It was fan support that took Mario Gully's unlikely indie superhero comic 'Ant' and turned it into a bona fide hit. Now Gully is looking for input from those same fans as he prepares to re-launch his flagship character. A new title, 'Ant Unleashed' is due in comic shops next month, and Comics2Film has learned that an animated show is currently in development.
With the success of the comic, it was only a matter of time before filmmakers came courting Gully for a development deal. It was Florida-based producer Zack Kennedy that won him over.
"I've heard these horror stories from different creators," Gully told C2F. He quickly became aware that producers are eager to make change to someone else's creation. "I've talked to a lot of guys who, before I say anything, are already are telling me what it should be about."
For Gully, it was Kennedy's experience in the comic industry as a retailer and his understanding of the comic book form that convinced him. "That chemistry that we have made it really attractive. I'm confident that it's not going to turn into something that I have no control over. At least I have a guy in this corner that's going to try to keep it close to my vision."
Kennedy, whose most recent credit is the direct to video hot-girls-vs-the-undead flick 'Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!', has already begun the pre-production process for a live-action film. While that was underway a prominent cable network came looking for urban, edgy, black-oriented animated fare.
Now Gully and Kennedy are at work with Shenzhen animation studio in China creating a short animatic for the network. Kennedy has provided C2F with the approved design illustrations that the animators are using.
"Mario and I desperately want to have fan input on what they like or don't like," Kennedy explained his reasons for releasing the images. "Mario is very faithful to his character and he wants to keep Ant very urban."
At the time of this writing, the initial animatic sequence had been completed and had just been delivered to the network that commissioned it. However, at this point C2F has not heard whether or not the network is ordering a full pilot or series.
Never the less, work continues on development of a live-action 'Ant' film. To that end Kennedy commissioned make up artists Nick and Brian Wolfe to create a preliminary prosthetic and makeup for an Ant costume. The pair had previously worked on the 'Zombies!' movie, but are more well-known for their Marvel superheroes face-painting kits sold in stores around Halloween.
"In the book, Ant is essentially naked, so we're trying to get a feel for the feasibility of reproducing that," Kennedy said. "What they came up with was pretty amazing. The model they got, they essentially just painted her body and masked her with a prosthetic, kind of like Rebecca Romijn in 'X-Men'. The makeup came out very well, I thought."
The facial prosthetic was done both with practical antennae and without. Ant's primary weapons are her blade-tipped antennae, which would conceivably be animated through CGI for a live-action movie.
If there was any doubt that Kennedy was aggressively pursuing other media adaptations of 'Ant', he revealed that he's also commissioned a computer animator to create the morph transition from Hanna (Ant's alter-ego) to superhero form, for a video game demonstration.
Gully is, of course, excited about all the Ant developments. However, he told us he gets the greatest sense of accomplishment from the comics themselves.
"I invented this character in jail," Gully said, referring to time he served behind bars for robbery. During that time, it was watching an ant crawl out of his cell window, which inspired him to find a way out from under the decisions he'd made. The transition wasn't easy.
"I was the guy that everybody said wouldn't make it. I took Ant to everybody and they all turned me down," Gully told us. "So the movie stuff probably wont compare to how excited I was when issue one came out from Arcana. When #1 came out I thought, 'at least I can sell it to one guy.'"
Gully parlayed the Arcana run into a publishing deal with Image Comics. That led to him getting regular work from Marvel. Now, Gully is ready to bring Ant back, with 'Ant: Unleashed' from Big City Comics. Gully likens this new take on ant to a Marvel Ultimate book, streamlining and focusing the story for a new audience.
"I'm gonna do Ant my way. I'm not gonna pull any punches. I'm gonna say what I want to say, and have Ant do what I want her to do," Gully said, revealing that he softened previous versions of the character for fear of alienating the main stream audience. 'Ant: Unleashed' will have the R-rated, gritty edge that Gully always wanted for the character.
"I feel like I'm unleashed to do exactly what I want to do. I'm very excited about it. No apologies. If you love it, great. If you don't, it's still the vision I wanted it to be."
Once again Gully is defying the odds: against expectations, preorders for 'Ant Unleashed' have exceeded the numbers he was seeing at Image Comics. The new book is drawn by Marco Turini and arrives in comic shops this December.
Kennedy and Gully are both eager to hear fan reactions to the animation and live-action designs. Post your comments below with the knowledge that Gully and Kennedy will be reading them.
Watch for more about the 'Ant' animated show and live-action film here on Comics2Film.
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