Disney's Presence at Comic-Con 2004

[MouseEars07]

Does anybody know if theres any disney-related things to do there?
thanks

[Mad Monkey 7]

Yes,

Disney will have booth hyping the Increbiles with Brad Bird (Director) and a special poster for guest. Also alot of Disney comics to look at.

[screw on head]

As Mad Monkey 7 said, there's a nice incentive for you lucky San Diego goers...

Brad Bird got Mike Mignola, the genius artist of Hellboy, to draw a limited edition Incredibles poster for those in attendance to the con.

So if you're one of the lucky few that gets one, well, lucky you . I really wish I was going this year...

[Mad Monkey 7]

Me too, I wanted to go but something came up. I have never went to the Comic-Con, I hope too someday. Disney will proably show other animation as well because Comic-Con is more than comics, it is animation, movie, and toys as well. I hope that Disney say something about their plans for the muppets at the con. I know that the Muppet "Wizard Of Oz" made for tv movie going into production this sept for Spring 2005 release on the Wonderful World of Disney.

[Tommy Lawson]

From http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/artic...le.php?ID=1001 , and Yahoo News, Disney is present at Comic-Con, displaying a certain Italian comic book series I'm sure we're all aware of by now, as well as another new one:

Disney will make its first official display at the Con, touting its comics and youth publishing slate, which ranges from classics such as "Uncle Scrooge" to popular newcomers "W.I.T.C.H." and "Kylion." Buena Vista will offer a peek at films "The Incredibles" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

I tell you one thing, looking at the news page, I'm disappointed there isn't more coverage of Disney's presence at the event. It's all Time Warner related stuff it looks like on the main news page. There's still today and tomorrow to go though, so hopefully we will hear something about Disney's American plans for W.I.T.C.H. and other comic book series.

[loyalheart]

im reading the jimhill article and he went off topic
he mentions monkey team and then goes "speaking of spongebob" and never came back..lol

[TnAdct1]

Disney's doing a film version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?

[tucsoncoyote]

Disney's doing a film version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?

and you know what TnAdct1, Let's hope that if they do a Film version of this funny British comedy that was written by Douglas Adams, they put in a really famous line that could be construed in a whole new meaning..

"So long, and thanks for all the Fish..."

(It's what the a Dolphin said before it fled Earth, but it was misconstrued by us humans as a backflip through a hoop, while the Dolphin whistled "The Star Spangled Banner.")

go figure...

[Tommy Lawson]

This is from Comicon.com. Some very interesting info here, although if the W.I.T.C.H. TV show is supposed to premiere in Europe on September, then why the heck do they appear to be showing images from the trailer on clubwitch.com with the still comic images?

BY BRIAN J. APODACA
Stephen Miller, of Disney Publishing Worldwide, started off the presentation with a discussion of the global reach of Disney Comics and Publications. "Many of you are probably aware of our published comics here in America, but there's an international group here, including our group from Milan."

Allesandro Belloni, direct from Europe, took the lead from Miller and addressed the crowd. "We at Disney Worldwide - we sell a lot of comics - over 165 million copies of our comics are sold worldwide."

Miller and Belloni then discussed some of the changes in recent years. In 1999, the strategy for Disney changed. "No longer are we just adapting TV and Movie-related projects into comics - We're moving into developing new characters and ideas in Disney comics themselves."

They then went on to say that they're always looking for new talents - "to find new artists, new ideas for original franchises and products."

Belloni continued, "Today, we're presenting the creative approach behind our new projects." Roberto Santillo echoed this analysis, expanding, "The purpose of this presentation is to present the VARIETY of comics we're producing all over the world - It's a GREAT opportunity for new artists to develop properties to match their style or personalities."

Guido Frazzini, Managing Editor, Children's Global Magazine Group, chimed in regarding the new direction. "Talking about these characters - the 'Evergreen' characters, Mickey, Donald, and so on - We're using them in new ways. Obviously, we want to respect the creators' original concept. We're very careful to respect what has come before." He also mentioned that they're using digital airbrushing in "quite a sophisticated way."

