A new publisher for Youngblood, Supreme and the Awesome characters? Don't hold your breath

Yesterday, Rob Liefeld took to Facebook and wrote the following (I'll summarize below if you want to skip it):

Where is YOUNGBLOOD?

This is the question I get asked repeatedly, at every store signing or comic convention I attend. Inquiries about Youngblood as a film, a comic book, all of it. The truth is they are in the midst of an ugly custody battle and I currently don’t have any interaction with them for the first time in over 22 years.

In 1997, at 29 years of age, I took on an investor named Scott Rosenberg, he of Malibu Comics. I had a previous relation with him but this was different, Jeph Loeb brought him to the table as a potential partner and after a few discussions, the time felt right to make this move. We made a fancy press announcement and we birthed Awesome Comics. It was meant as a temporary adjustment, If I did not find another partner, Scott would foreclose and own everything, I eventually found another partner, a gentleman named John Hyde and he stepped in to finance Awesome Comics until he and Scott had an issue and Awesome went into freefall and I shuttered the label permanently in 2000.

Scott, John and I agreed to a split of my Extreme catalogue in 1999, we each received 8 titles and could exploit them in media. The environment at the time was not kind to comic book material and I wasn’t selling any of my catalogue picks and neither were John and Scott. Through it all, I maintained publishing rights, bringing you the comic adventures of my creations with different and various creatives under my oversight and until now there were no hiccups whatsoever.

Long story short, after failing to come to terms on 2 movie deals in recent years, including a movie deal in 2017 that I was so certain was moving forward, I contacted Hank Kanalz and informed him that he should expect some participation, Scott informed me last summer, during 2018 comic con, that in order to raise capital he had sold or partnered with someone for Youngblood comics and toys. I was stunned but not surprised, these are the most important assets that Scott possesses and he needed to raise funds. The man he partnered with is named Andrew Rev, someone unknown to me and he informed me a number of times over the past year that he could make me a big success in comics, the next Todd McFarlane even, and told me I could audition for producing Youngblood comics. You can imagine how well that went over.

So, I currently have questionable access to Youngblood characters, characters I created and shepherded for nearly 3 decades As a result I shut down the storyline that would take Youngblood to issue #100 and beyond. A decidedly new approach in necessary, which I believe is paramount in this post Avengers:Endgame world we find ourselves in. Youngblood will no longer be published by Image Comics or with my involvement at this time, a first in the 27 years since it launched. It’s all really weird but I’ve settled into the realization that this is the way it is going to be. I held it together for 23 years since doing the deal, until now. A film company rang me up last week seeking the rights to Youngblood but it required my involvement and I cannot at this juncture go forward.

Thankfully, my other partner, John Hyde has chosen to go a different path as he realizes the value that I bring to my creations and we have partnered on his selections with Prophet going forward having just set up the feature film and we are currently pursuing Glory in all media. 2/3 of my catalogue receive my involvement and participation.

I have BLOODSTRIKE, BRIGADE, BERZERKERS, BLOODWULF, Re:GEX, KABOOM, AVENGELYNE and others in my portfolio, completely under my domain. As I informed everyone last year, I walked away from Netflix because I felt it was not the best opportunity at this time in our ever changing world. I’m a finicky cat.

I share this with you now following an unexpected conversation with the Andrew Rev guy about publishing. In short it was very disrespectful and I had to put distance between me, these people and my creations which were now in a foreign domain. I had to convincingly wash my hands of this corner of my imagination. I have a pretty fertile mind and many new projects yet to advance, many making the media rounds that will be known soon enough. This was a much needed update and hopefully explains the current situation.

Youngblood represented some of my finest work, I’m proud of all the work that was produced. Sadly, film companies will be reluctant to invest the time and money in a venture without the support and blessing of its creator.

Upwards, onwards! To the Extreme!

Rob Liefeld

Rosenberg

The tldr (too long; didn't read) summary of it is that before launching Awesome, Liefeld sold some of the media rights to some of his characters to a guy he knew from Malibu Comics named Scott Rosenberg. Liefeld then brought in another partner in John Hyde. Rosenberg and Hyde had a dispute and as Liefeld says, "Awesome went into freefall."

Out of that, Liefeld, Rosenberg and Hyde split the media rights (think movies, tv, etc.) three ways, with Liefeld maintaining publishing rights. That's why Liefeld has continued to put out comics that Rosenberg owns media rights to (including Youngblood and Supreme).

But now Rosenberg has sold or partnered with a guy named Andrew Rev. Years ago, Rev bought Comico after it went bankrupt. Rev intends to put out Youngblood comics and toys. So Liefeld isn't doing anything with Youngblood for the near future and is in what he describes as an "ugly custody battle."

So, let's clear up a few things as it relates to this site's mission of chronicling the Moore Awesome material. First off, which characters and properties are we talking about?

This is the way Rosenberg explained his stake to me earlier this year:

I’m talking on behalf of Rip Media, which owns approximately 515 of the Awesome characters – we call it Awesome, but mean everything from the Image Comics (Malibu) debut on forward. The rights include all 515 characters that debuted in Youngblood, Supreme (between Younblood and Supreme, most of the Alan Moore created concepts are there) and New Men, and also includes those from Knightmare, Bloodpool, a couple others, and the non-universe book, Coven.

They don’t include characters from Avengelyne, Bezerkers, Bloodstrike, Bloodwulf, Brigade, Cybrid, Kaboom and Regex (comprising approx. 180 characters owned by Rob), nor Glory, Maximage, Judgment Day, Prophet, Cyberpunx or Warchild (comprising approx. 175 characters owned by John Hyde). It sounds complicated, but isn’t really.

Warchild

Moore's version of Prophet

So, even if Rosenberg/Rev move forward with any of the Moore concepts, they don't include anything from Glory (damn, and I was hoping to finally read those last two scripts) or Warchild, which are the only Moore scripts out there that haven't been seen. It also sounds like we'll be unlikely to see the Prophet proposal, which would have been nice for comparing to Tom Strong.

It also doesn't answer the question of who owns the reprint rights to Alan Moore's Supreme. As you'll remember, Liefeld sold those to Checker, which may or may not even exist any more. But Liefeld published the last Alan Moore Supreme script (after a rumored legal skirmish with Checker). So does Liefeld have reprint rights? Or does whatever Checker is still have them? Or does Rosenberg/Rev claim a right to them? I've never been able to fully work this one out.

Yeah, I don't think we're getting a new edition anytime soon. (Maybe you should think about making your own.)

But the Moore Youngbloods might be a different matter. Moore wrote four scripts that were never published. Rosenberg claims the rights to the Youngblood characters and has the scripts. Could we finally see the Moore issues? A nice trade of those would be very welcome. Though I would think we'd see a lengthy legal battle with Liefeld before that ever happens.

The New Men

The only other unaccounted Moore piece is the New Men proposal. (Image Publisher Eric Stephenson explained what Moore material existed here: "Stephenson: Alan wrote a total of eight Youngblood scripts, three of which have been illustrated, to date. There are two scripts for War Child and there were two for Glory. There are pitches for Prophet, New Men and a new series called The Allies, but not all of those pitches necessarily represent what or where we want those characters to be now.")

Maybe we could finally see the New Men proposal? That'd certainly be nice.

Oh well... I don't think this is getting resolved any time soon.

Update: Rev gave an interview to Bleeding Cool. I'm not sure it tells us anything more about Youngblood or where all of this may end up, but it's a start.