Holy [EXPLETIVE DELETED}!!! HALP!!!!!! AC Comics' GREEN LAMA

[Jim Ritchey]

I hate reading to the end to see this phrase: No money, YET--but: This is an opportunity to be on the ground-floor of a major paradigm shift at AC Comics, under the Spark Universe' imprint. If all goes according to plan, there will be plenty o' bucks. Worse comes to worse, AC has a prestigious history of launching new talent unheard of anywhere else.
Examples:
Greg Guler (Creator of Gargoyles)
Todd McFarlane
Jim Royal
Rik Levins
Some Kirby Fanboy named Erik Larsen. :D

That's a handful off the top of my head. AC Comics is good luck!

Bill Black contacted me last night, and my hopes for Spark Universe/Golden Age Revival//Green Lama material has come to fruition, on a limited level. After issue two (which Mark Stegbauer and myself will need help on inks--if we're to get it out for solicitation on the tenth of next month), Green Lama is continuing as an anthology--but with themed, interrelated stories, sometimes a 'Marvel Team-Up' approach. I'll be handling most of the writing, and likely half to most of the art. It won't be 'Good Girl', in AC's 20-year+ traditional style (which is great for what it is), or an homage to some 'bygone yesteryear' of 'when comics were good'--which, frankly was plot-driven to the point where the characters were completely interchangeable. Think 'Miller/Moore/Morrison'--he writing will be considerably edgier, in my 'Vertigo with Superheroes' type writing style, and any other writers interested, Remember Alan Moore line in the Simpsons about "So--you liked that I turned your favorite hero into a heroin-addicted jazz critic without radioactive powers'--? I'm the type of Creative Director who would not find this unreasonable. AC is about to become a fun place to play (ignore this Sean--yer already in--Bobby? Anybody else interested in some 8 to 10 pagers?). I'll start building a Spark Universe 'Bible' as I'm writing issue 3. The less reprint material we have to fall back on, the better--pref. none.

Artists of the pencil and ink variety? You are summoned! All styles are welcome, the more diverse, the better--but leaning towards superhero adventure and horror is kind of a given. You know all those characters that Dynamite trademarked erroneously? WE'RE USING THEM, as AC has a 25 year history of using them.

Cages will be rattled...

We're all in a rough spot, with the economy and all--but my 'EC Comics/Al Feldstein' approach to Spark, with self-expression paramount, might build an audience--and Bill has agreed to something he's never really tried--ADVERTISING!!! This is saying A LOT--about bill's faith in the project.

Lew Morgan, Jim Burns or Anthony Summey--if you guys could help by inking a page or three in the first week of January, you'd all mesh well enough for a seamless product with Mr. Stegbauer...help...please???

I'll update, regularly.

[Sean Taylor]

Dude, that's awesome. I'll get started on a Blue Lady 8-pager for you.

[Ryan Eldridge]

If I had any of the skills you guys needed, I'd be on this in a heartbeat. However, I know of a bunch of artists here that I would love to see work on some of these books.

[Jim Ritchey]

Ryan--I dunno why you'd say that! You write well, and have a taste in authors that kinda indicates that you'll go in the direction we'll need. Something I left out is that Bill is willing to go all-out on spin-offs of this more 'fringey' direction. Lama #1 did well, and that was with purely grassroots advertising and promo--imagine how it will do with banners on major comics sites.. Any back-up feature could get it's own book, and Bill essentially gave me carte blanche on my original plan--to do Atoman and Golden Lad as the second and third parts of a trilogy (to match the fist two issues of Lama)--the three books Spark Publications put out in the '40's, rebooted. I'll be writing and drawing a bunch of it, with the Lama and those two (consecutively)--but there's no way I could do a bimonthly book and a graphic novel, concurrently. Yes I will need writing help, as well. If you have a crazy idea for an existing Golden Age character you want to submit, there's a solid chance it will be published this year.

Everything Sean does is pure lunacy--so he's in without question! :D

To Sean--AWESOME! Need it 'one-shot' and self-contained for now---so no cliffhangers, right out of the gate. plz. Can you go ten? :D

[Ryan Eldridge]

Oh, I didn't get the impression from the original post that you were looking for writers.

[Sean Taylor]

Ten pages is no problem. That's even better. No cliff hangers, but enough to make folks want to read more. You're handling art for BL, right? Just wanting to make sure.

