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"I don’t want to worry about paying for those big names but I’m starting a publisher because I also want the freedom to put forward my ideals forward. After a certain size, your idealism becomes a liability if you’re looking to make money."

"We’re going to publish comics that are fresh and unexpected. We are going to make the kind of books you can make when you have 100% creative freedom.”

Everybody wants to rule the world.

Launched in 2014, Magnetic Press quickly made its presence known in the comic book industry thanks to its diverse line of narrative innovative and visually powerful stories.  This summer, the company plans to add four new titles to its lineup, including a third installment in its popular series of wildlife graphic novels, Love.  From fans of Her to fans of The […]

GOLEM – Premiere Book Trailer 2016 Release from Neurobellum on Vimeo. Magnetic Press continues its strong slate of Euro comics releases with GOLEM by the Italian artist known as LRNZ: Set in a future, post-Eurozone Italy that is entrenched in a culture of hyper-capitalism, GOLEM follows young Steno Critone as he is kidnapped during a political protest gone […]

Magnetic Press launched last year with an audacious business plan: bringing French graphic novels to the US market. While French materials has had its ups and downs in the US, Magnetic has been at the forefront of what has to be called a French invasion, as French comics have found popular and critical success. Both […]

It’s team up time. Magnetic Press, best known as publisher of a bunch of award-winning and magnificent French comics in the US, has partnered with Darby Pop, a comics studio founded by writer/producer Jeff Kline. Darby Pop’s line of graphic novels will be published as an imprint of Magnetic, starting with October’s SIDE-KICKED by writer Russell Brettholtz and artist Miguel Mendonca.

“In the current marketplace, it’s hard to get attention for any new titles, especially those not based on pre-existing brands,” Kline said in a statement. “But, in just their first year of existence, Magnetic Press seems to have found a recipe for connecting to a rabid fan base that both trusts their taste, and appreciates their commitment to the form. Originally, Mike Kennedy and I were just grabbing the occasional beer and sharing ‘war stories.’ But, at some point, it dawned on us that we shared so many of the same passions — and goals — that a partnership only made sense. ”

“Jeff has a proven track record for spotting and cultivating the most entertaining stories,” added Magnetic Press president Mike Kennedy. “The Darby Pop line promises that same engaging, animated audience experience with a whole new set of properties. We’re excited to support those debuts in the coming year!”

Sidekicks is a 96 page collection about a group of superhero sidekicks seeking the spotlight. Darby POp’s Kline is a multiple Emmy Award winner and wrote such comics as Transformers Prime, G.I. Joe: Renegades, and Jackie Chan Adventures. The line itself was first an imprint of IDW, where they published nearly 40 individual issues and trade paperbacks including CITY: THE MIND IN THE MACHINE by novelist/screenwriter Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men, Repo Men),THE 7TH SWORD by screenwriter John Raffo (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, The Relic), DOBERMAN by movie/TV writers Scott Marder, Rob Rosell, and Jack Lambert (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Unsupervised), DEAD SQUAD by multi-hyphenates Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia (Jericho, Warehouse 13, Human Target), and INDESTRUCTIBLE by Kline himself.

Magnetic Press has certainly established itself as one of the top new companies in recent years, and while the Darby POp material is a little far afield from their French material, safety in numbers!

Woot, now this is cool. The amazing artists Bengal and Tony Sandoval will be appearing at the Magnetic Press Booth (#5534) and many cool books will be on display. In case you’ve missed it, Magnetic has turned out some of the best looking books over the last year—Love The Tiger to name just one—and this booth is well worth checking out. Deets:
 
SIGNING AND EVENT SCHEDULE  
WEDNESDAY (Preview Night):
6:00pm  – 9:00pm BE THE FIRST TO GET YOUR HANDS ON OUR NEW STUFF!

THURSDAY:
12:00pm  – 1:00pm Catch TOM DELONGE (Poet Anderson, Blink-182, Angels&Airwaves) on CBR’s streaming “Con Yacht” channel! (online)
3:30pm  – 4:30pm DAVE DORMAN (Wasted Lands) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
5:00pm – 6:00pm: FRANCISCO HERERRA (Bitten) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
 
FRIDAY:
11:00am – 12:00pm: MP Publisher MIKE KENNEDY will be a panelist on PUBLISHERS WEEKLY’s PANEL “THE FRENCH COMIC INVASION” (room 29AB) more info here
1:00pm – 2:00pm: DAVE DORMAN (Wasted Lands) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
2:30pm – 4:30pm: TONY SANDOVAL (Doomboy) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
5:00 – 6:00pm – FRANCISCO HERERRA (Bitten) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
8:00pm – 10:00pm: MAGNETIC GOES TO THE EISNER’S!!! (Wish us luck!)
 
