Awesome Reads launches at San Diego Comic-Con, Richard Dinnick announced as Director of Publishing

By John Freeman on July 17, 2019

Awesome Media & Entertainment, the IP and production company founded by writer-producer Jeff Norton, is launching a new graphic novel studio after the successful launch of its fiction publishing imprint Awesome Reads last year – and prolific comics writer Richard Dinnick has joined the company as Director of Publishing.

The company says Awesome Reads will develop high-concept, character-driven comics for a broad, adult readership, which will also be developed for the screen, launching with Retrograde, a post-apocalyptic love story. It’s a tale about the survivors of a retro-virus that has dialled back the evolutionary clock on most of the planet’s DNA.

Retrograde, launched this week with a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive, is written by Richard Dinnick (Doctor Who, Lost In Space), with art by Italian comic artist Pasquale Qualano (Marvel Comics, Doctor Who and more), colours by Charlie Kirchoff, and lettering by Comicraft’s Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt.

Retrograde will be followed in December by #Guardian, written by Erika Lewis, a modern western about a former CIA agent named Sera Renteria who becomes a self-fashioned vigilante who responds to cries for help over social media.

Erika Lewis revealed the cover of Guardian on Instagram recently

Titles for 2020 include Brexodus, a political thriller set in an alternative modern-day Britain as it attempts to secede from the Roman Empire, and Cortex, a high-tech mystery about hacking human memory to solve crimes.

Richard Dinnick

“I’m thrilled to bring Awesome Reads into the realm of graphic novels,” says Richard, ” as we’re truly in a golden age of graphic storytelling and Awesome has incredibly creative content to delight readers around the world.”

Jeff Norton

“The graphic novel studio completes the creative circle we’ve been building: from book to screen and back again,” adds founder of Awesome, Jeff Norton.

“We are thrilled to be on the ground floor with top talent and we’ll be partnering with best-in-class production partners to develop these visually arresting stories for the screen.”

This initiative comes on the heels of Awesome’s development of its Dino Knights novel for television with OmniFilm Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company into a live-action show Knights Of Panterra with show runner Simon Barry.

• Awesome Reads can be found at: www.AwesomeReads.com

• Awesome Media & Entertainment: awesomemediaent.com | Follow Awesome on Twitter @awesomemediaent | Facebo0k

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.