KOMIKWERKS,
IBOOKS INC., STAN LEE AND AMERICA ONLINE ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE TO ADD
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT TO COMICS & ANIME DEPARTMENT ON THE AOL REDTM
SERVICE FOR TEENS
January
28th, 2004
For
immediate release
Contact:
Komikwerks,
LLC
East
Coast
Patrick
Coyle, Co-Founder
617-605-3064
patrick@komikwerks.com
West
Coast
Shannon
Denton, Co-Founder
661-609-2610 shannon@komikwerks.com
ibooks,
Inc.
Byron
Preiss, President
bpreiss@aol.com
Boston, MA - Komikwerks LLC, a leader in online comics publishing, and their partner ibooks, Inc. have created an alliance with America Online, Inc., the world’s leading interactive services company. The alliance creates a collaboration that will give teens on the RED™ service, AOL’s service for teens, access to a host of exclusive content and features from the following sources: Komikwerks’ and ibooks’ online and print comics publications, their exclusive online subscription service, Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics™, and other online editorial features, such as a 'matching' service for would-be comics writers and illustrators.
Readers of the RED Comics & Anime department and at AOL Keyword: Komikwerks will have exclusive early access to Komikwerks’ online comics, interviews, editorial columns, book previews, and the premiere subscription service Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics™ prior to their premiere on the regular Komikwerks.com site. In addition, RED will have exclusive sneak previews of upcoming graphic novels and unpublished artwork from Komikwerks and ibooks projects, like the upcoming anthology ROCKETS & ROBOTS, Keith Giffen’s and Shannon Denton’s GRUNTS, Jason Kruse’s THE WORLD OF QUEST, and Aron Lusen’s DEAD SAMURAI and such ibooks' forthcoming graphic novels, STAN LEE’S ALEXA and THE BLOODLINE CHRONICLES.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for Komikwerks and ibooks,” says Komikwerks co-founder Patrick Coyle, “We’ve built a huge library of content over the past four years, with over 80 comic titles by professional comics and animation creators from around the world, plus tons of interviews and editorial columns. In an industry where it’s easy to get lost in the shadow of the big publishers, this is a great way to get our contributors’ creator-owned work a lot of visibility, and to offer RED readers a great variety of content that they can’t get anywhere else.”
“This is a great way to get fantastic comics out to readers all over the world. Komikwerks is doing a bang-up job, and AOL will let everyone know it!” exclaimed Stan Lee, Chief Creative Officer of Pow! Entertainment, Inc., a publicly traded Company under the ticker symbol: “POWN”. Stan, as the host of Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics™, authors his trademark column “Stan’s Soapbox” exclusively on the Sunday Comics page, and has a new series, STAN LEE’S ALEXA, debuting in graphic novel and on-line form through ibooks and Komikwerks.
"ibooks was founded as the first simultaneous publisher of books on-line and in print. Our partnership with Komikwerks and AOL RED brings brand name graphic novel authors like Stan Lee available to the wide range of teens using AOL."
Komikwerks content will begin appearing on AOL RED starting Friday, January 28th.
About Komikwerks
Komikwerks LLC was founded in 2000 by Patrick Coyle and Shannon Denton, and is now partners with equity partner, New York based ibooks. Komikwerks is a comic publisher dedicated to publishing high-quality, professional level, creator-owned comics through digital and other distribution methods. Komikwerks.com launched in March of 2001, and has been named a Sci Fi Channel “Cool Site”. Contributors to the Komikwerks site and series of print anthologies include comic industry veterans from major print publishers such as Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse.
About ibooks, inc.
ibooks, founded in 1999, was named "America's fastest growing small publisher" by Publisher's Weekly in 2003 and 2004. Its graphic novel line began in March 2003 with Harvey Award nominee VIETNAM JOURNAL by Don Lomax, which as picked by Entertainment Weekly as “a graphic novel you should own". In 2004 it was nominated for over a dozen major awards, including the Eisner (for Joe Kubert's Yossel) the Harvey (for Blacksad) and the Ignatz. Promotions, sample pages and ebooks versions of the titles will be featured on komikwerks.com.
About Pow! Entertainment, Inc
POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, Inc., an advanced media and entertainment Company, publicly traded under the ticker symbol: “POWN” is founded by world famous comic book icon Stan Lee, together with Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman. POW’s principals, combined, have over a hundred years experience creating, producing and licensing original intellectual properties. POW! will specialize in franchises for the entertainment industry, including animation and live-action feature films, plus television, DVDs, video games, merchandising, and related ancillary markets, all of which aid in the establishment of global franchises. POW! partners with studios and networks in creating new and exciting characters that will perpetuate the brands of both POW! and Stan Lee. In some cases, POW! creates "custom-tailored" properties for a specific star or director.
Stan Lee, the Chief Creative Officer of POW!, is the creator and inventor of the modern superhero. A prolific author, Lee revolutionized the comic book industry by creating compelling characters who, despite extraordinary powers and talents, are none the less plagued by the same doubts and difficulties experienced by ordinary people. Some of his most enduring characters, like Spider-Man®(a), The Hulk®(a), and X-Men®(a), have been spun off into television programs and feature films that have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.
(a) These are the registered trademarks and characters of Marvel Characters, Inc.
About the RED(tm) Service
The RED service offers teens a customized version of the AOL service. Teens can personalize their desktop and choose content to highlight based on their specific interests, such as exclusive content and features from leading brands, original programming and expanded community tools. America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
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