole project together was amazing.  Remember, both of us had never produced a comic before.

The next installment will be titled Galactic Gladiators Part #6.

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Order - FROM THE MIND TO THE MARKET - now.  It will be available later in 2009. Pre-order by contacting Info@Playdigm.com.

(c) Sandford Tuey All Rights Reserved.