Dynamite Readies Blackbeard for October

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Press Release

Prepare to walk the plank and take the plunge into a bottomless voyage of excitement as Dynamite Entertainment presents their most ambitious undertaking yet – BLACKBEARD: THE LEGEND OF THE PYRATE KING!

Blackbeard: Legend of the Pyrate King #1 is set to sail this October under a stunning cover by John Cassaday with a story by Eduardo (writer of The Blair Witch Project) Sanchez and Gregg (Producer of The Blair Witch Project) Hale, who are joined by writers Robert Place Napton and Jamie Nash to present the ultimate adventure tale of a bygone age, when pyrates ruled the waters! Beginning with his childhood and carrying through to his bitter end, Blackbeard’s legacy has never been explored as deeply and illustrated as beautifully (by Mario Guevara) than now!

"What was exciting in our first meeting with Ed, Gregg, Jamie and Robert was the research and passion that they brought to the project. This was their baby, and they asked us to help them bring their baby to comics. It was extremely flattering of them. They worked on the first Blair Witch movie, and Gregg does marketing and PR as well, I felt that they wouldn't have gotten involved if they weren't excited about the project. It's something that we've been working with them on for the last two years, and am excstatic that we're announcing and launching in October! Having Mario on the interiors and John Cassaday on the covers is the cherry on top!"

“Branded as the cruelest and most-feared pirate on the high seas, Edward Teach, AKA BLACKBEARD, was an amazingly complex and tragically flawed anti-hero that surprisingly belied his public persona in many ways. While delivering plenty of the kind of action you'd expect from a pirate story, this new comic will also be packed with surprises as we reveal a side of BLACKBEARD that you'll never expect.” – Eduardo Sanchez

”What’s interesting about our story is it will dispel a lot of the pre-conceived notions people might have about Edward Teach the man called ‘Blackbeard.’

Working with Dynamite on this is the perfect project with the perfect publisher in my opinion. They have proven themselves as a top comic publisher of every genre.” – Robert Place Napton

“Blackbeard is one of world's most infamous characters and yet no one really knows who he was. This comic is going to give people a completely new take on who and what Blackbeard might have been. "History is written by the winners", they say; Edward Teach ended up with his head on a pike so we're trying to give an alternative take on his story.” – Gregg Hale

“With the enormous popularity of Pirates, it seems the perfect time to tell the largely unheard true-story of the most legendary pirate of them all. And the amazing thing is that the true story has all the suspense, swashbuckling, and excitement of fantasy pirate tales, while also laying out an epic-journey of a criminal genius who may not have been as 'Villainous' as we think.

He had 14 wives, he was shot and stabbed more than twenty-five times and kept fighting before finally being decapitated, his pirate career was filled with Sea-Chases, cannon-battles, and machete-on-machete combat -- there are some things you just can't get from Wikipedia. This is a story that demands to be big, bold, and blood-drenched. It needs to be a comic.” – Jamie Nash

About the creators:

Eduardo Sanchez has been making films since he was 16-years old, including the award-winning Independent feature GABRIEL’S DREAM, which he shot in 1991 for $3,000. He co-wrote, co-edited, and co-directed the 1999 film THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which grossed over $140 million theatrically in North America. He also designed and built the original BlairWitch.com website and co-directed the TV special CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH for The Sci-FI Channel. Most recently, Eduardo directed the feature film ALTERED, which was distributed by Universal Home Entertainment. His new film, SEVENTH MOON, was shot in Hong Kong and will be out in October from Ghosthouse Entertainment.

Gregg Hale was born in Selma, Alabama but his hometown is really Henderson, Kentucky. One collegiate year at Western Kentucky University full of theater, ballerinas and tequila somehow led to four years in the Army. After serving in the Special Forces, he moved to Orlando, Florida where he went to film school at both Valencia Community College and the University of Central Florida.

He worked as a set dresser and prop man on features and TV shows in Orlando and LA for ten years before producing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in 1999. Gregg was honored to receive the Nova Award as outstanding new producer from the Producer’s Guild of America for his work on that film.

Gregg co-created the television series Freakylinks for Fox Television and produced the show’s website which is still one of the most extensive works of “e-fiction” ever presented on the Internet. Gregg has directed a number of award-winning regional and national television commercials. His first (and only, so far) feature film as director, SAY YES QUICKLY, played in film festivals nationwide in 2005 and won Best Feature at the IndieMemphis festival.

His most recent long-form film projects were ALTERED, a sci-fi/horror film which was purchased and released by Rogue Pictures and SEVENTH MOON, a supernatural thriller starring Amy Smart being released in October by Lionsgate. Gregg lives in Portland OR with his wife and two children.

Jamie Nash is a Maryland based writer/filmmaker who enjoys working in various genres. He's the writer of the horror/Sci-Fi film "Altered" (distributed by Rogue Pictures), co-director/writer of the Christmas Horror Comedy TWO FRONT TEETH, the writer of the in-production feature I WAS A SEVENTH GRADE DRAGONSLAYER(starring Lea Thompson) and shares story by credit on the feature film, "Seventh Moon" (starring Amy Smart) which will be released by Lionsgate in the Fall of 2009.

Robert Place Napton is currently co-writing Dynamite Entertainment’s new pyrate series Blackbeard. In 2008, he adapted the first graphic novel based on New York Times bestselling author Terry Brook’s Shannara universe entitled Dark Wraith of Shannara for Del Rey/Random House as well as Battlestar Galactica Origins: Adama, based on the Sci-Fi Channel television series. His career in comics began in earnest in early 1994 at Image, writing such titles as Prophet and later the creator owned series, Deity. In 2004, Robert became founding Editor of the first ever manga division of Bandai Entertainment Inc., currently overseeing such titles as Code Geass, Eureka Seven, and Gurren Lagann.