A few weeks ago, someone forwarded me a link to a Nick Marino’s and Neal Shyam’s audioshocker podcast in which, amongst other things, they shared their thoughts on some of our books. At best, their reviews could be described as a mixed bag. That said, there was also clearly an intrigue around some of what we were doing and that caught my attention. So I decided to do what any big deal entertainment executive would do, I commented on their site and requested that they guys have me on their show to answer their questions. The good guys that they are, Neal and Nick invited me in to their show and the following
link will take you right into our candid conversation about all things Virgin Comics.
Cutting to the chase, the gist of the interview centers on the business of comics and the huge challenges that all of the publishers are facing. In this brave new digital world, selling comics at the comic shop isn’t an easy task and yet it remains the most critical entry point for any publisher trying to establish a real presence in the industry. Sure you can come up with all sorts of dotcomics and slick up your trades for the mass market but first and foremost you have to charm the comic geeks if you hope to survive. In a world crowded by Superheros and Super-Heros, that’s no easy task. And yet, here we are, two years later, kicking and screaming, and hopefully, making our presence felt.
Anyone who’s got a taste of Virgin Comics knows that our books are split into two buckets, our “Indian stuff” and our “celebrity stuff.” Without going into all the detail that the interview does, the summary is that we’re trying to be original. We recognize the unique medium of comics, and how they can be used to incubate original ideas and stories. While we are always respectful of the comic itself, knowing that it’s an artform unto itself, we also know that it’s a great medium to nurture stories that can go on to live on film, tv, as video games, or online. Anyone that’s tracked us at all knows that so far so good here at Virgin. We’ve been able to create some distinctive books and managed to get them in the pipeline with some larger media companies to now evolve them as films, games, etc. That part of the process we don’t really control, though if requested, we’re happy to offer our two cents.
So without further adieu, check out the interview and let us know what you think. Aside from continuing to build out this company, our agenda is also to make the process as transparent as possible. Because, in our humble opinion, it’s not just the stories that we are creating that we hope are interesting and engaging, but the story about building the stories, that may be the most interesting. But that’s just my opinion. Why don’t you be the judge.
Gotham Chopra
Link to the interview with Gotham: http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/03/18/podcast-episode-023
