Dreamworks just bought the Gold Key and Harvey character libraries, and...

[markseifert]

... LOTS more 1960s-80s era stuff.

 

With one bite I think Dreamworks now controls the biggest library of Silver Age-era characters outside of Marvel & DC, with this purchase of Classic Media.

 

The Classic Media library included the Gold Key characters, Harvey, plus stuff like Rocky & Bullwinkle, Underdog, Lone Ranger, Lassie, He-Man, Ghostbusters, and quite a bit more.

 

From the comic perspective, it'd be interesting if they saw the film potential of some of the Gold Key properties in particular. The Gold Key rights are a complicated split with Random House controlling the publishing, but of course Dreamworks doesn't care about that anyway.

 

Anyway, interesting stuff...

 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-dreamworks-animation-20120722,0,6340731.story

 

DreamWorks Animation, the Glendale-based studio behind the "Shrek" and "Madagascar" movies, is buying Classic Media, a company that owns the rights to "Casper the Friendly Ghost," "Lassie," "The Lone Ranger" and other iconic entertainment characters, for $155 million.

 

DreamWorks Animation announced the all-cash deal early Monday morning.

 

The deal marks the first acquisition for the studio since it went public in 2004.

 

"Classic Media brings a large and diverse collection of characters and branded assets that is extremely complementary to DreamWorks Animation's franchise business, and we plan to leverage it across our motion picture, television, home entertainment, consumer products, digital theme park and live entertainment channels,'' DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg in a statement.

[thehumantorch]

Interesting, thanks for the thread.

[Scrooge]

Indeed. Yesterday, I was reading on cartoobrew that Dreamworks has also created a unit to focus on app development in order to harness all the tech they've developed for their features, and now this. It does seem like they are expanding their horizons.

[Jeffro.]

I guessing this means nothing in the way of getting new Richie Rich, Little Dot, Casper, etc comic books.

 

[markseifert]

I guessing this means nothing in the way of getting new Richie Rich, Little Dot, Casper, etc comic books.

 

Ape Entertainment has been doing new Richie Rich and Casper comics.

 

http://ape-entertainment.com/

[frozentundraguy]

It would be interesting to see a movie based on Doctor Solar or Magnus the Robot Fighter.

[lou_fine]

It would be interesting to see a movie based on Doctor Solar or Magnus the Robot Fighter.

 

Yes, let's watch all of the speculators jumping on the books under the Classic Media Library umbrella now, similar to what is happening right now with anything at all even remotely related to Guardians of the Galaxy.

[thehumantorch]

It would be interesting to see a movie based on Doctor Solar or Magnus the Robot Fighter.

 

Yes, let's watch all of the speculators jumping on the books under the Classic Media Library umbrella now, similar to what is happening right now with anything at all even remotely related to Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

That's certainly the way it is done now. Wait for a movie announcement and jump on the related book. Guardians of the Galaxy was almost impossible to sell before the movie announcement.

[red rocks-migration]

It would be interesting to see a movie based on Doctor Solar or Magnus the Robot Fighter.

 

Yes, let's watch all of the speculators jumping on the books under the Classic Media Library umbrella now, similar to what is happening right now with anything at all even remotely related to Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

I literally just bought a VF - NM run of Magnus 1-33 ... seems an under appreciated character to me!

[comicstock]

Magnus, Robot Fighter....the best! SQUEEEEEEEeeeee!!

[ComicConnoisseur]

Magnus, Robot Fighter....the best! SQUEEEEEEEeeeee!!

Turok is the best!

 

 

[Gatsby77]

Well, shee-it.

 

Guess I'll never finish my CGC Magnus run now.

 

[Jeffro.]

I guessing this means nothing in the way of getting new Richie Rich, Little Dot, Casper, etc comic books.

 

Ape Entertainment has been doing new Richie Rich and Casper comics.

 

http://ape-entertainment.com/

 

Those are electronic only correct?

[Tony S]

Not that I shop in that price range, but I think 155 million sounds cheap. Have you seen all the Veggie Tales merchandise?

 

Turok is the character that begs for a movie treatment, as it has had a very successful gaming history. We've seen very succesful dinosaur movies. Very succesful "land that time forgot" movies. Very successful native American movies. Turok is a gimme.

 

I'm not clear from this article though if the GK hero titles are included in the deal. Anyone know more details?

[Tony S]

Well, shee-it.

 

Guess I'll never finish my CGC Magnus run now.

 

 

You'll finish it if you buy raw and slab yourself. And as long as you aren't looking for 9.4+ with the early issues. I spent two decades finding a 9.2 copy of issue #1.

[Buzzetta]

Very under-appreciated characters with some dating as far back as 1954... Turok... I may resume my hunt for a Turok 1 next year.

[david20009]

Damn. I was hoping Valiant Entertainment would find a way to get Magnus, Solar and Turok back into their Valiant relaunch. It seems hard to me to relaunch that universe with 3 of the main back bones in the original one.

[Gatsby77]

Well, shee-it.

 

Guess I'll never finish my CGC Magnus run now.

 

 

You'll finish it if you buy raw and slab yourself. And as long as you aren't looking for 9.4+ with the early issues. I spent two decades finding a 9.2 copy of issue #1.

 

That's the point. I'm going for the run in slabbed 9.4+. Of the first 30 issues, I'm only missing 3 in less than 9.4, and # 1 is one of them. I have 10-11 copies raw, but none would go higher than a 7.0.

[Tony S]

Well, shee-it.

 

Guess I'll never finish my CGC Magnus run now.

 

 

You'll finish it if you buy raw and slab yourself. And as long as you aren't looking for 9.4+ with the early issues. I spent two decades finding a 9.2 copy of issue #1.

 

That's the point. I'm going for the run in slabbed 9.4+. Of the first 30 issues, I'm only missing 3 in less than 9.4, and # 1 is one of them. I have 10-11 copies raw, but none would go higher than a 7.0.

 

You might as well go look for the fountain of youth. The CGC census lists ONE 9.6, ONE 9.4 and THREE 9.2's. You are going to have to go find your own (raw) high grade copy of #1 and have it slabbed, because the five collectors that own 9.2 or better are not selling!!!

 

All of the Gold Key super hero early issues are very, very tough in high grade. There isn't anything better than 9.0 for Space Family Robinson #1 - and only of two those.

 

[namisgr]

It's more common than those you just mentioned, but there's only a single 9.6 graded better (the Pac Coast copy) and I'm delighted to have recently added it to my run: