@’s by Zenescope Entertainment’s
Joe Brusha & Stephen Haberman!!!
Read on as Zenescope President Joe Brusha and Stephen Haberman, the King of Zenescope Social Media and Marketing, tell us about their new animated series on Kickstarter and what’s next from the their comic stable of reimagined classics.
OPTIMOUS DOUCHE (OD): So, why this new foray into animation? What was the deciding factor or factors?JOE BRUSHA (JB): We've thought about doing an animated GRIMM FAIRY TALES series for some time. Comics translate really well into that medium and we've always thought GRIMM would be great as an animated project. When the director, Jon Schnepp, and Titmouse got on board we decided it was time to move forward with the idea.
OD: The name tells us a lot, but for those unfamiliar with the GRIMM comic and concept, can you give us a quick low down?
SH: GRIMM FAIRY TALES is a reimagining of the classic fairy tales, but with an edgy, horrific twist to them. The stories are set in modern times, where people face life altering situations and must make a decision. Sela, our heroine, uses the fairy tales to guide people to that decision, but not every story has a happy ending.
OD: Will the series be episodic or a continuing narrative?
JB: A combination of the two. I've always envisioned it as similar to the “X-Files” or “Lost” where there are standalone episodes, but they still play into an overall story arc. The GRIMM FAIRY TALES comic itself has evolved from a more episodic style to focusing on the overarching story. We feel that the combination will suit the animated series well.
OD: The GRIMM FAIRY TALES series has been running for a long time now and has covered the entire stable of the Brothers Grimm brain children; did you focus on any characters specifically for the first few episodes of the animated series? SH: Sela, our heroine, will certainly appear in the animated series, as well as the Dark One. They are featured in a few of the snippets of animation we had in the Kickstarter promo video. The other characters that will appear will likely be our re-imagined characters taken from some of the most well-known fairy tales, like the Beast.
OD: Tell us a little bit about the decision to use Kickstarter for funding: is there an ownership stake or cool give backs on the table?
JB: The powers that be in Hollywood saw this animated anthology as a risk, and told us there were too many fairy tales movies and television shows out there already. We decided to give the final decision to the fans, and saw Kickstarter as that opportunity. We have already seen some incredible support. There are a lot of really cool rewards we're offering including the ability to pre-order a DVD of the pilot episode complete with behind the scenes footage. A lot of the rewards are exclusive to the Kickstarter campaign and they won't be available anywhere else--things like art prints, exclusive comics and even original artwork. We want to make sure the fans get something exciting for being a backer.
OD: Once you get Kickstarted, what's the next step? Having you been talking to any TV companies or other content distributors?JB: The next step will be to go into pre-production and get to work on the pilot. We have had initial conversations with some digital distributors. I think we're going to explore a couple of different avenues and try to figure out which makes the most sense. We've thought about putting it up exclusively on iTunes for a limited time but we haven't made any final decisions yet.
OD: Stephen, part of your role right now is carrying the Zenescope brand into Social Media. How would you describe the Zenecope online community?
STEPHEN HABERMAN (SH): Awesome! They have been great, not only with this Kickstarter project, but in their general support of Zenescope and its products.It has always been my dream to be able to be in a position to represent and champion creativity, and that’s exactly what I get to do here at Zenescope.
The fans make my job that much easier because they want to share their opinions and be a part of our creative process. They are the reason we’re able to do what we do, and we’ll never forget that. Zenescope wants to continue to be approachable to its fans.
OD: The Zenescope brand is famous for its pin-up art style of art. Its appeal to fanboys is obvious, but at most of the comics shows and on fan sites the audience seems to eschew towards the fairer sex. What do you see as the primary draw to Zenescope for women over men? And also please feel free to tell me if my observations are asinine and completely wrong.
JB: I wouldn't call your observations asinine or completely wrong because that would be mean. Also I don't think you're far off, either. The majority of our readers are male but we do have a higher percentage of female readers than most other comic publishers. Even though a lot of people, especially people that don't read them, think our books are heavy on the cheesecake, in reality that's mostly the cover art aimed at fan boys and it doesn't carry over to the actual stories.And most of our books feature strong female protagonists. All you have to do is look at the success of THE HUNGER GAMES to see that women and even men respond to those kinds of characters. I think if more readers took a chance on our books, they'd be happy they did. That's something I hear from our new fans all the time.
OD: What are your plans for synergy between social media, the animated series and your bread and butter of comic books?
SH: I joined Zenescope at the end of 2011 with one goal in mind: to engage the fan base. Within a short period of time, I was seeing a lot of activity and response from our fans. We saw that our fans are very dedicated and very excited about the comics we’re publishing. Now we’ve given our fans the opportunity to be a part of a big step for Zenescope with this animated series and they’ve responded with a great deal of support.
Also, I wanted to bring our fans more information about our comics and more ways for them to connect with us. I have been focused on keeping the blog active with news, previews, and sales on our comics.Through Facebook and Twitter, we try to just let them see behind the curtain a bit more, with photos and videos of our staff around the office, as well as games and giveaways to make sure then know how much we appreciate their support.
2012 has gotten off to a great start, and we haven’t event got into the midst of convention season yet! We’re going to more conventions this year than we have in a while, and see more of our fans in person. It will be nice to be able to thank them in person.
OD: WONDERLAND continues to be one of Zenscope's most recognized books. Tell us the premise and what's happening in the book now?
SH: We're just finishing up the ALICE IN WONDERLAND mini-series which is a prequel to the RETURN TO WONDERLAND trilogy. It tells the story of how Alice became trapped in Wonderland and how those events play into RETURN. We will be preparing for the launch in July for the WONDERLAND ongoing series which will pick up a few years after the original trilogy ends. It will follow an adult Calie Liddle and her teenage daughter Violet as they are pulled back into the chaos that is the Wonderland universe. Readers looking to be re-introduced to our Wonderland will definitely want to check out the CALL OF THE WONDERLAND mini-series, which will preclude the WONDERLAND ongoing. With ALICE, CALL OF THE WONDERLAND and the WONDERLAND ongoing, it’s is an exciting time here at Zenescope Entertainment.
OD: Find out more about Zenescope’s Kickstarter campaign here! And look for more info on Zenescope Entertainment here!
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Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
