Marvel News -- Article Links and Threadspotting

It's been almost 24 hours since the news broke, and we're already being talked about all over the place.

The first few articles went up last night:

-Cliff Biggers of Comic Shop News broke the news first and wrote the official article for Newsarama. Cliff is Les Dabel's local retailer, so we gave him the scoop!
-Wizard Entertainment was next, offering this very cool piece. Wizard's onsite reporter asked us for a copy of the video we took of the announcement because the announcement was generating so many hits.
-Comic Book Resources followed soon after, posting a great interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley. CBR's gossip column, Lying in the Gutters, was onto us, though Derek Ruiz said that Rich asked him over the weekend if our deal was, in fact, with DC rather than Marvel.
-Our own forums lit up on this thread, which is still going strong. If you have questions, please ask them there!

Today's articles have been pretty cool too.

-Joe Quesada really talked us up in part 2 of his "Joe Monday" column on Newsarama.
-Wizard Entertainment ran a great piece on Anita Blake today.
-And last, but not least, we're also mentioned on Marvel's Webpage, which should serve as proof to anyone who's still in shcok or disbelief!

If you see any other cool links, post them in the "comments" section.

Make Mine Marvel!

Hey guys,

Our apologies for the lack of posts lately -- we've been a little preoccupied. In case you haven't heard, we're part of the Marvel Comics family now, and we made it public in an announcement at the Diamond Retailer's Summit on Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. You can read the full story here.

We're going to be talking a LOT about our upcoming plans in the near future now that the cat's out of the bag, but in the meantime, here are some quick quotes from staff members:

Ernst Dabel, CEO and President:“Dabel Brothers Productions has always been devoted to producing a high quality product, and our new partnership with Marvel will only continue to improve our ability to put out the best literary adaptations in the industry. Since we began work on The Hedge Knight nearly five years ago, we have had one mission in all that we’ve done: to offer fantasy and science fiction fans the very best visual translation of their favorite books without skimping or cutting corners. And while we have encountered many roadblocks along the way, our simple comic book company is still going strong, and we are excited and honored to become the studio known as ‘Marvel DB Pro.’ Thank you to our many fans who have helped us stay in business long enough to make this possible.”

Les Dabel, COO and Vice President of Business Operations: “I cannot believe how quickly we have grown since my brothers and I first decided to start a production company specializing in comic books. What started out as four guys who just wanted to imitate our favorite books became a company that was focused on working with some of the biggest authors in the world of publishing. But what has made this really rewarding is that many of those major authors have become our friends. We owe a great debt in particular to George R. R. Martin, Robert Silverberg, Raymond E. Feist, Orson Scott Card and Tad Williams – they have all stood by us through the many changes we’ve encountered, and their support has only made our work that much more rewarding. We’re looking forward to making them even prouder of our work as we partner with Marvel to continue to put out the high quality books that we’re known for – and we can’t wait to reveal the even bigger things we have in store for our readers once our first run of books hits the shelves.”

Sean J. Jordan, Vice President of Communications / Editor-in-Chief: “My first job when I was hired for Dabel Brothers Production was to announce that we were canceling a line of creator-owned books and putting all our eggs in one basket to produce The Hedge Knight, a comic book miniseries based on a novella by George R. R. Martin that many people – even his own fans! - had never heard of. It seemed like a risky move at the time, but it paid off amazingly well – we channeled all of our energy into creating the best possible adaptation of what was already an incredible story, and the book made a major splash in the industry, reminding anyone who gave our work a chance that somebody out there was doing something different – and they were doing it well.

Unlike many studios, we’ve never felt the pressure to imitate trends in the industry, and unlike most studios doing adaptation work, we’ve never been interested in pop culture crazes that come and go. Every author that we’ve signed on to adapt has been a major force in the publishing industry, many with millions of fans all over the world. A big part of the reason we’ve been successful is because we’re dedicated to preserving the integrity of every novel that we adapt; the fans love it, and they show their support by helping us to expand our audience every time we put out a book. We’ve been credited by many retailers as being the only independent publisher who’s actually bringing new blood into the comic shops each week.

That’s why we’re so excited to be partnering up with Marvel – between their efforts to excite new interest with Civil War and our efforts to broaden our audience with books like Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, we’re going to be an unstoppable force. The medium is poised for a major revival, and ‘Marvel DB Pro’ will be at the forefront, helping to lead the way.”

Bill Tortolini, Vice President of Marketing / Art Director: “One of the things that we have striven for over the years is a consistent quality in all of our books that matches the passion of the fan base that each author brings to our properties. With the addition of the amazing staff at Marvel, the quality of our books has just been cranked up to 11. Get ready to see some amazing things in the next year, courtesy of our studio.”

Matthew Hansen, Senior Editor: “We’ve been dying to say this for a long time, so I’ll do it now… ‘Make Mine Marvel!’”

More to come, including video of the announcement and pictures...

-SJJ

Bill is a RockStar

New England Comics in Quincy, MA will be hosting our very own Bill Tortolini as they help to officially launch Marshal on it's "birthday". (That's May 03, 2006 for you guys not paying attention! TSK! TSK!)

