Tag: interviews

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Dark Horse CEO on Star Wars

ICv2 interviews Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson. He touches a bit on Star Wars and handling franchises:

Media tie-ins seem to be the thing across all businesses these days. Before Dark Horse, I don’t think many companies had that much success with what we call licensed titles. I think the reason for that is that it was basically a financial move on those companies’ parts and I don’t know that the books were always good. They could have slapped a logo on the cover and expect that to sell, and often the work inside the cover wasn’t that great or inspiring. We didn’t approach it that way. Being fans ourselves as opposed to business people, we decided to find properties that we were enthusiastic about. In those early days, Randy [Stradley] and I would plot out stories and bring a writer in, and we’d basically create sequels to the movies and try to do it in an intelligent way. Obviously the fans responded because our licensed books sold huge numbers and still do years later.

The Star Wars stuff is in part one; part two focuses on manga and creators, and part three discusses webcomics, ratings, and plans for the future.

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Indiana Jones headlining new Vanity Fair

IMAGE: Indy 4 in Vanity Fair

Like a select few event movies before it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is getting a sizable spread in Vanity Fair, with the requite Annie Leibovitz photo shoot. There’s also an online-only George Lucas Q&A where he talks quite a bit about Star Wars, including the differences between the two trilogies:

People who are over 40 love [Episodes] IV, V, and VI and hate I, II, and III. Younger people like I, II, and III and don’t like IV, V, and VI, or they like I, II, and III better and think IV, V, and VI are kind of boring and slow. And of course the older people say, “Oh, I, II, and III—it’s too jittery, too fast, too complicated, it’s too digital,” or whatever they want to say. But definitely one generation has grabbed hold of one of them, and the other generation has grabbed hold of the next one.

The magazine ought to be on newsstands now. (via)

ETA: i09 has a rebuttal to George’s comments on why we’ll hate Indy 4. Awww. It’s so cute when they’re young and innocent enough to believe in the great and generous nature of fandom-at-large when confronted with new things.