American comic book company
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci[3] in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of The Boys franchise across several IP medias.[4] Dynamite primarily publishes adaptations of franchises from other media. These include licensed adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator, and RoboCop, and licensed or public domain literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Red Sonja, Tarzan (as Lord of the Jungle) and John Carter of Mars (as Warlord of Mars). It also publishes superhero books such as Project Superpowers.
Creators who have produced Dynamite's books include Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Matt Wagner, Garth Ennis, Howard Chaykin and Frank Miller. Dynamic Forces, a distribution of Dynamite's comics and books, announced a partnership with Diamond Distribution in 2008, when Diamond had the rights to publishing the international versions of books made by Dynamite Entertainment.[5]
In February 2007, Dynamite Entertainment bought the brand and rights of following editions of The Boys after an abrupt cancellation of the comic book series by DC Comics' WildStorm imprint.[6] In July 2019, Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios launched an adapted television series of The Boys for Amazon Prime Video after a brand licensing agreement was granted by Dynamite.[6]
History
Dynamite Entertainment was founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004, first producing two Army of Darkness limited series published through Devil's Due Publishing until self-publishing its titles later that year. After devoting itself to publishing only Army of Darkness, a year later Dynamite published Red Sonja, starting with a 25-cent issue #0. It sold 240,000 copies. Issue #1 of Red Sonja, the first to sell at the full cover price of $2.99, sold 100,000 in initial orders, securing a stable position in the American comic book industry.[7] By 2009, Dynamite was publishing 14–20 comic books and 2–10 collections per month.[8]
Dynamite Publishing
Dynamite Entertainment focuses primarily on comic book adaptations of existing properties, with most of its original properties being new interpretations of the classic monsters Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman. The company holds or has held the rights to publish titles based on films (Army of Darkness, Darkman, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, RoboCop, and Highlander), television series (Xena: Warrior Princess) and literature (Sherlock Holmes,[9] Alice in Wonderland, Dracula and Zorro). It also has a license based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Infinity and the sequel Terminator: Revolution produced by the writer Simon Furman.[10] Other properties include Buck Rogers.[11][12]
Two additional crossovers have been released through other companies. One, titled Monster War released through Image Comics in 2005, pitted its monsters against Top Cow published characters Witchblade, the Darkness, Magdalena and Tomb Raider. The other was a 2006 crossover between DC Comics' Claw the Unconquered and Red Sonja via WildStorm Productions.
In 2007, Dynamite took over the publication of Garth Ennis' The Boys after it was dropped by WildStorm.
In 2009 Dynamite announced it would publish new comics featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom.[13]
In 2010, Dynamite began publishing comic books based on The Green Hornet, beginning with a miniseries written by Kevin Smith and followed by Green Hornet: Year One, which was written by Matt Wagner, and another written by Brett Matthews.[14]
In May 2010, Dynamite Entertainment acquired Chaos! Comics' library and all associated assets (with the exception of Lady Death). These include the publishing labels Black Label Graphics, Infinity Comics and the properties Evil Ernie, Smiley The Psychotic Button, Chastity, Purgatori, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon and many more.[15]
In October 2013, Dynamite announced it would relaunch several titles originally published by Gold Key Comics and that Magnus: Robot Fighter, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, Solar: Man of the Atom and Turok would be the first titles of the new line.[16]
In July 2016, prior to Comic-Con International, The New York Times ran a story about Dynamite Entertainment. In it, author Andy Mangels was revealed to be writing a prestigious new intercompany crossover mini-series for the company, in conjunction with DC Comics: Wonder Woman '77 Meets the Bionic Woman, bringing together the Lynda Carter television character with Lindsay Wagner's fellow 1970s television super-heroine. The series was released in the fall of 2016.[17]
Titles
Comic books published by Dynamite in the format of ongoing or limited series include:
Public domain
Some of the titles published by Dynamite are based on franchises whose early stories are now in the public domain. In cases where Dynamite did not have a licensing agreement with the related trademark holders (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., for example), Dynamite did not use trademarked terms in the comic book titles.[61] Dynamite and ERB, Inc. eventually reached an agreement by which the latter agreed to let Dynamite publish material based on Burroughs' work.[62]
- Warlord of Mars – based on John Carter of Mars[63]
- Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris
- Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom
- Warriors of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars
- Dejah Thoris and the Green Men of Mars
- Dejah of Mars
- John Carter: Warlord of Mars
- John Carter: The End
- Dejah Thoris vs. John Carter of Mars
- Lord of the Jungle – based on Tarzan
- Lords of Mars – a "Warlord of Mars" / "Lord of the Jungle" crossover
