Dabel Brothers Productions

History

The company was founded in 2000 by the four brothers: Ernst, Les, Pascal, and David Dabel as Roaring Studios. Ernst and Les were both comic book creators with an interest in the fantasy genre. During their first year, the brothers produced several small original comic books. After their first two original titles, The Rift and Waterdogs, received poor reception in the comics market, they looked to adapt George R. R. Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. However Martin suggested they first adapt his novella that appeared in Robert Silverberg's Legends anthology, The Hedge Knight, which served as a prequel to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. When The Hedge Knight was first released in August 2003 it received positive reception and success in sales. During the six issue run, the studio ended their partnership with the original publisher of the series, Image Comics, and the series switched to Devil's Due for the remainder of its run. The Hedge Knight graphic novel collection went on to become one of the best-selling graphic novels of 2004.

Following their success with The Hedge Knight the Dabel Brothers began acquiring more literary fantasy licenses. After contacting other authors that featured in the Legends anthology they received deals from three of these authors: Robert Silverberg, Raymond E. Feist and Tad Williams. They began production on Silverberg's The Seventh Shrine, Feist's The Wood Boy, and William's The Burning Man. These three productions were originally to be published by Devil's Due but were canceled due to a contract dispute between Roaring Studios and Devil's Due. The split resulted in only one of two issues of The Wood Boy being published. Around the same time the Dabel Brothers lost the right to Dragonlance: Legend of Huma after only five issues were published due to issues with themselves and Hasbro. Devil's Due later acquired the license from Hasbro which included all the Dragonlance properties. They then packaged the final issues of the Huma mini-series, but the remainder of the book remains unadapted.

Roaring Studios was renamed to Dabel Brothers Productions. After their departure from Devil's Due, they aligned with Alias Enterprises to publish XIII. Alias' head creative director is Mike S. Miller who had been partnered with the Dabel Brothers prior to Alias' existence, dating back to the companies series of The Hedge Knight. The partnership later came to an end and the companies went through a public break. During this time the Dabel Brothers were working in conjunction with Red Eagle Entertainment to produce issues of Robert Jordan's New Spring. However, after five issues the parties came into disagreement with the Dabel Brothers alleging that Red Eagle failed to make payments for production and Red Eagle alleging that the Dabels were unable to complete the series in a timely fashion. The issue went into arbitration in court with the Dabel Brothers keeping the rights to the Wheel of Time series.

In 2006, they increased production to seven separate monthly titles with plans to add to the line up in the future. Four months into publication the Dabels suspended publication due to negotiation with Marvel Comics which resulted in a partnership between the two companies. As their deal was being finalized with Marvel, the Dabel Brothers continued to negotiate with other authors to bring their works to comics. Dabel Brothers Production increased production from four to six books per month in addition to trade paperback and hardcover collections of their adaptions under their alliance with Marvel. The imprint continued to focus on licensed adaptations of works by science fiction and fantasy authors along with their original material. The Dabel brothers handled the editorial side of Dabel Brothers Productions while Marvel handled the marketing and publishing. In August 2007, Marvel and Dabel Brothers Production mutually agreed to part ways, with Marvel retaining the rights to the series that were in production so they could be finished to the authors' happiness.

In November 2007, Dabel Brothers signed a deal with the Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books to handle the distribution of their graphic novels to the bookstore trade. This partnership has led to The Dresden Files: Storm Front Vol. 1 and Mercy Thompson: Homecoming titles to make the New York Times Bestsellers list. Mercy Thompson: Homecoming spent nine weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list. The Dresden Files original graphic novel The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle was nominated for a 2009 Hugo Award.

In 2008, they were under contract to produce the 2009 calendar for the Song of Ice and Fire series, also by George R.R. Martin. However, due to production delays with the calendar's painter and shipping problems that arose many people who had preordered in 2008 did not receive their 2009 calendars in the timeliest of manners. Martin spoke candidly of the incident on his blog and he subsequently terminated his contract for the calendars. Dabel Brothers and George R.R. Martin continue to work on the Wildcards: Hard Call series whose final issue and graphic novel was released by Dynamite Entertainment in 2010.

A December 2009, announcement revealed that Dynamite Entertainment would be entering into a publishing deal with Dabel Brothers Publishing (for an unknown number of years), where they would be taking over the production of Dabel Brothers titles. Dynamite Entertainment has subsequently taken over production and payments and has become the publisher of record for all Dabel Brothers titles. The first of the Dynamite/Dabel Books was released in April 2010.

Original properties

Prey: Origin of the Species