July 2013 - At Comic-Con San Diego 2013, there was a number of titles that have mastered the transmedia marketplace with cross licensing. Traditional big players like the Walking Dead, My Little Pony, Transformers, Star Wars, Star Trek and others have long mastered this multiple media platform. Focusing on print publications, electronic media, animation and live action, television, movies, collectibles and games - these titles saturate the enthusiasm of their fans by addressing all modes of entertainment.
Into this marketplace is a new artist and their participation into the transmedia licensing world. Artist Ethan Nicolle and his younger (under 10yrs old) brother Malachai Nicolle, have creates a new core for mixed media model. A few years ago, using the Smith Micro Manga Studio (http://manga.smithmicro.com/ ) product as the main entry tool, Ethan created the comic book Axe Cop based on ideas and stories thought up by the then 5yr old Malachai. Using the electronic capture system for the drawings, rather than traditional one-up drawings on paper, Ethan was able to bring the comic book to the public though a Facebook page initially. Later it became a standalone web site with the comic book chapters.
The popularity of the series and content, get them a deal with DarkHorse as the publisher of the initial comic in a collected set and new releases. The comics have been recognized with multiple awards for web comics and as a Top Ten Graphic Novel. The comic has now been adapted, by Fox Television to be an animated series on thier popilar Sunday night animation domination block. The adaptation is being implemented by popular YouTube animators Arin Hanson and Marc Moceri who were brought in to help the Nicolle brothers with the writing and animation.
In addition to the TV series, web series, print comic and digital comic, they have also licensed the creation of collectibles for the series. Based on using the flexible design platform from Smith Micro, they were able to quickly move to these other media formats. This is an example of the current methodology for independent transmedia licensing and is the wave of the future. Soon there will be apps and second screen support to create an interactive community to tie the content readers, the tv watchers, the collectors and the general fan together into one communication forum. Images of the Axe Cop creators and mutlimedia products can be seen in the pictured from Comic-Con 2013 found at - http://www.mandetech.com/gallery/index.php/Comic-Con-2013
