Peter J. Tomasi and Francis Manapul Are Character First As They Drop The Mic On The Rocketfellers

Peter J. Tomasi and Francis Manapul Are Character First As They Drop The Mic On The Rocketfellers

The New Comics Revolution Has Begun

The Rocketfellers is such a fun name, but boy, am I tired of all these autocorrects thinking I’m trying to spell Rockefellers. Good thing The Rocketfellers aren’t that type of family, but Peter and Francis did drop some insight on the family, removed from time, during our exclusive interview. The Rocketfellers, created by Peter J. Tomasi and Francis Manapul in collaboration with Rob Leigh, are just one of many of the stories that will be displayed in the 64-page special edition release of Ghost Machine #1 this coming January.

As Peter mentioned during the interview, we’ll get a taste of the characters from The Rocketfellers in a 10-page short. We’ll learn a little about the relationships between the characters and what they’ll be facing as a family in their own series. Ghost Machine was deemed “the future of comic book publishing” while being introduced earlier this year at New York Comic Con during the exclusive panel that featured Jason Fabok, Gary Frank, Bryan Hitch, Lamont Magee, Francis Manapul, Brad Meltzer, Peter J. Tomasi, Maytal Zchut, and Brad Anderson.

Ghost Machine has already kicked off its new comics revolution with the support of Image Comics, called Geiger: Ground Zero. Geiger’s two-issue prequel series by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank kicks off what time has revealed as being the beginning of a huge shared universe, with issue two dropping in December.

The shared universe promises to be so big that Geiger already has a foothold in the cinematic world as the producers’ room whispers of a Paramount series in development through Justin Simien’s media company Culture Machine, which already has projects released with Netflix and Starz.

With talks of television development already circulating, the pop that the Ghost Machine creators received at New York Comic Con earlier this year was huge.

Deemed a “creator-owned company,” the fans and press present at the panel all burst into excitement when Bryan Hitch said, “We have Davy Crocket fighting Sasquatch,” speaking to the companies combined debuting characters all through different times with plans to bring them all together in the wayward future. I’m hooked, and that’s just a taste of Red Coat, the immortal British soldier from the era of American independence.

Other than Geiger, The Rocketfellers, and Red Coat, character-focused stories around Junkyard Joe, The Unnamed, and Rook Exodus promise emotional stories with in-depth characters that are so dynamic that they will set the foundation for stories to come in the years going forward. Speaking of Ghost Machine and its mission statement, I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of sitting down with Peter and Francis to get a lay of the land.

Two topics I’m thrilled to have cleared the air with Peter and Francis is that everyone at Ghost Machine is completely one hundred percent focused on character-first stories with rich world-building. The second topic was diving into what will make Ghost Machine so much different from any other publishing company out there.

Now, the exact business-centric details weren’t exactly outlined, but Peter and Francis have both supported that everyone at Ghost Machine level’s the playing field with an equal earnings model. This asset-centric profit-sharing model seems to remove the corporate structure, giving everyone the ability to focus on creating great stories.

We hope you enjoyed this interview, and we encourage you to reach out to your local comic retailer and support Ghost Machine as they set out on the journey to revolutionize the way comics are made behind the scenes.

Don’t forget to support your local comic store or visit your favorite artists and creators at cons. As always, stay geeky, share the network, and don’t forget to catch me on the latest episode of Comics’N’Poptarts.