MTV has partnered with comic legend Stan Lee to produce The Seekers, an original property with the twist that its writer and illustrator will be chosen be The Man himself.
The basic outline is that, “the Seekers is the story of an ancient people who have been planted on earth and little by little start to arise” to destroy the planet, says Lee. Defending the planet are a group of heroes, whose look and background, presumably, will be fleshed out by the winning pair.
The contest itself begins August 1, when artists and authors alike will have the opportunity to submit their work through a nomination page on MTV.com. At the end of the month, “MTV Geek’s editorial team will narrow the pool down to 20 and feature their work on the site.” From there, visitors to the site will vote for their favorites, winnowing the selections down to five stories and five artists for Lee and MTV Geek to decide on. The winners will be announced at New York Comic Con in October.
MTV and Top Cow Productions have also announced September Mourning, “a multi-platform project that will blend comics through video, digital comic books, and live events.”
The series will use real footage and animation to follow both September and her inspiration, rocker M Lazar, their bands, and the universe they inhabit. Lazar also will provide the music for the band September Mourning. The character will be introduced in the Top Cow comic The Darkness and launched with a live concert by the band while at the same time the first 2-to-4-minute, reality-style episode of the series will premier on MTV Geek. Subsequent episodes and issues of the comic will be released each week. In addition to that, MTV Geek will host two blogs, one maintained by M, the other by September.
A press release describes the series as, “Building on creative pioneered by iconic rockers David Bowie and Kiss, SEPTEMBER MOURNING uses today’s tools to create a cross-platform, trans-media property based on a living person; a reverse-engineered Lara Croft for the rock and roll set. SEPTEMBER MOURNING is “ZIGGY STARDUST” for Millennials.”
Now who can argue with that?
Finally, MTV Geek will also announce two new comics. The first is Divination, written by Eisner nominee Val Staples and Gina Iorio with artwork by Julia Laud. The story follows Anastasia Kempka, “whose teenage life is thrown into chaos after she discovers an eerie connection to the afterlife.” It’s also the first manga from MTV comics. Department P.U.L.P., “will build on the universe created in MTV Comics’ The Gloom, a series of comedic one-shots beginning with Dirk Maverick and the Space Badgers from Mars.”
