About three years ago, a new company hit the scene, bringing a unique
look to stories we’ve all seen, read, and heard a thousand times. They
put the “Grim” in “Grimm,” and showed that those old stories still had
some kick to them, especially when some horror was infused (the hot
women didn’t hurt, either). A few years, a few licenses, and a few
spin-offs later, Zenescope Entertainment is going strong, with more
titles hitting the scene, and a lot more stories to tell. They even
have properties turning into films, including the horror re-imagining
of the classic Alice in Wonderland story. Small publishers crop up on a
near constant basis, but very few get past one or two titles. We sat
down with Ralph Tedesco, one half of Zenescope’s founding fathers, to
talk about what makes a small publisher last, how they’ll break out of
that stigma, and what’s to come.
Newsarama: Ralph, you and Joe Brusha started Zenescope in 2005.
Why start your own company? Had you taken your story ideas anywhere
else, or was it self-publish all the way?
Ralph Tedesco: Joe and I had been good friends for a long time
and were both aspiring screenwriters. We were a bit frustrated with the
inability to get our screenplays looked at so we turned to comic books
and figured that it was a great medium to get our stories out there.
Everything we wrote seemed to translate well into comics, or at least
that’s what we convinced ourselves. The idea right away was to
self-publish but I’m not sure if we knew exactly what we were getting
into at the time... actually I know we didn’t realize what we were
getting into at the time. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. At first we
simply wanted to put one or two titles out there but then it turned
into a much bigger project to say the least.
NRAMA: What did/does Zenescope have to offer that wasn’t already being offered in the industry?
RT: In my opinion it’s our not hesitating one second to think
outside the box. And that’s not to take anything away from other
publishers because some do and some don’t even have to think outside
the box and they still kick ass. But we have to think differently than
most in order to succeed. Plus I just feel that Joe and I tend to not
worry about what anybody else thinks about what we’re doing. We simply
create and publish stories that we would want to read ourselves and
we’re really thankful that our fans get it.
NRAMA: How has the growth process worked for you? Obviously there are many more employees/creators than when you started…
RT: It’s been bumpy at times; every young company has growing
pains, especially in the first few years. But we had some luck early on
and I like to believe that our drive and passion has steadied the ship
whenever we did hit a storm. Plus it helps that over the few years we
definitely have found some amazing artistic talent which has also
helped us get to where we are.
It all started with just Joe and I in an office in the basement of his
house and now we have 8 employees and a great office in the Philly
‘burbs… Let me just say, I do not miss the basement!
NRAMA: Do you see the company growing at a faster pace than you
planned? There seem to be several new titles in the recent months, and
more to come.
RT: When I stop to look back and take it all in I realize that
the company has grown pretty darn fast but it feels like a snail’s pace
to us most of the time. I think we’re both pretty impatient guys so we
constantly need to take the time to step back and make sure we continue
to expand at a steady pace and not get overly aggressive which is
difficult for us.
NRAMA: You’ve had some solid licenses- what have those done to help the company? Any others in the pipeline?
RT: I definitely think it has helped. We wanted to do a license
right off the bat in order to garner some notoriety and we actually
contacted Stephen King about a year before his Marvel announcement
because we really wanted to do some of his lesser known short stories
as comics. We spoke to his literary agent for a bit but obviously that
one didn’t work out... After that we approached New Line Cinema about
the license for Se7en. We didn’t have much out as far as a
track record for New Line to get excited about us but they were really
cool and listened to our pitch, looked at some art samples we put
together and they gave us a shot.
To answer the second part of your question, licensing is not the main
focus of our business model any longer but there are a few things we’re
interested in doing that could happen down the road so we’ll see.
NRAMA: What’s doing better for you right now, single issues or collections? Are you seeing penetration into the bookstore market?
RT: Well our collection of trade paperbacks and graphic novels
are just now starting to accumulate. For awhile we only had a couple
collections out but now we’re at six I think and we’ll be at close to
twelve by the end of the year. Book distributors want you to have that
library so they can push your stuff to the Borders and Barnes &
Nobles, etc. But we are finally beginning to get bookstore penetration
which is a very big deal for any publisher and especially so for
smaller guys like us.
NRAMA: Is there a single “secret to success,” or a large combination of factors?
RT: Wow. I’m still trying to figure that out myself. I believe
it’s a combination of factors though. It starts with the drive to
succeed, then it’s the going out and doing it on your own terms and not
being afraid to fail. From there it’s working your butt off and if
things don’t work out at least you have no regrets. I know that’s an
overused cliché but I live my life by that cliché so I’ll keep spouting
it off.
NRAMA: What have been the best and worst parts of being a small publisher? Can you speak to the advantages and challenges?
RT: Best part of being a small publisher…. Still
thinking….hmmm…. honestly the best part is being able to watch
something that we started from almost nothing grow as it has. I hope
one day we aren’t considered ‘small’ but at least ‘decent-sized’ now
that would be nice.
The main challenge to being a small publisher is what you’d probably
expect it to be: our budget certainly isn’t that of a powerhouse like
Marvel or DC or Dark Horse or a few others so that hinders our ability
to reach new fans as quickly as we would like.
NRAMA: One hot button topic is that of digital comics, both
legal and otherwise. What is your position on bittorrent comic sharing?
How about legal services like Wowio.com or ClickWheel.net?
RT: On one hand you worry that such sites take sales away from
publishers and in turn creators, artists, etc. but on the other hand I
feel that a majority of fans and of course collectors ultimately want
to have that book physically in hand because it’s not just written
words on paper, it’s artwork and it’s also a collectible. So perhaps
these sites can actually help promote comics and reach fans that might
not have otherwise been into comics before. Next thing you know those
new fans are checking out their local retailer. At least that’s what I
hope will happen.
NRAMA: Well, three years down. What’s coming next for Zenescope?
RT: We do have a lot planned. We have the sequel mini-series to Return To Wonderland shipping now, Beyond Wonderland.
It’s incredible because we have some amazing artists doing covers for
the project including superstars like David Finch and Mike Deodato. We
also have The Straw Men coming out soon, that’s based on a
best-selling novel by Michael Marshall and is a scary-as-hell thriller
about a network of serial-killers. Coming soon this fall we have Stingers
being released and that’s a sci-fi ‘Aliens’ type miniseries. On top of
those titles we are pretty loaded up for the end of ’08 and early ’09.
We’re keeping busy, let’s just put it that way. We’re tackling
Pinocchio in Grimm finally, too.
Newsarama Note: Check out art from that project aboveNRAMA: Thanks Ralph, and congratulations. Anything you’d like to say to the readers out there in comic book land?
RT: One quick thing: Whether or not you read Zenescope titles I
just want to thank those of you reading this for continuing to support
comics, trades and graphic novels, it’s the fans like you who make this
industry go and it’s very much appreciated.
