Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publishing imprint of Dynamic Forces, that primarily publishes adaptations of franchises from other media. These include licensed adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator and RoboCop, and licensed or public domain literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Red Sonja, Tarzan (as Lord of the Jungle), and John Carter of Mars (as Warlord of Mars). They also publish superhero books such as Project Superpowers.
Creators who have produced Dynamite's books include Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Matt Wagner, Garth Ennis, Howard Chaykin, and Frank Miller.
History
Dynamite Entertainment is a comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2005, first producing two Army of Darkness limited series published through Devil's Due Publishing until self-publishing their titles later that year. The first two years saw them adding only a handful of titles like Red Sonja and Xena. After devoting itself to publishing only Army of Darkness, Dynamite came back one year later with Red Sonja, debuting with a 25-cent issue #0. It sold 240,000 copies and #1, the first to sell at a full cover price of $2.99, sold 100,000 in initial orders which cemented Dynamite's position as a force in the American comic book industry. Now Dynamite publishes a current slate of 14â€"20 comic books and 2â€"10 collections per month.
Dynamite Publishing
Dynamite Entertainment focuses primarily on comic book adaptations of existing properties, with most of their original properties being new interpretations of the classic monsters Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman. Currently they hold the rights to publish titles based on films (Army of Darkness, Darkman, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, RoboCop, and Highlander), television series (Xena: Warrior Princess) and literature (Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, and Zorro). They also have a license based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day and writer Simon Furman produced Terminator 2: Infinity and the sequel Terminator: Revolution. Other properties include Buck Rogers, and Sherlock Holmes.
Two additional crossovers have been released through other companies, one through Image Comics in 2005 pitting their monsters against Top Cow published characters Witchblade, the Darkness, Magdalena and Tomb Raider entitled Monster War; and a 2006 crossover between DC Comics' Claw the Unconquered and Red Sonja via WildStorm Productions.
In 2007 Dynamite took over the publication of Garth Ennis' The Boys after it was dropped by WildStorm.
Among their licensed properties are Red Sonja, Army of Darkness, Battlestar Galactica and Lone Ranger.
In 2010 Dynamite began publishing comic books based on The Green Hornet beginning with a miniseries written by Kevin Smith, and followed by Green Hornet: Year One, which was written by Matt Wagner, and another written by Brett Matthews.The Green Hornet.
They are also set to publish new stories featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom.
In May 2010 Dynamite Entertainment acquired the Chaos! Comics' library and all associated assets (with the exception of Lady Death). These include the publishing labels Black Label Graphics, Infinity Comics and the properties Evil Ernie, Smiley The Psychotic Button, Chastity, Purgatori, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon and many more.
In October, 2013, it was announced that Dynamite would relaunch several titles originally published by Gold Key Comics, and that Turok, Magnus: Robot Fighter, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, and Solar: Man of the Atom would be the first titles of the new line.
Titles
Comic books published by Dynamite in the format of ongoing or limited series include:
Public domain
Some of the titles published by Dynamite are based on franchises where the early stories are now in the public domain. In cases where Dynamite does not have a licensing agreement with the related trademark holders (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. for example), Dynamite does not use trademarked terms in the comic book titles.
- Warlord of Mars â€" based on John Carter of Mars
- Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris
- Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom
- Warriors of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the Green Men of Mars
- Dejah of Mars
- Lord of the Jungle â€" based on Tarzan
- Lords of Mars â€" a "Warlord of Mars" / "Lord of the Jungle" crossover
Notes
References
- Dynamite Entertainment at the Grand Comics Database
External links
- Official website
- Dynamite Entertainment at the Comic Book DB
- Manning, Shaun"Dynamite Celebrates Five Years". Comic Book Resources. April 16, 2009