Film and TV producer Jason Netter’s Kickstart Entertainment has been associated with some of the biggest comic-based productions in movies and TV. We had a chance to talk to him at Comic-Con about his aggressive new plans for publishing graphic novels (see “Kickstart Comics”).
Why did you start a comics division?
We’ve been working with comic books for eight to ten years now. We love the medium; we love the creators. One of the things that we’ve been frustrated with--sometimes we find it hard to find books; so we were trying to put a situation together where we could get books out to a bigger audience and we were able to put a deal together with retailers and hopefully that’s what’s going to happen.
How are you finding properties?
We’re taking pitches from creators, from
How did you get hooked up with Jimmy Palmiotti and Larry Young [the editors]?
We’ve known both of them for the last 10 years. We’ve done Painkiller Jane with Jimmy, among other things; and we’ve done The Pro with Jimmy when we shot the pilot for Spike TV; and then we published two of his books. We did Back to Brooklyn that he did with Garth Ennis and we did Random Acts of Violence which he did with Justin Gray. And then we’ve been involved with Larry in different projects. We have Couriers set up as a feature and we shot another property of his, Nobody, a pilot for ABC Family and we have Hench with Danny McBride at Warner Bros. So that’s our working relationship with those guys.
You mentioned working relationships with retailers. Walmart was in the initial announcement—are there others?
We’re trying. We don’t have any deals closed yet, but our idea is that we plan to go through Diamond and all the traditional comic shops. Our other idea is to just see if we can get these books in front of a bigger audience. Walmart, etc., are places with so many stores and so many people walking through on a daily basis, it’s our hope that we’ll expose a whole new audience.
These are new properties and will be largely unknown to a mass audience. How do you think that will work out--to introduce new properties to a mass audience?
I think it’s hard. I’m not sure that we’ve identified the best way to try to market these books. Obviously where they’re located and the display will be a big part of it, if we’re trying to get people who are just walking through the store, but we’re going to do interviews and approach the Websites with the creators and just try to get the word out the best we can.
Where will your books be racked in Walmart?
I’m not sure that’s totally been decided yet.
What’s the package going to be like? Is there going to be a standard page count and format?
Within a pretty small range. All the books will be between 80 and 95 pages of content; all stand-alone, with a beginning, middle and end; all full color books; and all original ideas.
Do you know the price point, or range of prices?
Not yet. We haven’t figured that out either.
You announced a fairly aggressive schedule--24 books in six months. Is that a pace you intend to keep up?
I’m not sure we have total clarity on what our rollout plan is. We definitely know we’re making 24 to start with. We’re launching four at the end of October, and then four again in November. That, as of now, is our plan.
What are you most excited about with this project?
I think it’s the opportunity to make good comic books. We’ve really enjoyed working with comic creators over the years and we really like the medium and we just feel blessed we have the opportunity to be able to put together a deal that enables us to do 24 original properties and get to work with people we want to work with.
