by Jeremy Mohler | Apr 25, 2017 | announcement, graphic novels |
KANSAS, UNITED STATES (26th April, 2017) —
On the 26th April, Ragnarok Publications will launch a Kickstarter campaign for a reimagining of Warlock 5. Originally created by Gordon Derry & Denis Beauvais, Warlock 5 was published by Barry Blair, a Canadian comic book publisher, artist and writer, known for launching Aircel Comics in the 1980s. CULLEN BUNN and JIMMY Z JOHNSTON co-write this relaunched fantasy adventure while JEFFREY EDWARDS takes on the artwork with colors by ANDY POOLE.
The campaign seeks to fund the reinvention of this classic fantasy masterpiece, full of rivalry, betrayal, magic, dragons, and killer robots. The goal is to create a 60-page full-color original graphic novel with an entrancing action-packed narrative that will please both newcomers and fans of the early series.
This project is part of The Barry Blair Library, which provides a collection of approximately 300 issues and over 6000 pages of content collected from over a half-dozen publishers that Blair worked on through the 1980s and 90s. Prepare yourself to read works such as “Blood N Guts“, “Demon Hunter“, “Dragonring“, “Elflord” and “Gun Fury” for the first time in digital format.
Cullen & Johnston keep the story faithful to Blair’s work, while Edwards illustrates the most exhilarating multiverse scenes, all brought to life by Poole’s colors.
The new Warlock 5 series is something every comic fan will want.
# # #
Ragnarok Publications, founded in 2013 by Joseph Martin and Tim Marquitz, publishes genre fiction and has released about 50 titles from dozens of authors. They specialize in genre fiction and can be reached at www.ragnarokpub.com. Outland Entertainment was founded as a creative services company in 2008 by Jeremy Mohler. Since then, Outland has worked for a wide variety of clients across the world. Outland specializes in assembling creative teams and managing projects. Contact them via their site form or go to www.outlandentertainment.com. For more information, contact Gwendolyn Nix at g.nix@ragnarokpub.com or Susana Grilo at s.grilo@ragnarokpub.com
by Jeremy Mohler | Jul 6, 2015 | graphic novels |
Hello folks!
The next Kickstarter project we’re in the middle of running is for the continuation of Barry Blair’s fantasy epic, Elflord. Being closest to Barry and his projects, Mat Nastos is the mastermind behind the writing. Tony Vassallo is handling all the pencils, Sian Mandrake on the colors, and Ed Dukeshire on letters.
This is an outstanding team we’ve got on this book and it’s turning out amazing. So seriously, go check it out and help us fund it!
Here’s the video about the Kickstarter!
You can also check out the first ten lettered pages below!
And please, ask questions and let us know what you think!
by Jeremy Mohler | Jun 15, 2015 | announcement |
The new series of ELFLORD is coming to Kickstarter Tomorrow!
Barry Blair’s fantasy baby is growing into an insanely action-packed new comic book series from Outland Entertainment.
Written by Mat Nastos – who worked closely with Barry Blair to start this new series – and featuring artwork from Tony Vassallo, this project is part of Outland Entertainment‘s venture: The Barry Blair Library .
Outland Entertainment will provide a collection of approximately 300 issues and over 6000 pages of content collected from over a half-dozen publishers that Barry worked on through the 1980’s and 90’s. Prepare yourself to read works such as “Blood N Guts“, “Demon Hunter“, “Dragonring“, “Elflord” and “Gun Fury” for the first time in digital format.
But we want to go further and continue Barry Blair’s legacy, hence the new ELFLORD series crowdfunding campaign. We want to give YOU – the ultimate Barry Blair fan – and also YOU – who just read his name for the first time – the chance to (re)discover his works and be amazed by the kickass new series he has inspired.
Mat Nastos Kickstarter-exclusive Variant Cover to Elflord #1. Colored by Jeremy Mohler.
Mat Nastos keeps the story faithful to Blair’s work, while Tony Vassallo illustrates the most exhilarating battle scenes all brought to life by Sian Mandrake‘s colors.
The new ELFLORD series is something every comic fan will not want to miss!
So mark your calendars: the campaign starts this Tuesday, the 16th June.
Tell your friends! And while you’re at it, share it with everyone you know!
by Jeremy Mohler | May 29, 2015 | guest post |
Compared to some, Barry Blair had a relatively short career in comics, but it would be an important one. As a writer and artist, Blair was known for producing manga-styled comics through Aircel Comics such as Elflord, Samurai, Dragonring, Warlock 5 and Blood ‘N’ Guts. He passed away in 2010, leaving behind a legacy of comics that we are going to discuss over the new couple of months. In this first column, we are going to introduce Blair’s background and introduce some of the comics that he produced, and that Outland Entertainment is going to be reintroducing to comics fans.
The history of comics is filled with interesting stories of how people became comic publishers. The birth of Aircel Comics is one of those interesting stories. Initially the Canadian company was known as Aircel Insulation, and when the loss of a governmentcontract threatened to dissolve the company Blair convinced the owner to shift the company’s emphasis from producing insulation to producing comics. In 1985 Aircel began publishing, jumping in just as the black and white comics boom ushered in by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was starting.
As Aircel would produce some quality books like Blair’s Elflord and Warlock 5 that would garner attention and an audience. Unfortunately this boom almost as quickly went bust and by 1988 Aircel Comics was having financial troubles. In order to alleviate these financial troubles, Blair would enter into a partnership with Malibu Comics that saw Aircel merge with Malibu imprint Eternity Comics, even though both would still exist as imprints. Malibu is probably best known as the publisher of the initial wave of Image Comics in 1992.
