Mark Millar's CLINT

[Emperor]

Well that anthology from Mark Millar has now been announced:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/04/clint-magazine-mark-millars-new-monthly-anthology-includes-kick-ass-sequel/

As previous discussed here:

www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,25908.0.html
www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,28305.0.html

I'm sure things like:

It's going to be a massive venture and one aimed almost entirely at the UK. If people in the US want a copy that's great, but this is being put together with casual British readers in mind, a combination of comic-books, interviews and features for 16-30 year old men

It may be carefully worded so people can't say "what about... 2000AD/Viz/etc?" but it does rather ignore the Megazine

Still... I'll be picking up a copy as it could well be an important development in British comics.

[Alski]

have to say, if he actually manages all this it sounds like a real breakthrough for Uk comics.

[Jim_Campbell]

As I said on the old thread: a high-profile UK comic launch with the potential to achieve real penetration of the high street market? Hard pressed to see a downside for British comics, TBH.

Cheers!

Jim

[Buddy]

Sounds like DEADLINE.

[Jim_Campbell]

Sounds like DEADLINE.

I wrote a business plan for pretty much this exact product in 2000 -- "Deadline but less reliant on humour strips". I was confident I could make it work, but what I couldn't do was raise the £250,000 in launch costs, nor persuade a bank to let me start up a business that would be £500,000 in a hole before a single penny of revenue materialized.

Those numbers will be quite a lot larger by now, but Millar's name has the weight to get backers on board and -- I would imagine -- he has pretty deep pockets of his own.

Cheers!

Jim

[Emperor]

Plus Titan Magazines have a long series of successes with licensed properties so they have 15 years worth contacts and resources to get this right into newsagents across the land (an distribution can make or break this kind of thing too, see for example The DFC):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Magazines

As I said on the old thread: a high-profile UK comic launch with the potential to achieve real penetration of the high street market? Hard pressed to see a downside for British comics, TBH.

The trickle down effect if this is a success could be great for all of us here - if it gets people interested in checking out what is available then 2000AD would be the obvious next place to look.

I am also reminded of the success of Viz - in the late eighties/early nineties there must have been half a dozen titles launched to cash in on this. They all crashed an burned but I suspect people are a bit more canny than the obvious cash-in and it could be the wave of publicity is large for another couple of titles to capitalise on. Of course, it might end up like the Eighties boom that saw Deadline, Toxic! and Crisis but even then we ended up with some great and influential comics, even if they aren't with us today.

So fingers and toes crossed.

[JOE SOAP]

a combination of comic-books, interviews and features for 16-30 year old men

That counts me out then.

[Leigh S]

Well no one slaged off Mark Millars 2000ad work more than me, but I have to say good on him.... well I did til I saw RTDs name in the credits! 

No.. must resist... This is a bold move, and you can't help but applaud it.. .go go  Millar and er... go go RTD!

(Well there's a sentence I never thought I'd see, let alone write!)

[Leigh S]

Hmm - Armando Iannuci being involved might even make me buy the darned thing....

[Jim_Campbell]

Umm ... Millar's gone on to say that those names were people he's been steering in the direction of Marvel, not people who are involved with this project.

Cheers!

Jim

[JOE SOAP]

He's quoted as saying "I want this to be edgy and irreverent, the kind of thing guys will be passing around lunch-halls and common rooms

Mark Millar is calling the 100 page magazine "The Eagle for the 21st Century"

Isn't that what 2000AD was/is?

Millar's mag sounds more like "Look-In" for the 21st Century with all those telly people involved.

I'm only being cynical cos it's Millar.

[Proudhuff]

a combination of comic-books, interviews and features for 16-30 year old men

That counts me out then.

and me, sounds a bit like a skud-mag (NUTS, Front, Ad nauseam) with comic strips added

[Emperor]

Hmm - Armando Iannuci being involved might even make me buy the darned thing....

I don't think AI or RTD are in this, Rich seems to have linked this announcement to early ones but Millar says they aren't connected:

PS The news has been slightly mis-reported online with rumours of other writers involved not in the press release, but as these are all emphatically wrong (those people were writers I was pushing into Marvel and another venture I'm working on) and I wanted to make sure the correct info was out there for readers.

http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?showtopic=93109

Also made the Beed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8660718.stm

[Jared Katooie]

If Mark Millar revitalises the British comics industry, then the world may explode from too much irony.

[antodonnell]

Whatever way this goes I'm impressed Mark's giving it a shot. I've liked all his marvel work recently. Can't wait to see this mag. There's is plenty of room for another major UK title.