If money, time, and talent were no object, what kind of comic would you publish? What genre? Without giving away your pitch, how would your company and your comic be different?

Bucking the market trends, I would publish an anthology. A little bit of something in each issue. Straight up superheroes, sci-fi, westerns, horror and romance. All between one cover, at 8 - 10 pages for each story. Maybe with the lead story having 17 - 24 pages.

I think it can work... But that could be why I don't currently publish comics.

Horror. Vampires be the focus. Partly an Old West setting. Of course, that is a script I'm working on right now...

Sci-Fi/superhero. Murder mystery. Far, far in the future, and the murderer is...oh, wait, that is another script I'm working on right now...

Just a random thought -- why not create a whole new genre? The forensic western -- CSI meets Unforgiven.

Situation comedy in black and white with duo-shade tones. Of course it would be self-published monthly.

It's been done on TV. Didn't last long, but it was an interesting show, and I liked it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353867/#comment

Being specific --- Marvel 1942. Multistory issue. Part one, a realistic "Band of Brothers" style treatment of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Part two is a superhero story featuring the heroes and approach of the 1940's era marel comics.

Ooooh. Mebbe we should work together on this one, when YOU make a gazillion dollahs.

Not that John, THAT is a cool idea, also.

I'd self-publish a few stories I had running around my noggin a few years back; one (without giving up too much) is a guy that witnesses the end of everything, but comes by time a little differently than we experience it, so we get to witness things as he discovers them, and as he progresses through them as well. How does this happen? He, literally, is the last person to die when everything in existence ends....

I also had another small pile of stuff in the sci-fi and supah hero genre, so the anthology thing appeals to me greatly.

Actually, I was entirely joking and this wasn't a long cherished dream but a spontaneously lame idea. However, if it were done along the lines of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, by someone who could actually write, it might not be impossible to make it work. I was just funnin' after reading Ian's post.

As for the anthologies -- read the thread "Andrew's Scheme For World Domination #2" for my Scheme #1.

I do have a few Vertigo-esque ideas that would combine, for one, a team of psychics with the espionage genre (ala The Losers) but if I had to be a Big Two whore I'd love to revist Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. For me, the idea of an adventurer entirely without super-powers whose concept can very literally touch on every possible comic book genre seems very appealing to me. Steranko did some of this with his run, but I think there's still quite a bit of potential in the idea, and you could always tell good ol' fashioned war story flashbacks to the Howlin' Commandos era too. I don't recall Steranko touching on the western zombie alien genre in particular.

So how many of you would actively avoid the superhero genre, or have it play a more minor role in the book of your dreams?

I'd be game for that. Given how popular the young adult mystery series used to be in prose -- Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, Three Investigators, etc. -- it seems like there's room on the shelf for something equivalent these days. And why not a comic book?

Actually, minus its being set in Marvel-world, that's the deal with Runaways, of course. I just gave the digests to my twelve-year old niece, who loved them. Loved them -- hasn't stopped talking about them. And it's not the MU tie-ins that hooked her -- that stuff flew right by -- but rather the kids and their situation and what happens between them all. If that exact same story'd been set in a mundane environment, with the kids on the run from white-collar criminals or something, she'd have enjoyed it just the same. Just would have needed, you know, somebody to place it in her hands.

Hey, can anybody tell me the name of Trixie Belden's best friend? You'll win a prize...

D.

Runaways is a great book. I've been trying to get my hands on the second two digests for a while, but Vaughan is one of the more reliable writers out there today. Has anyone read his mainstream stuff on the X-Men? Was wondering whether I should bother with that too.

I'd love to publish a magazine style anthology with all kinds of cool fiction: westerns, sci fi, superheroes, etc...there is a lot of great comic book talent out there with little or no work from the big two that would rock the maisntream: Stern, Gene Colan, Ostrander, etc...

But would it sell? Forget the direct market..something like Heavy Metal on the racks of the 7-11s, newstands etc...how many copies would move per month? Would it be profitable? thats a lot of talent that needs to get paid...would the magazine tank in 6 months or would we be swimming in bills???

What does everyone think? (does Heavy Metal still exist/or sell well? - I know 2000AD and Dredd sell very well in the UK)

I still pick up Heavy Metal once in a while. I don't know how well it sells, but I do see it in LOTS of convenience stores (part of the reason why I keep trying to sell them stories...)

I'ld avoid superhero books. Not because I dislike them, but because there are already so many of them. If I've got unlimited resources I would want to try something different from the norm.

Howzabout the IMWAN ANTHOLOGY! Pieces from the MIGHTY 'MWAN MARCHING SOCIETY!!

I'm sure we have more than enough talent around here for this

"My life story as told by blatent rip-offs of Disney Characters".

Either that or one with a lot of explosions.

Or maybe both.

I would like to publish a regular, ongoing series of the original Teen Titans. Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wondergirl, occasionally Speedy, and Beast Boy.

It would be drawn by Nick Cardy. Have Marv Wolfman or Len Wein write it.

I like the idea of exploding Disney characters.

I wouldn't even need to see a story or anything. Just a shot of Goofy walking down any old street, humming a tune, then stops, says 'Gwarsh!', and explodes.

I'd buy two.

Bump for our newer members.

I'd go with something in the vein of Kirby's Thor/New Gods/Eternals or something in the vein of Planetary/Authority.

I'd love to bring back the 100 pagers that I grew up with. An all new lead story followed by 4 or 5 quality reprints of related material at a bargain price. Those were responsible for sucking me into comics more than any other type when I was growing up.

I loved those. 60 cents for a comic book was considered expensive back in those days.