It was under the ownership of Malibu that Aircel would produce its biggest and lasting hit: Lowell Cunningham’s Men In Black. That Men In Black. Although the comic did not strongly resemble its media offspring, it did spawn the movie and Saturday morning cartoon franchise. The comic was much darker in tone than the movies, and also featured paranormal elements like werewolves and vampire in addition to the aliens that would take center stage in the movies. Blair would edit the comics.
Talking a little about Blair’s comics that we will be discussing in the coming columns. Elflord was a fantasy series strong influences and inspired by Elfquest by Richard and Wendy Pini. In fact, eventually Blair would work for Warp Graphics on various Elfquest titles. This series was high fantasy with a light touch, even though darkness lurked beneath the surface of the stories. Dragonring was a high octane pulp adventure strip, with elements of horror and science fiction. Warlock 5 was a blend of fantasy and science fiction and multi-world travel. All of these comics filtered through Blair’s unique perspectives, as we will see through this column as we explore them and other of his works.
In January of 2010, Barry Blair died of an undiagnosed brain aneurysm. His creations live beyond him, an ongoing testament to his creativity, join us as we explore the worlds of his creation.
This is the 1st of our brand new series of guest posts. These columns will focus on Barry Blair‘s legacy and are brought to you by Christopher Helton.
Christopher Helton writes about pop culture, comics and gaming at his long-running Dorkland! blog, and as a writer for the Bleeding Cool website.
by Jeremy Mohler | Mar 9, 2015 | preview |
Outland Entertainment recently announced the release of The Barry Blair Library of comics and I was fortunate enough to get to design a logo for the launch.
You can read all about it here:
https://outlandentertainment.com/outland-entertainment-brings-collection-of-barry-blairs-comics-to-the-digital-age/
The main thing I needed to consider before I started was how the BBL logo would be incorporated with the current line of OE comic book properties and what that treatment would look like since we had already come up with a layout for the OE line.
Here’s a recent cover for MARS 2577 with the OE footer treatment.
We wanted the BBL logo to balance out with the Outland Entertainment logo, so I decided to go with circular layout. I chose a font similar to the font used in the OE logo to keep a consistent look across the brand, but I also needed to come up with something uniquely it‘s own to reflect the uniqueness of the books and wholly set the logo apart. The fonts I used are ITC Franklin Gothic Heavy and Acropolis. I liked the idea of the using the letter “B” back-to-back to represent the “Barry Blair” in the logo. I tried this with a bunch of dierent fonts and settled on Acropolis because I felt it formed a unique looking letter form. A sigil that lead me to think it represented a unique language all of it’s own, much like Barry and the catalog of comics he created.
Here are couple of the final looks I came up with.
I submitted these for approval and the final logo was approved.
Here‘s what the cover treatment looks like on the newly announced ELFLORD title.
Read all about ELFLORD here: https://outlandentertainment.com/project/elflord/
Until next time…keep on, keepin’ on.
-Ed
by Jeremy Mohler | Mar 3, 2015 | announcement, graphic novels |
Press Release: Outland Entertainment brings a collection of Barry Blair’s comics to the digital age
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUMMARY: Outland Entertainment brings a collection of Barry Blair’s comics to the digital age for the first time.
TOPEKA, KANSAS, March 3, 2015 — Outland Entertainment is pleased to announce the release of a collection of Barry Blair‘s comics in digital format for the first time since the 90’s. “The Barry Blair Library” will include approximately 300 issues and over 6000 pages of content collected from over a half-dozen publishers that Barry worked within the 1980’s and 90’s. This includes comics from Aircel, Nightwynd, Davdez Arts, WARP Graphics, and Sirius comics to name a few.
“I can’t begin to explain my excitement to have Outland involved in helping to get Barry’s work back out into the world. He created, wrote, drew, and published some really amazing material, much of which was revolutionary in comics at the time,” states Outland Entertainment’s Jeremy Mohler, “it’s a shame that it hasn’t been available all these years and it’s going to be a pleasure to help get it back out into the world.”
“Blood N Guts“, “Demon Hunter“, “Dragonring“, “Elflord” and “Gun Fury” are the first titles you can look forward to (re)discover. You can currently purchase all the number one issues of these series over at the Outland Entertainment website .
In addition to republishing the out-of-print material, Outland will also be working closely with Mat Nastos, the license owner, to reboot select properties. The rebooted properties will start with a new Elflord series, which will premiere as a Kickstarter in late March and featuring a new story from Mat Nastos and artwork from Tony Vassallo and Pedro Figue.
Artwork by Tony Vassallo and Pedro Figue.
It will be followed by a Dragonforce reboot later in the year.
“Nothing could please me more than having the chance to help make this new announcement. One of the promises I made to Barry when he passed the rights to his work to me back in 2008 was that I would treat them like my own children. That I would make sure they were handled with the respect and care they deserved. This partnership with Outland Entertainment allows me to uphold that promise and give Barry’s fan-favorite creations the opportunity to shine once more. “Hawk”, “Windblade”, “Kohl Drake”, and all of Barry’s lost children couldn’t hope for a better home than with the fine folks at Outland,” Mat Nastos says.
Whether you are an avid fan who owns all the printed editions or you are new to Barry Blair‘s work, the digital versions will not only preserve a cult comic library but will also provide you an easier way to have all your favorite comics with you at all times.
New issues will be made available monthly.
For more details, visit outlandentertainment.com or The Barry Blair Library page.
