Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment at Emerald City Comicon 2017
Sean Mackiewicz is the Editorial Director of Skybound Entertaiment who oversees all comics titles, which include the upcoming EXTREMITY and REDNECK and Robert Kirkman titles THE WALKING DEAD, OUTCAST, and INVINCIBLE. I got a chance to chat with him for bit. He is the perfect person to provide a quick tour of Skybound Entertainment.
So, what is Skybound Entertainment? Well, most of you out there are familiar with THE WALKING DEAD, right? Robert Kirkman had a dream of bringing back, in a whole new way, the old black & white horror movies, especially zombie movies, he loved watching on Saturday morning television as a kid. His unique slant on zombies was thinking of a way to keep the story going, turning it into a ongoing saga. One thing led to another and THE WALKING DEAD, pardon the pun, came to life!
THE WALKING DEAD comic book series was created by writers Robert Kirkman and Harry Schofield and artist Tony Moore. In 2003, Image Comics began publishing it. By 2008, Kirkman was a partner with Image Comics. By 2010, Kirkman was heading up his own Image Comics imprint, Skybound Entertainment.
ECCC variant for EXTREMITY #1
Skybound Entertainment is a place to showcase a wide spectrum of titles by Robert Kirkman as well as like-minded creators. It’s a unique place for creator-owned work to be shown to the world and to grow to its fullest potential. At Skybound, you have an assortment of comic book titles with character-driven, horror, and dark fantasy themes. Among the roster of Skybound titles: EXTREMITY (first issue out March 1at), by writer and artist Daniel Warren Johnson; and REDNECK, a horror comic written by Donny Cates and drawn by Lisandro Estherren, that will hit stores on April 19th.
To round out the picture a little more on Skybound Entertainment, I asked Mackiewicz if he could describe a typical day in his role as Editorial Director. He said that no day was typical but each day could see him overseeing comic book titles, developing new titles, and developing merchandise that uniquely fit a creator’s vision.
Regarding EXTREMITY, Mackiewicz expressed his deep admiration for the talent of creator Daniel Warren Johnson. “It’s not that often you find someone so good at both writing and drawing. Daniel is a unique talent,” said Mackiewicz. Daniel Warren Johnson proved to be one of those singular talents that started creating buzz with his online work as well as his drawing portraits of people as zombies.
Now that you have a better picture of what’s going on at Skybound, consider Robert Kirkman’s OUTCAST. This is one of the titles that seems to be on a similar path as THE WALKING DEAD with a successful comic resulting in a successful television show. This Southern Gothic may hook you if it hasn’t already. A loyal fan base awaits Season Two this April on Cinemax in the U.S. and on Fox in the U.K.
For more details, visit Skybound Entertainment right here. And, if you are going to Emerald City Comicon, there are a number of Image Comics panels to attend including a rare gathering of all the original Image Comics founders on Friday. This is at 1pm at Main Stage – WSCC 4A. Regarding Skybound in particular, on Saturday, starting at 12:30pm, there will be two panels taking place on Twitch’s ECCC Live stage. If you can’t attend ECCC, you will be able to view them on Twitch. For more details, visit Emerald City Comicon right here.
