Visionary Comics Announces Deadlands Plans

Press Release

Visionary Comics has been around a while, and some have called it one of the best-kept secrets in comics. Known as a top quality production studio, and the first digital-exclusive publisher supporting creator-owned projects, they also became the first production studio to throw its hat in the licensing ring with Deadlands. This fall, however, the secret is out, and Visionary is on the move.

Visionary has virtually doubled its staff in recent months, adding Webmaster and AV Chief Christiaan Conover, Admin Director Cathy Dougherty, and Art Manager Mike Munshaw. The studio has also added big guns Jeff Mariotte (comic writer, author) and Shane Hensley (creator of Deadlands) to focus on its expansion into prose publishing and transmedia development.

As part of this expansion, Visionary has announced Deadlands-focused partnerships with IDW Publishing, which will be publishing the first trade, Dead Man’s Hand, in March of 2015, and Tor Books, which will be publishing a line of prose novels coming later next year.

Dead Man’s Hand collects Deadlands one-shots published by Visionary and Image Comics, and features a stunning list of talent: David Gallaher, Steve Ellis, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Lee Moder, Ron Marz, Bart Sears, Jeff Mariotte, Brook Turner, and Michael Atiyeh. The comics were called “All-Star Westerns” by the media, and the full collection has been much anticipated.

The new novel line will kick off with three books, by New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, and Jeff Mariotte. Release dates have yet to be confirmed but production has begun in earnest.

In the midst of all this, Deadlands remains in active development for a live-action TV Series.

Visionary has no intention of stopping there, and just announced at Baltimore Comic-Con an exclusive new line of comics under its new Creation imprint. The new imprint will debut on their new webcomics portal, now in an initial test phase on their website. The studio promises a unique line of titles, diverse in genre, format, and focus. They also promise some unique means of fan involvement in what is shaping up to be a promising launch scheduled to roll out over the rest of 2014.

Visionary Chief Creative Officer C. Edward Sellner said, “We’ve been working toward this stage for a long time, and now that we’re reaching it, I can’t wait for the fans to see what we’re putting together for them. This is truly a new era for Visionary, and for comics.” Stay tuned for more details!