Bye Bye Virgin Comics Hello Liquid Comics

There are many movies based on comic book characters that have hit the big screen; some more successful than others. Dark Horse brought us StarWars and Buffy The Vampire Slayer; Marvel: DareDevil, Hulk, X-men and Spiderman; and DC Comics: Superman, Batman, and CatWoman.

English business magnate Sir Richard Branson thought that he should be part of the comic book business so, in 2006 he decided to add one more industry to Virgin Group: Virgin Comics. Sadly, it was short lived.

Virgin Comics published stories

- Based on Indian mythology;

- From directors John Woo (Mission Impossible 2, Paycheck), Guy Ritchie (Revolver, RocknRolla), Edward Burns (The Groomsmen, Purple Violets), Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines) and Shekhar Kapur (Elisabeth: The Golden Age, New York, I Love You) which would have been difficult and/or expensive to produce as movies;

- With characters resembling real famous people such as Nicolas Cage, Hugh Jackman and Jenna Jameson;

With the intention to sell movie rights.

They announced in April 2008 that Stan Lee (former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, co-creator of X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spiderman to name a few) would create whole new superheroes for Virgin Comics. They never said what the story would be about; only that it will be around 10 superheroes from different backgrounds and origins. It was due to be released on January 2009.

You'd think with so many big names at its side that Virgin Comics would have taken the comic world and movie industry by storm. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case.

Virgin Comics didn't manage to attract enough readers and wasn't selling. Some say that it just didn't appeal to a Western audience. On August 26th, Virgin Comics' New York office was closed to relocate in Los Angeles. On September 24th 2008, Virgin Group pulled out its backing and the company changed its name to Liquid Comics.

It's still unclear which way Liquid Comics intends to go and which projects it will pursue.

Only the future will tell.

The Trailers' Park