He will be signing from 3:30 - 7:00 pm at the Hancock Street store.

Stop by and say hello!

New England Comics Website

Also on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! May 06, 2006

Sarge's Comics in New London, CT is hosting both Bill Tortolini and Andrew LoVuolo to be a part of the largest Free Comic Book day event in the Northeast.

Andrew and Bill will be at Sarge's from 10am-8pm, signing copies of Marshal and Andrew's own RIFT comic!

Be sure to stop by and show us some support!

Sarge's Comics

Work Work Work/ Thread Spotting

So It's funny, its been forever since I've had time to post...it seems all we do is work here at DBPro...So much so we try and find more work for us to do, But I figure if we keep you guys happy it was all worth it.

Here are some quick news bits to get you through the time it takes Les to post again (We tricked him into coming on here to post and now he is addicted to the blog).

Well First up we have the exciting news that DBPro will be adapting Ra Salvatore's The Highway Man...Not only that but our very own Matthew "Owen Wilson" Hansen will be the adapter on this project. You can read all about it by clicking the link below.

DBPRO BRINGS SALVATORE'S THE HIGHWAYMAN TO COMICS IN FALL

Speakeasy's loss is DBPro's gain...as Park Cooper, Barb Cooper and Jimmy Bott bring HALFDEAD to DBPRo....Check out some images and new at the links.

HALF DEAD LANDS @ DBPRO

Peeking in on Half Dead

Michael Lent who is best known for his phenomenal bestselling book, Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood bring his creation to life at DBPro with Prey Orgin of the Species....

DBPRO UNLEASHES PREY: ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES IN JUNE

Finally we have an interview with the Adapter of Wyrm's Jake Black...who was really cool and let our friends at http://www.thecomicsreview.com ask him some questions.


Interview with Jake Black, writer of DBPRo's Wyrm


Well that's all for now. Tomorrow night (NYC Time) I will be posting some art for you guys to check out.

Be well...

Derek

Threadspotting

WOW have we been busy here at DBPro...I don't even remember what sleep is ...haha

Here are some places we have appeared on the net

Marshal Five Page Preview

Magician Apprentice Five Page Preview

Ptolus Five Page preview

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Comes to DBPro

ANITA BLAKE IN COMICS: TALKING TO LAURELL K. HAMILTON


More to come as we kick things into high gear with the Arrival of Red Prophet #1 at the end of March....

Check it out

Red Prophet here

PaperBack Reader shows us some love.

Sean and I thought this was very cool... (from a review on Paperbackreader.com):

"It was with some reluctance that I began to read The Burning Man portion of the graphic novel, but by the first couple of pages, I could see that things were different. The Dabel Brothers team, led by Sean Jordan (adaptation) and Brett Booth (primary artist) deconstructed this story and rebuilt it from the ground up. From the rambling narrative, they found the intrigue, passion, and mystery in the story Tad Williams had written. Everything is visualized – from careless asides of innuendo to the rugged lust between the protagonist and her lover.

There is a vibrancy that positively throbs throughout the work. Jordan does a superb job of parsing the text of the story in a way that accentuates the angst of the main character and the art team compliments that with stirring images that run the vista from lush forests of green, beds of red silk, and dark dungeons of deep grays and deepest blacks. Like The Wood Boy, the story is told in flashback, but there is a sense of forward momentum and mystery in The Burning Man that compels the reader forward - an urgency not present in the Feist narrative. The graphic novel succeeds, I suppose, in taking the rough in the diamond and transforming it to a diamond in the rough. "


For the whole thing click the link at the top....PBR is a really cool site that we hope will continues to like what we put out....Well thats all for right now enjoy.

Weekly Threadspotting

Here are the latest message board threads pertaining to DB Pro. Please jump on and chime in -- we appreciate your support!

Pod Cast Launch news.

Newsarama

CBR

The Pulse

SilverBullet Comic Books

Broken frontier

PTOLUS LITHO NEWS

BROKEN FRONTIER

NEWSARAMA

PULSE

SilverBullet ComicBooks

SOLICITATIONS MARCH -MAY

The Comics Review (Text and Covers)

the Pulse

Silver Bullet Comic Books

Let there be ART!!!!!

I've been kind of busy this week and haven't been able to share anything cool with you guys as to what is going on at DBPro. So I figured I'd share some art with you guys. Don't worry though I'll be back with some cool things to share very soon....

-Derek


New Spring....



Legacy

Marshal

Weekly Threadspotting

Hey all,

Here are the latest message board threads pertaining to DB Pro. Please jump on and chime in -- we appreciate your support!

Newsarama -- Ptolus: City By the Spire

Newsarama -- Marshal

Newsarama -- Orson Scott Card's Red Prophet

Newsarama -- Raymond E. Feist's Magician

Also, I should mention that we launched our official writer's circle, the DB PRO WRITER'S BLOCK. Anyone is welcome to sign up -- please visit this link if you're interested!

-Sean @ DB Pro