An example of a film property-turned-comic in Europe would be that of "Home on the Range." "We thought this project was perfect for the comics. So we put out a graphic novel. We've shared techniques with the filmmakers - for instance, for the backgrounds we've used techniques very much like those of the animators for the original film."

Then they briefly went over the Lilo & Stitch comics which have been released overseas. "For the Lilo & Stitch comics - initially, we worked with storyboarding, much like it's done in the movies."

The main emphasis here was that they've done everything possible to stay true to the movies, yet translate it in a workable fashion into comics' form.

Two other items of interest mentioned were the Brother Bear and Incredibles graphic novels.

Frazzini stressed the importance of artists working for Disney to have a great deal of flexibility with different styles and projects. "Artists have to be ready to go from Children's properties, to a more mature target audience - for instance, a teen property."

Kim Possible is another TV property which has undergone the Graphic Novel transformation. They mentioned that a lot of the style for it was "Very '50s," being sure to say that the comics version will have a great degree of "added variety to the backgrounds."

Guido Frazzini then cued up an introductory video for WITCH, a property that's had great success in Europe and will soon be headed for the states. They also broke the news of other impending WITCH products, including WITCH books and WITCH Online.

Regarding WITCH: "In this case, we're starting from scratch -- Its been a big success, a big franchise." This was an example of a property which began in the comics, moving into television and other media.

The video itself displayed several still images from the comics, with music and limited motion amplifying the action. The main characters are all young girls, and it has a touch of Harry Potter to it. It was noted that some of the young adult books for WITCH have outsold Potter (at times) in Europe.

Another project, Monster Allergy, is set to roll out soon, with "a mixture of spookiness and humor," according to one panel member.

Santillo then discussed Academia Disney, the training academy in Europe, started 10 years ago as a Disney official training center (in Milan). He stressed that its not a place to learn how to draw, rather a place to teach artists a certain mentality - "Working to establish a flexibility and creativity with Disney artists."
Gianfranco Cordara then spoke about the search for new talent: "What we want to do is to review individuals - new projects from around the world; we're definitely looking for new ideas and concepts."
He then listed off three things which they at Disney Worldwide are specifically looking for:
1) To take an already published idea, and publish it worldwide.
2) A brand-new original concept - "Something that could be exciting for us, to transform it into not just a comic, but franchise for millions."
3) "It's very important to have a high-quality standard - We recruit artists for pre-existing properties."

He then added another important part of pitching ideas to Disney: "We want to go to a new audience - not just teenagers, but for a general audience as well."

Stephen Miller then interjected with some additional thoughts. "We're now working with our new properties - with those who've created new content, and brought it around the world in a very short time."
Returning to WITCH, Miller mentioned that girls from 8-12 really responded to it. "Books that were based on WITCH went to the top of the Children's bestseller lists in different parts of the world." There is a WITCH television series in production. "It will be coming to the U.S. next year in Late January - We've been talking to the games group at Disney as far as games for new platforms as well."

According to Miller, KYLION is the next rollout series after WITCH. "Before that comes out, be sure to look for the WITCH TV Series next January, and check the WITCH website at www.clubwitch.com."

Tonya Agurto covered the licensing aspect of the panel. "There are several ways to deliver comic content worldwide. We like to call people partners instead of licensees."

There are three current partners for Disney in the comics world:

Dark Horse Comics will do a four-part INCREDIBLES comics series, with a Trade Paperback to be released in September with the DVD release of the film.

TOKYOPOP will be doing a lot of "Cinemanga" with Disney. "They started off with Lizzie Mcguire. Chicken Little, an upcoming film, will have a "Cinemanga" as well as The Princess Diaries 2 and the Pirates of the Caribbean Sequel.

Steve Behling, with Disney Adventures, notified the audience of the upcoming plans for the magazine. "For a while now we've had two editions a year of a special issue focusing entirely on comics' stories." According to Behling, Disney adventures will soon expand to four of those special editions per year, due to the overwhelming success.

