With the Reviving of Lev Gleason, Keith WTS Morris stopped by First Comics News to let our readers in on all the exciting new things going on at Lev Gleason.
First Comics News: There hasn’t been any real announcement but Previews listed Chapterhouse as Lev Gleason, the online orders say Lev Gleason and now you have a comic “Lev Gleason Presents” so what is the relationship between Lev Gleason and Chapterhouse?
Keith WTS Morris: To help get interested people up to speed readers can check out the press release here.
1st: The Lev Gleason Presents comic says “Comic House”. Why Comic House instead of Chapterhouse or Lev Gleason?
Keith: Lev Gleason, incorporated is the parent publications company. In order to have longevity, diversification is important. Lev Gleason incorporated does and can do much more than just superhero comics.
Moving Chapterhouse’s IP into the imprint Comic House allows that imprint to focus solely on new and archival restoration of superhero comics for the book and direct market.
1st: The Lev Gleason Presents cover says it has Silver Streak, Captain Canuck Season 5 Issus 3 it contains Freelance Season 2 Issue 1, and a Silver Streak Golden Age reprint. Why use the previous issue numbers?
Keith: The Comic House imprint is continuing forward with the same continuity that began with Captain Canuck Season 1 all the way back in 2015. With Captain Canuck Season 5 issues 1-2 released into the direct market we didn’t want to leave those readers without a way to still get their issues on stands.
We really want to provide the reader value for their money and make it easier to pull just one book a month. We have always been trying to find a format, as a small publisher, to best impart the breadth of our universe and create a reader-friendly way that promotes continuity. As well as for Shops to always have an easy sell to a reader who might be new to pulling comics and reading a shared universe.
The age-old question “Where do I start reading comics?”. The Lev Gleason Presents is really meant to be an easy intro into enjoying superhero books and connecting dots in a fun active reading way that makes shared universes one of the most fun serialized reading experiences out there. Each issue has a #1 leading it makes for an easy entry point and then having continuing stories can keep rewarding you each month as the issues inside unfold.
1st: Will the individual issues be available separately on the Lev Gleason website?
Keith: Yes, standard 32-page single-issue comics will always be for sale for collectors and readers through our demand edition program, Never miss a back issue! Exclusive variants and Retailer programs as well all available through levgleason.com
1st: Will Canuck Beyond be ongoing as a standard size comic?
Keith: Through the Demand Edition program it will be available in single issues and it will also run first in Lev Gleason presents from the Comic House imprint.
1st: Will we be getting Tom Evans as Captain Canuck in Canada at any point soon?
Keith: I’d give too much away if I answer that.
1st: Will we be seeing any more of Agents of Pact, Fantomah, or Pitiful Human-Lizard on their own or in the pages of Lev Gleason Presents?
Keith: We will absolutely be seeing more Fantomah, Fallen Suns, Captain Canuck, and crew!
1st: The original Lev Gleason characters are part of the public domain and publishers such as Dynamite Entertainment and Antarctic Press are already using them. How do you plan on using your classic characters in your universe?
Keith: While all the Golden-Age stories originally published found themselves in the public domain, Lev Gleason, inc. and the Comic House imprint specifically, is the only publisher officially and completely dedicated to maintaining the publication of the heroes originally published by Lev Gleason Publications, inc. These characters have been organically seeded into the universe dating back several years now. So we really hope fans of the shared universe genre will see how much care went into the crafting of all of these concepts.
Comic House Archives, which in addition to reprinting the Captain Canuck series under exclusive license, will be focused on reprinting and digitally restoring the entire Lev Gleason Comic House superhero line as well.
You can also read more about Lev himself in Brett Dakin’s wonderful biography American Daredevil!
Plus the Prose imprint Lev Gleason Library has two new fiction novels from DK Latta featuring Lev Gleason’s Daredevil and Captain Canuck. There are also future novels planned featuring characters such as Crimebuster and Silver Streak as well as more historical comic biographies to highlight important creators.
We also have a separate creator-owned imprint New Friday revived from one of the original Lev Gleason Imprints where we are publishing some fantastic work from creators around the world!
1st: There was a French language variant on an issue of Captain Canuck, is this something we might see more of in the future?
Keith: We’ve partnered with an Italian Publisher to translate our Superhero imprint into Italian and are now have a dedicated foreign language rights agent. So yes, we are very hopeful to find a French language publisher who would be interested in producing the translations.
1st: When the Lev Gleason Presents stories are collected into trades, will those be anthologies or will the trade paperbacks feature individual characters
Keith: Every title will continue to get its individual trade no different than before. This will actually allow us to produce more Canuck series as well as a wider array of characters and series.
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