If Ahmet Zappa had his way, he’d be shouting from the
rooftops about what Kingdom Comics has been up to.
But because of this son of legendary musician Frank Zappa felt
that Mouse House managers had lasers trained on him, ready to take Ahmet out should
he reveal too much too soon about Disney’s new graphic novel division, Zappa chose
his words carefully while paneling at this year’s New York Comic-Con. Talking
only in the vaguest possible terms about this new arm of Disney Publishing Worldwide
had been up to since its inception back in May of 2008.
Ahmet Zappa points out where he believed Disney’s killer lasers were located in the hall at the Jacob K. Javits Center. Photo by Jeff Lange
So what was Ahmet and his Kingdom Comics creative partner,
Christian Beranek willing to go on the record about? Not much, actually. They
talked about how Kingdom Comics will be following a traditional book publishing
schedule and eventually hopes to release 6 to 10 titles per year. They also
mentioned that these 120-page books would be based on films from Disney’s
live-action vault. To be specific, motion pictures that the Studios made 20 – 30 years ago.
Zappa & Beranek made a point of stressing that Kingdom
Comics would not be creating any graphic novels based on properties that Disney
Studios already has in pre-production and/or active development. So you can forget about
a Frank Miller / “The Dark Knight Returns” –ish rethink of the “Tron” mythology (Though,
that said, Ahmet did say that he had seen some of the concept art that had already been
done for the “Tron” sequel. And he declared that this project looked very, very cool
indeed.)
But as for which Kingdom Comics title would be first out of
the gate … Zappa & Beranek really danced around this subject. Often coming
close to revealing the book’s title (“It rhymes with … “) only to then suddenly
back away from revealing much of anything. Again supposedly because they were very
concerned about those ever-present Disney lasers.
Ahmet Zappa (L) and Christian Beranek (R), the key creatives behind Disney’s new Kingdom Comics graphic novel division. Photo by Jeff Lange
Which – I know – makes Ahmet & Christian sound like two
very silly men. Which they are. But they’re also obviously incredibly
passionate about this project and are thrilled to death that the Walt Disney
Company has entrusted them with this huge responsibility. Which is to
re-imagine and rejuvenate some of the Studios’ most beloved films from the
1970s & 1980s in graphic novel form.
That’s the real reason that Zappa & Beranek were actually
at NYCC. Not so much to hype Kingdom Comics. But – rather – to meet with
artists and writers who were attending this year’s Con. To see if any of these
people shared Ahmet & Christian’s vision of what a Disney graphic novel
could be like. The grand possibilities involved with telling a tale loaded with
action & adventure that was specifically set in a Disney universe.
And the beauty of Zappa & Beranek’s take on this
material is that everything in the Disney universe actually fits together.
Again in the vaguest possible terms, they talked about how Kingdom Comics graphic
novels would be loaded with Easter
Eggs. Oblique references to other live-action Disney films. Familiar characters
popping up in very surprising ways.
Christian Beranek spoke of how much great stuff there was in Disney’s back catalog, what a challenge it was to ” … build whole new world to explore.” Photo by Jeff Lange
But then – just as they’d start to get specific (“ … in the
spirit and tone of the “Pirates” movies … ) – Ahmet would start to get nervous about
those Disney lasers and then send the panel careening off in a completely different
direction by talking about how – when he was a kid – he used to pray that Kim
Richards from the “Witch Mountain” movies and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick
would
get married.
Which made for a very amusing if not all that informative
panel at this year’s NYCC. Not to worry, though. In closing, Zappa &
Beranek did say that they’d be revealing the title and subject of Kingdom Comic’s first graphic novel this July at San Diego’s
Comic–Con International.
That is – of course – if Disney’s lasers don’t zap Zappa
first.
Your thoughts?