A Re-Introduction to Arcana Comics
C4S found it time to reintroduce Arcana to the WWWorld, so here is our talk.
Comics For Sinners: For those of who may not be familiar with Arcana Comics, what can you tell us?
Arcana: Arcana is an entertainment company that focuses on branded story-worlds and all things that bleed genre. In the world of comics, that translates to great stories, which cross through multiple genres. At Arcana, you’ll find everything from family-friendly fantasy through hard boiled noir, science fiction epics through superheroic adventures, and everything else in between. What they have in common is simple – they’re great stories. Arcana Comics specializes in self-contained graphic novels, which any reader can pick up, start reading, and not miss a beat. While that’s not all we do, it covers most of our projects.
Our tenth anniversary is next year, and we are honing in on our mission by cultivating new talent, great projects, and some amazing partnerships, including Gene Simmons, Roddenberry Entertainment, Benderspink, and much much more. We are also celebrating our new releases and partnerships at events and conventions, starting with Free Comic Book Day 2013.
We believe as we grow and change, we will need to continue to look back at where we came from as we push forward, striving to release high-quality branded entertainment filled with characters and stories which transcend gender, age, cultural, and geographic boundaries.
C4S: What Kind of promotions and events will you be having for Free Comic Book Day 2013?
Arcana: We will be appearing at 5 different events to promote our new title “The Steam Engines of Oz” and handing out preview copies of the book.
Sean O’Reilly (Arcana Founder and CEO, Co-writer and Co-creator of “The Steam Engines of Oz”) and Chris ‘Doc’ Wyatt (creator of of Creepsville, producer of Napoleon Dynamite) will be appearing with members of the League of S.T.E.A.M at Galaxy of Comics, 17306 Saticoy St, Van Nuys – California.
Erik Hendrix (VP of Publishing, Co-writer and Co-creator of The Steam Engines of Oz) Will be doing signings at So Cal Comics, 8280 Clairemont Mesa Blvd #124, San Diego, California, followed by a panel and signing at the Gaslight Gathering in San Diego on Sunday, May 5th.
Members of Steampunk Canada and Steampunk Ottawa will be having a meet and greet and handing out copies at The Comic Book Shoppe 1, 1400 Clyde Avenue, Nepean –Ontario and The Comic Book Shoppe 2, 228 Bank Street Ottawa, Ontario.
Ana Svarc (artist of new Arcana title, Reaper) will be doing signings & drawings, and there will be a prize for the best Steampunk costume, event is at Metropolis Comics and Toys, 4735 Kingsway, Burnaby, British Columbia.
C4S: Tell us about your new line of Steampunk titles The Steam Engines of Oz and Steampunk Originals
Arcana: The Steam Engines of Oz is an epic SteamPunk re-imagining of the world of Oz, set one hundred years after the famous ending. It features brand new characters and an all-ages friendly, yet action-packed story.
Steampunk Originals is a collection of short 1-10 page stories all with a Steampunk setting. We currently have two volumes containing over 50 Steampunk short stories.
C4S: Apart from your Clockwork Girl, Howard Lovecraft and John Henry books, you haven’t had many Steampunk titles. Why this new direction and prominent re-branding?
Arcana: The easy answer is because Sean Patrick O’Reilly, the owner of Arcana, and Erik Hendrix, the VP of Publishing, are SteamPunk nuts… The Steam Engines of Oz launches on Free Comic Book Day for comic book fans to pick up free at their local comic book shops. That is going to launch a new series for Arcana Comics, and we’re all extremely excited about it! In 2012 we reformatted Arcana.com with a Steampunk theme, and now we are following up with an entire imprint of books called ‘Steampunk Originals’ (www.steampunkoriginals.com). In the coming months, you will see more from the imprint.
C4S: You have recently re-released books created by Kiss legend Gene Simmons. What can you tell us about The Simmons Comics Anthology and Zipper vs. Dominatrix – The Slave Trade, written by Erik Hendrix? Can we expect more new titles created by Mr. Simmons?
Arcana: Simmons Comics Anthology is a way for readers to be introduced to the creations of Gene Simmons and his Simmons Comics Group, one chapter at a time in print and digitally, collecting old and all-new materials. Zipper vs. Dominatrix: The Slave Trade, written by Erik Hendrix, is the first example of this. Erik worked with Gene and they have put Zipper and Dominatrix through a new adventure, which is being released in Simmons Comics Anthology Volumes 1 – 3. After that, there will be some new chapters of Gene Simmons House of Horrors, bringing some ideas straight out of the mind of Mr. Simmons to life in comic book form. .
C4S: What can you tell us about your Days Missing venture with Roddenberry Entertainment?
Arcana: We are very excited to be working with Roddenberry Entertainment on Days Missing Vol 3: Enox and also their brand new project, Worth. Both look gorgeous and we can’t wait to show them off to people at SDCC this year and in comic shops and book stores nationwide. Roddenberry Entertainment is a creative and energetic group who are extremely helpful and great to work with. We’re all fans here of Star Trek and it’s always a joy to have the chance to chat with people you respect behind the scenes and it’s even better to work directly with them. We look forward to working together more in the future.
C4S: We heard your title with Jay Odjick, Kagagi, is being made into an animated television series. Congratulations! Can you give us more details about the series and when can we expect to find it on television?
Arcana: Kagagi is the first First Nation superhero and is being produced by Sean Patrick O’Reilly and Jay Odjick for thirteen episodes of an animated television series. The cultural history infused in the story is enriching, unique, and educational, providing audiences with three dimensional, relatable characters, and an overall entertaining product. APTN is the Canadian broadcaster, and the first episode will debut on TV in January 2014.
C4S: Your series The Intrinsic debuted last year at Free Comic Book day. We love the idea of your “Arcanaverse” and the character cross-over in this epic story. Can we look forward to more Arcanaverse cross-over books to come?
Arcana: The Intrinsic will be back! Behind the scenes, we are actually planning out the next story for our assembled group of heroes, bringing new characters from other books into the fold, and facing an all-new threat. Those are planned to be released in 2014, but more details will come as we close out the year. The Intrinsic will even be seen in four episodes of the animated series Kagagi.
C4S: How did you decide what characters to choose from the Arcanaverse to use in The Intrinsic?
Arcana: We chose some of our most (excuse the term) bad-ass characters we had, figured out their strengths and weaknesses, and how they would work together to defeat obstacles. We think the grouping turned out awesome with Kade, Candice Crow, Philosopher Rex, Jas Manral, Tori Isaacs, and Kore.
About the Author
Richard Boom Richard is the driving force behind Comics for Sinners. His love and admiration for female comic book characters is virtually unparalleled, which immediately explains his biggest 'sin': his Hot Mummy fetish. This sketchbook theme is philogynistic in nature and even the source of his WIP comic book series "The Sisterhood".
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