Introducing EA Comics

Electronic Arts has signed a deal with IDW Publishing to expand two of its intellectual properties, Army of Two and Dragon Age, into comics under a new EA Comics imprint with IDW beginning in January. EA and IDW will launch monthly, ongoing series for both Army of Two and Dragon Age. Each issue will be published in print and distributed nationally at comic book outlets, with digital versions released for iPhone) and iPod Touch and other emerging digital platforms.

Under terms of the agreement, EA will fund and manage the creative aspect of the comic book series, while IDW will be responsible for printing and distribution. IDW is the leader in digital comic book distribution and the nation’s third largest comic book publisher overall.

Written by veteran comic book writer Peter Milligan (X-Men, Batman, Hellblazer), Army of Two is being published as a comic starting in January 2010. Chester Ocampo is the cover artist while the interior artist/penciler, Dexter Soy, is a newcomer on the comic scene.

Story details and the interior artist are expected to be announced shortly.

Creative Minx Scores EA Deal

Creative Minx Marketing has inked a deal with Electronic Arts to represent several of the company’s various wholly owned properties for outbound licensing opportunities. Creative Minx will help EA to merchandise brands like The Sims, MySims, Dead Space, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Dante’s Inferno and Army of Two. This merchandising will include collectibles, peripherals, apparel, and accessories, according to the company.

Creative Minx Marketing describes itself as a full service licensing and marketing agency with 20 years of experience, specializing in acquisition of major licenses, strategic brand building, target marketing programs, and promotional opportunities. The company offers such services as licensing consulting, business development, strategic market analysis, and retail development and planning.

The Divine Comedy as a Video Game

Despite the systemic retail failure of original intellectual properties like Mirror’s Edge, Army of Two and most recently EA Redwood Shores developed Dead Space, EA has not given up on creating new and original game properties. The company announced today that the studio is hard at work on a new and original IP based on the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

The poem weaves a tale of an incredible journey through the afterlife and serves as an allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. The protagonist Dante travels through the nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. How this masterpiece will be presented as a game is almost as interesting as the source material it is based on, and EA at least deserves some points from trying something that has not been done before. This may also be the game that Paramount won the film rights to in Nov. (read that story for more details).

You can get a first glimpse at what the company has planned to put the fear into a whole new generation by visiting www.dantesinferno.com.

Army of Two Headed to the Big Screen

Variety began reporting yesterday that Universal Pictures has picked up the film rights to EA’s buddy shooter, Army of Two. The studio, according to the report, is looking to fast track the project, with production hoping to start as early as next year. Scott Z. Burns, co-writer of The Bourne Ultimatum, has been tapped to write the script, with Scott Stuber (The Kingdom, Role Models) and EA co-producing. The deal will mark the first time Electronic Arts has taken a film production role.

“Because people experience the game in pairs, playing two guys who go against the world, Scott and I agreed this format presented an opportunity to make a great buddy film,” Burns said. “The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics. I told EA right off the bat I wasn’t a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn’t want to simply replicate the game.”

Army of Two is the third EA project getting ready for its close-up with a big screen debut. Last month, it was announced that former Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad has optioned the right to the sci-fi RPG Mass Effect. Meanwhile, The Sims is currently being developed over at 20th Century Fox with producer John Davis.

Source: Variety