[Lew Morgan]

I'll be available to help if you need it.

[Jim Ritchey]

Awesome, Lew--THANKS!

Been meaning to tell you--yer stuff is colloquially 'wot rawks'. I know Bill and Mark will like it, as well--they are 'clean' addicts. I'd really like to see sequentials--later, though, after we bust this sucker out.

[mad with power] Ha! It's funny--I can say stuff like that now! As of 30 minutes ago, I was granted the title of Creative Director--officially, by Mr. Bill Black--for the Spark Universe Imprint of AC Comics!!! BOOHOOHAHAHA!!!! [/mad with power]

Yeah--I know. Big Deal...:D

[Ryan Eldridge]

Just re-read the original post and saw where I had apparently missed everything you said about writers (my own fault for reading forums while half asleep). I've got some ideas tossing around in my head now, should I just email you with story pitches, or is there a procedure to go through here?

[Jim Ritchey]

Yeah, Ryan--email me pitches--then I run them up the ladder. I gotta tell you. though--the first issue of Lama was grief-free--Bill and Mark didn't tell me to correct anything that wasn't technical--total creative freedom. Best to keep it as 'PG' as possible, though--implied swearing, implied brutal bloodshed (violence is OKAY!), implied sex scenes. Ideas that 'cook noodles' encouraged.

Also--keep in mind, navigation of the choice of characters, to avoid trademark infringement was a dicey proposition, that took a while to figure out. DC kinda 'pirated' a few Public Domain characters--literally accidentally. Remember--we're updating them, as well as using the originals, who are by some fluke of time-travel, or being frozen still around--so think 'Legacy', or how to integrate some fossil into present day. In the original AC Universe, there was something called the 'Vault of Heroes'--where a mess of them were placesd in suspended animation--yep, just like JMS' The Twelve--but AC did it 25 years ago, with more characters. In this universe, they're only getting out this year, and a lesser number were tricked into going in Here's a list of preferred characters we can use on back-ups:
Any of AC's regular characters--done post-apocalyptic 'Lite' (will send pdf link of first issue at request)/Milleresque'.
Swiftarrow
Shaman and Flame (reboot)
Magga The Magnificent ('40's only)
Golden Woman (formerly 'Girl'--even though she appears a teenager in heroine persona--she's 80 years old--think Original Mary Marvel/Miraclewoman with a bad attitude)
Black Terror reboot (I'll likely do that)
Fighting Yank (just keep it fresh)
Redevil (Lev Gleason Daredevil)
My variation--A black female Captain Freedom, named Naima Wright. illegitimate child of the U.S.'s Captain Freedom--who, before 'The Neutronic Exchange' in 1988 existed in every country on Earth. She.has dual U.S./Liberian citizenship , and operates internationally. She is the daughter of a thinly veiled clone of Doc Savage--as all the Captain Freedoms were..
Atomic Thunderbolt.

Just a few, if you wanna research them on the interwebz, throw something out, and see what sticks.

[Sean Taylor]

A lot of the Centaur line is still available too, as long as you don't use the DC versions or the Malibu versions of them.

[Jim Ritchey]

Yeah...doing different versions of 'The Protectors' might be kinda dicey, even if we go to the roots as source--Marvel owns all that, now. .DC is problematic, as well. Perhaps we can go through some, soon. You mentioned Nelvana? We really need to mix up dudes and chick characters more--AC is already the 'girl' company, and I'd like to have Spark more 'EOE'.

So far, I gots two chick stories (one coming--and one long arrived) from you and Ron Fortier. Ron's Colt is awesome and 'Tarantinoesque' and I know yours will be great on BL.

But--anybody wanna write some dudes? :P I'd like to go 'boy, girl, boy girl'. AC also has some great original dewd characters I plan to have fun with, down the line.

I came really close to working for Malibu, early on BTW, but hated the sample script and concept for the book the editor gave me to try out on.

I'm happy you're happy with the ten pages. We're shooting for 32 pages of original material (guts) every issue--and ten will be perfect for back-up. To answer your previous inquiry--YES! I will be penciling, but on my new schedule, it likely won't appear till issue 4, at earliest--unless I just do breakdowns.

[Ryan Eldridge]

Jim, I'm preparing a few "dewd" submissions.

It's too bad to hear about the properties that Malibu used. I've had an idea for a reboot of the "The Eye Sees" title for a while now.