Newsarama on Deepak’s Buddha and More

The New York Times best-selling author and spiritual thinker Deepak Chopra recently sat down with Cliff Biggers of Comic Shop News in an article posted on Newsarama. Deepak spoke about his involvement in the founding of Virgin Comics, how Buddha relates to superheroes, and the possibility of adapting his upcoming book Jesus: The Story of the Man Who Would be Christ as a comic book.

To read the full article go here. If you’d like to watch the trailer or read a free widescreen digital comic of Deepak Chopra’s Buddha click here. Issues 1-3 of Deepak Chopra’s Buddha are available now at comic shops everywhere and at our Virgin Comics store.

Ron Marz On Writing BEYOND

In an interview with thequarterbin, acclaimed comics writer Ron Marz discusses his approach to adapting Deepak Chopra’s Beyond, a sci-fi thriller about an American businessman in India on a desperate – and interdimensional – search for his wife.

In addition to Ron’s groundbreaking work on Silver Surfer for Marvel, Green Lantern for DC, and Samurai: Heaven and Earth for Dark Horse, he has edited Devi, The Sadhu, and Ramayan Reloaded, and continues to be a major figure in the development of our Shakti line. Here’s an excerpt of what Ron had to say about his adaptation of Beyond:

And with BEYOND you’re adapting a Deepak Chopra story?

Yeah, it’s actually a screenplay Deepak wrote, so I’m translating the screenplay into the comic format. It’s really a matter of preserving as much as I can of what’s there, and deciding on what parts we’re going to trim back on a little bit to fit everything into the comic. For the most part we’ve been able to get all the main points in, it’s just some of the details that we don’t have room for in a 22-page comic. So far I’m really happy with the way it’s come out.

I’ve read through the advance copy and one of the things I was curious about was how much of your own style and voice are you able to put into BEYOND since it is an adaptation?

Truthfully, when I took on the gig I spoke to Gotham about it. Deepak is his dad, and I wanted to make sure that I was as faithful to the material as I could be. I said to Gotham, “Look, I feel like my job is to faithfully translate what your dad wrote.” Gotham’s viewpoint was to do what I had to do to make it work as a comic story. So I’m probably being more faithful to the material than even they expected me to be.
I’m bringing to it more of my visual style than I am the dialogue because I’m trying to preserve as much of Deepak’s dialogue as possible. That’s what my job is. I’m here to serve his story, not the other way around.

To read the rest of the interview click here. To jump into the suspenseful adventure of Deepak Chopra’s Beyond, go here.

Spotlight On The Witchblade/Devi Crossover

Check out the Wizard interview with Virgin Comics Chief Creative Officer, Gotham Chopra and Top Cow’s Publisher, Filip Sablik as they discuss the first crossover between the two companies—Witchblade/Devi.

The first issue, published by Top Cow, is on sale now and the second half of the story (published by Virgin Comics and featuring art by Mukesh Singh) will hit comic shops on June 25th.

Should Gotham Chopra Call Guru Pitka “Dad”?

“Living on the inside of the New Age world as I have done has given me a front row seat to what truly makes a profit. I mean prophet. Destiny, Serenity, and Tranquility are not just the names of my three favorite exotic dancers in Las Vegas. They are states of awareness. Guru Pitka taught me that as well.”—Gotham Chopra

Growing up as Deepak Chopra’s son must have been a spiritually rich experience for Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics’ Editor-In-Chief. But we were all stunned to learn that Deepak is not in fact Gotham’s spiritual guiding light. Guru Pitka, the chief rival of Deepak Chopra, is the man that has been leading Gotham on his life-long spiritual journey. Read his shocking confession here.

Inside Virgin Comics with Gotham Chopra: Audioshocker Interview

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

The Love Guru

For those of you who saw the episode of Sundance Channel’s Iconoclasts with Deepak Chopra and Mike Myers, you’re already aware of The Love Guru, Mike’s new film in which he plays the protagonist Pitka, an American raised by the gurus of an ashram in India. Under the guidance of the yogis, Pitka becomes an expert in teaching spirituality, motivation, bliss, and peace. He moves to America to break into the self-help business and manages to land a multi-million dollar assignment from the owner and coach of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. We’re really excited for this film and rumor has that our very own Gotham Chopra will be making his feature film debut in it!

 

THE SADHU TRAILER!

Sadhus do not know love or hate, desire or fear. They are detached from all emotional ties, devoted to a spiritual journey said to unleash unimaginable powers. This is the path James Jensen is fated to tread. But he must tackle his biggest obstacle yet… HIMSELF.

Music by Livebody Productions

INSIDE VIRGIN COMICS: SEPTEMBER

Is it September already? Is the summer already gone? Wow—that was fast. Here at Virgin Comics, we’ve had a summer full of excitement, celebrating our one-year anniversary, finding new partners to play and create with, and building out our business so we have stuff to celebrate at our two-year anniversary and beyond.