The Question and Answer Session.
Q: If material is submitted to teens, are you worried about the title, "WITCH?"
A: Everything we do is consistent with values of the company. We've had no problems or backlash with title, and its actually sold really well at large retailers in various areas.

Q: When will some of the overseas content find its way to the U.S.?
A: The WITCH graphic novel will be released in the United States next year. Licensees in the U.S. will be bringing a lot of our new comic content to the states very soon.

Q: With WITCH, the Japanese version was redrawn in a manga style - why is that?
A: The artist we brought in for the Japanese Editions brought a different pace and sensibility to it, specifically for the Japanese Market.

Q: Can American artists or artists from other countries go to Italy to train at the Disney Academy?
A: Now we are an international entity - Thanks to the new website, its growing by leaps and bounds. We're trying to teach the Disney Philosophy and Approach, so bringing in talent from overseas is another step that we're open to.

Q: In the American release of some of the books, I couldn't find the name of the artist or the author - why is that?
A: It's our philosophy to always credit the artists and there may have been an oversight! Thank you for noticing that.

Q: You talked about WITCH and KYLION - can you talk about any new projects coming out beyond that?
A: We are working on new projects for '05 and '06. For DISNEY ADVENTURES, we have new projects that we aren't at liberty to discuss.

Q: Anything in the works for regular Monthly Disney comics?
A: Gemstone is doing a monthly, and Dark Horse produces monthlies, but they usually are limited series' in the case of Dark Horse.

[RayChuang]

Tommy,

Looks like I have to put in my €0.02 in regards to that article! :anime:

First of all, SIP Animation has yet to show any of the completed W.i.t.c.h. animated series episodes to anyone except a very few select people--probably very few outside the Disney organization, too. I don't think we'll see the first previews for W.i.t.c.h. to be shown on European television until at least middle to late August 2004.

Secondly, the fact that in the article--

Guido Frazzini then cued up an introductory video for WITCH, a property that's had great success in Europe and will soon be headed for the states. They also broke the news of other impending WITCH products, including WITCH books and WITCH Online.

--means we will soon be seeing a MASSIVE change to the Disney USA W.i.t.c.h. website, probably changing to the same website design used on the W.i.t.c.h. Italian website (which is also the basis for the W.i.t.c.h. websites in French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and so on). The change could happen as early as late this year.

Thirdly, KYLION just started published about two months ago in Italy, with European rollout in other languages starting this September. From what I've read on Google searches, KYLION is aimed at both genders in the 12-16 range, and it appears that the translation to English could happen quite fast, possibly as early as early 2005. Also, it appears that Disney has already started preliminary development work for a KYLION animated TV series, too.

I personally think that despite the obvious gripes at Michael Eisner's control of Disney, it appears that Eisner has properly realized what a gold mine the company has in Disney Worldwide Publishing (Italia). You can imagine many of DWP Italia's properties being translated for the US market, especially the stories featuring classic Disney characters from Topolino and the highly-original version of Donald Duck as superhero in PK. Can you imagine an animated feature based on PK a few years from now?

[MouseEars07]

i also think that Disney has a gold mine in the comic world; I'm so excited about the Kylion franchise; it looks really new and fresh; hopefully they can turn "Monster Allegy" and "Kylion" into good tv series!

[sag_2002]

So now it's JANUARY '05 for W.i.t.c.h.'s animated debut. Awesome.

[Tommy Lawson]

So now it's JANUARY '05 for W.i.t.c.h.'s animated debut. Awesome.

I personally think they just estimated when it will actually premiere. Knowing ABC Family's track record, I fully expect them to alter and change around stuff around the time of its debut.

[loyalheart]

im kinda confused now what is kylion and monster's allergy about?

[Fone Bone]

Excited about more Gemstone Comics but I wish they had said something about the last story Carl Barks wrote before he died. Dona Rosa and William Van Horn also deserve mad props.

I'll have to start collecting the Dark Horse graphic novels.