SATURDAY:
12:00pm – 1:00pm: DAVE DORMAN (Wasted Lands) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
1:15pm – 2:30pm: TOM DELONGE INTERVIEW & SIGNING (The Nerdist, Petco Park)
1:30pm – 2:30pm: FRANCISCO HERERRA (Bitten) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
3:00pm – 5:00pm: TONY SANDOVAL (Doomboy) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
5:30pm – 7:30pm: BENGAL (Naja, Meka, Luminae, Cassyno) SIGNING (Magnetic Booth)
8:00pm – 9:00pm: MAGNETIC PRESS PANEL “2015 AND BEYOND PREVIEW” (Room 28DE) more info here
 
SUNDAY:
11:30am – 1:30pm: BENGAL (Naja, Meka, Luminae, Cassyno) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
1:00pm – 3:00pm: TONY SANDOVAL (Doomboy) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)
3:00pm – 4:00pm: DAVE DORMAN (Wasted Lands) SIGNING (Magnetic booth)

THE MAGNETIC PRESS PANEL:
Saturday, July 11 • 8:00pm – 9:00pm
ROOM 28DC
Join us for this year’s ridiculously star studded Magnetic Press panel and hear all about what we have lined up for YEAR TWO. Join Magnetic Press Publisher MIKE KENNEDY and a murderers row of talent, including POET ANDERSON creator and multi-platinum recording artist TOM DELONGE (Blink-182, Angels & Airwaves), along with co-writer BEN KULL and NY Times best-selling author SUZANNE YOUNG, talking about the Poet universe and its many upcoming facets!  We also welcome superstar illustrator BENGAL (Batgirl, Naja, Cassyno) to SDCC for the first time, along with 2015 Eisner Nominees TONY SANDOVAL (Doomboy) and DAVE DORMAN (Wasted Lands Omnibus).  Also appearing will be FRANCISCO HERRERA (Bitten) and Euro-comics magnate and author PIERRE PAQUET (A Glance Backward)!
 
Here’s a little tease of YEAR TWO titles get you in the mood:



 CONVENTION EXCLUSIVES & DEBUTS:
THE WORLD OF CASSYNO PLAYING CARDS and GAME BOX with WORLD BOOK OF LORE


Beyond the plains of Collier Bluff and the glistening towers of Goldstaxx lies the land of Cassyno, a world of dark fantasy, magic, and games of chance created by French comic illustrator and concept artist Bengal. Far from just another deck of playing cards, this set is as much a gallery of original character art as it is the fantastic setting for numerous stories of deep mythology, magical intrigue, and medieval espionage, between four unique kingdoms. Alice in Wonderland meets Game of Thrones.


Featuring 54 original illustrations unique to each card in the deck (including 2 Jokers). The 64 page World Book includes character lore, world history, and rules for seven unique games you can play with this original deck of cards!

ONLY 30 GAME BOXES and 48 SINGLE DECKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT SDCC!

Also available in limited quantities:CASSYNO ROYALS 8-plate lithograph portfolio!  Only 15 will be available at SDCC!!


BENGAL’S COSPLAY GIRLS PLAYING CARDS

A complete deck of 56 cards featuring a selection of never-before published works from Bengal’s Griseline sketch collection. Each card features a different girl in a different costume design, some of them familiar, others wholly original.
THIS ITEM IS LIMITED TO ONLY A SINGLE PRINT RUN of 500! WE WILL ONLY HAVE 50 AT SDCC!

Stay Tuned to learn about our SDCC COSPLAY COMPETITION to win an exclusive deck signed by BENGAL!

Also available in limited quantities:BENGAL’S COSPLAY GIRLS 6-plate lithograph portfolio!  Only 30 will be available at SDCC!!


BITTEN: THE FULL MOON BOOK

EXTRA-LIMITED Signed Book and Animation Cel
This is an EXTRA-LIMITED, unique B/W cover edition of the BITTEN: FULL MOON ART BOOK, which includes an EXCLUSIVE ANIMATION CEL and BACKGROUND PRINT byFRANCISCO HERRERA! ONLY 250 PRINTED!


