So, there I was, thinking that Marvel seemed to be displaying an entirely schizophrenic attitude towards the original graphic novel format as evidenced in today’s Digital House of Ideas panel at NYCC – wherein SVP Sales David Gabriel talked about the cost of the Castle OGN being “astronomical” and the reason we shouldn’t expect to see many OGNs coming from the publisher before going on to talk about the upcoming Season One line of hardcover graphic novels – and then it struck me: Season One isn’t a line of original graphic novels.
There is, I admit, very little to back me up on this idea right now, but almost since the announcement of Season One, various Marvel editorial bodies have talked about mysterious “ancillary revenue streams” that support the project. I’d assumed this meant some kind of Disney Store buy-in/publishing co-op for the project, but during the Digital House of Ideas panel, Gabriel mentioned what he called “a soft directive” for artists to draw panels that looked good on mobile digital devices, which made me wonder: Is Season One going to be serialized on some Disney outlet, digital or otherwise, before it’s released as a graphic novel?
October 16th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Seems to me that at least a little of the cost involved with the Castle OGN would be the licensing involved. Doesn’t matter that they all may be under the same roof (not sure who produces Castle), but if the whole Fox/Simpsons thing tells you anything, is that, on paper, they still have to “pay themselves” for the product.