Along the way, we’ve also been asking the oh-so-existential question: “who are we?”You see, it’s not just our own corporate adolescence we are dealing with, it’s also the fact that, you, our audience, and even some of our partners, are asking that question in an effort to figure us out. We get that our projects aren’t exactly classifiable into one overarching category. We generate stories that stem from great Asian mythos (Ramayan 3392 AD, Devi) and then tap into the creative minds of some of the coolest filmmakers and creators on the planet (Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper, Dave Stewart’s Walk In), churning out a fusion of eastern, western, and admittedly bizarre elements of storytelling. See, we’re obsessed with funky stories and funky creative partners and resist anything that puts us in a box. So as we continue down this path of self-discovery, we search for more ways to expand our creative horizons to further perplex, inspire and excite our audiences, our partners and ourselves.

In that spirit, we’ve partnered with Studio 18, one of India’s premiere film and television studios to create a line of graphic novels, as well as animation, games, and movies that cater to the teen horror genre. We thought it would be fitting to expand on our crazy fictional fantasies and delve into the wildly horrific, dark and twisted world of thrillers. For centuries India has enchanted the world with its entrancing and spiritually-minded stories, so it’s about time we turned up the freak factor.

Eat the Dead, included in the following pages as a sneak peek, is the first from our India Horror imprint, the premiere of our truly “graphic” graphic novels. It’s a story about what lurks in the shadows of our pasts, what happens when our karmic duties defy the laws of “humane” nature, and the dark deeds one must do to rectify their wrongs. And then, there’s also one crazy looking beast of a woman who’s not interested in playing nice. I won’t tell you more, because it’s wrong to ruin a great story, but I can say that this comic is a true testament to what we represent here at Virgin Comics… you’ll never know what to expect next.

See you on the inside….

—The Chief
and the Virgin Comics Editorial Team

Win a Free Sadhu Vol. 1 Trade Paperback Signed by Gotham Chopra!

The Sadhu returns this month with the launch of a 5-issue miniseries, ‘The Silent Ones‘, written by Saurav Mohapatra, art by R. Manikandan, and edited by Ron Marz. Virgin Comics is giving away 10 free copies of The Sadhu Vol. 1 Trade Paperback signed by Gotham Chopra—Chief Creative Officer and writer of The Sadhu Vol. 1.

Attached below is an image of a real Sadhu—post a caption or title for the image in the comments section of this post to participate. The top ten entries will be announced on July 22, 2007.

Click here to read the The Sadhu #1: Widescreen Edition.

© medicalmission, 2007. http://www.flickr.com/photos/95585138@N00/286458042/

 Edit: Comments have now closed and winners will be announced shortly.

Blood, Guts, and Terrorists… Oh My!

Okay, I’m not going to pretend that our new book Virulents (see trailer link below) is going to change literature as we know it, but there is a discussion emerging around it from those that have read it or heard the movie pitch evolving from the book. The summary: two military units, one American and one Indian, collide in the Bermuda triangle-like region of Afghanistan (amidst the mountainous Hindu Kush), and are forced to team up when they confront a terrorist-cum-demon. The demon, however, has an unlikely characteristic that makes him an enemy like none these warriors have ever seen. Ultimately, when they start to understand the local lore and the enemy they are up against, they realize there is only one out…

The comic is actually conceived out of an indigenous myth—the story of the blood demon Raktaveej that terrorized the Gods so that they were forced to summon the Goddess Uma who transformed herself into the fearsome Kali to once and for all take care of his menace. There are many morals to the story, some of which, as mentioned, have made their way into ours and feel particularly relevant to the times we find ourselves in.

Namely: be wary of the wars you start and know thy enemy. Today, we’re mired in a war and engaged with an enemy that we clearly don’t fully understand or know how to overcome. We’ve demonized the enemy with the title of terrorist without fully comprehending their powers. We’ve failed to understand that for every one of them that we think we’ve destroyed, we’ve seeded a thousand more (this has direct relevance to the story). And worst of all we’ve convinced ourselves —with the help of suits that work for corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater—that if we stay the course and rely on our archaic American military tradition of more might, we’ll somehow triumph. Ever heard of Gore Vidal’s Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace?

We don’t expect to change the world with our comics. Okay… maybe we do a little. Virulents is full of blood and guts and lives off of the tagline: “What’s the one thing worse than terrorists? Vampire terrorists!!!” And the fact that it’s built upon an actual legend of the East is lost on most readers, as are some of the other implications integrated throughout it. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist or that they are not worth talking about. After all, that’s what great literature is all about…☺

Gotham Chopra
Chief Creative Officer
Virgin Comics