THE SHADOW GAMBIT : A Basil & Moebius Adventure vol.2

SPECIAL ADVANCE BUNDLE
The second volume in the Basil & Moebius graphic novel series makes an advance debut at SDCC, a month ahead of stores!  This time, the thieving duo chase down ninjas, sunken uBoats, and Nazi UFOs!  We will only have limited quantities of volumes 1 and 2 at our booth at a special bundled price!

Magnetic Press launched earlier this year bringing some top-notch French comics to the US market and they’re not only still here, they are expanding to Chinese comics with DAOMU, which adapts the popular novel series by Chinese author Xu “Kennedy” Lei, who’s knwn as China’s Stephen King.  How popular is this series? The first novel, which forms the basis of the graphic novel has sold three million copies as of 2010 with an additional 20 million copies on the black market. I didn’t know there was a lack market for novels but it’s a thrilling world.

The GN is the work of Concept Art House and artist Ken Chou, and follows young Chinese American Sean Wu as he gets involved with a mysterious and legendary band of grave robbers.

The book is a joint production with Evertold Inc, which is run by James Zhang and Matthew Le Merle.

“Daomu is an enormous phenomenon across China with tens of millions of fans clamoring for more books, comics, films and TV adaptions of the characters and their adventures,” says James Zhang of Evertold, who brought the project into Evertold.  “The moment I heard about the books and spoke with the author, Kennedy, I was convinced that this amazing novel would resonate with readers around the world.  With this first graphic comic collection let the journey begin.”

Here’s a trailer.

And some art:

by Zachary Clemente

MAGNETIC PRESS TO PUBLISH “POET”
COMIC BOOK SERIES BY TOM DELONGE

Magnetic Press announced today that they are producing and publishing an original graphic novel series entitled “POET,” created by multi-platinum recording artist and producer Tom DeLonge.  DeLonge, best known as the co-founder and frontman for the legendary punk-pop group Blink-182 and the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves, created the sci-fi fantasy adventure focusing on Poet Anderson, a “Dream Walker” who roams the realm of dreams, protecting sleepers from dark terrors that threaten to cross over into the waking world.  Produced in conjunction with the upcoming release of the new Angels & Airwaves album, “THE DREAM WALKER,” the POET comic series will serve as a prequel introduction to the universe.

In addition to the comic series, DeLonge’s production company To The Stars has produced a feature-quality animated short film that will premiere as an Official Selection of the 2014 Toronto International ShortFilm Festival, and debut publicly with the Angels & Airwavesalbum release on December 9th. A trailer for the animated short was released through INDIEwire yesterday, and can be seen here:

The POET comic series will introduce the main character, Jonas Anderson, an imaginative slacker teen who discovers an innate ability to lucid dream, opening the doors to an entire universe of wonders and dangers that effect his waking life in ways that will define his fate forever.  With a story by DeLonge and Ben Kull (Mission Hill, The Oblongs), the series will be illustrated by award-winning artist Djet Stéphane, with covers by several comic industry pillars, including Gerald Parel (Iron Man, Captain America) and Bengal (Naja, Avengers).

“The Dream Walker” album will serve as a concept soundtrack, with songs and tracks exploring facets of lucid dreaming and the Poet universe.  The first track, “Paralyzed”, premiered on Rolling Stone and rocketed onto the Top 10 on iTunes’s Alternative Chart.  A full-length feature film is also in pre-production, as well as a novelization and various iconic collectibles and attire.  The comic book publishing opportunity was brought to Magnetic Press on behalf of To The Stars by Russell Binder at Striker Entertainment, who represents the brand’s entertainment interests.

For more information about the POET series, please visit www.magnetic-press.com.

For more information about Angels and Airwaves, visit www.angelsandairwaves.com.

Magnetic Press continues its mission to bring a bunch of great looking French comics to the US with announcement they’ll b publishing Tony Sandoval’s DOOMBOY, an official selection at the 2012 Festival d’Angouleme and winner of the “Coup de Coeur” Youth Jury prize. Magnatic’s first ever English edition will be out in September.

The story concerns an ordinary teenage boy who loves metal music. After his girlfriend dies, he becomes Doomboy, and plays heartfelt music to her. But when other people hear this music, “Doomboy” becomes a legend.

Sandoval is known for his other books Nocturno, The Corpse And The Couch, and his most recent work, The Sea Serpent.

As you can see from the six page preview below, Sandoval’s work, in addition to being gorgeous, is a teeny bit reminiscent of the recent hit Beautiful Darkness. French comics have been a hard sell in the US for a long time, but I think that is changing quickly because of more comics in a more up to date style.

More information is available at the Magnetic website.