MEETING STUDIO ICE

[MattBrady]

by Aaron Weisbrod

Take a Korean publishing mega-house, add in a dash of Udon elbow-rubbing and a newly expanding Devil’s Due and what do you get?

Studio ICE – the latest imprint/studio to join DDP with the intent of diversifying the comic shelves with their unique comic book properties.

Charles Park, as an Assistant Editor for Studio ICE (as well as a member of UDON Studios in good standing) recently stepped-up to the plate to dish to Newsarama about what the Korean-based collective has to offer, how they joined forces with the Devil’s Due crew, and whether or not their variety of comic book product falls under the umbrella of manga.

Newsarama: First things first. Who are the driving force behind Studio ICE, and how did the Studio itself come into being?

Charles Park: Well, I should introduce key individuals that are involved with Studio ICE in North America first.

Eddie Yu is the Editor-in-chief of Studio ICE. He produces all the Studio ICE projects and oversees the world distribution as well as marketing of their properties.

I’m Charles Park - an Assistant Editor as well as a representative of Studio ICE in North America.

Erik Ko is the chief of Udon and very close friend of Studio ICE. He’s also helping Studio ICE with marketing.

That being said, the main force behind the Studio ICE - International Creative Entertainment, is Edie Yu. He has been in comic scene for a long time and created several titles for North American market, including Defiance, through Image. Soon after that, the studio became a part of a much bigger publishing company based in Korea called Sigongsa. Now Studio ICE has a lot more talent and crew members than ever before and they are just about to make everyone’s heads turn.

NRAMA: Comics is only a small part of what the studio produces, right?

CP: That’s correct! As I said earlier, Studio ICE (http://www.studioice.com) is a division of a much larger publishing mega-house called Sigongsa in Korea (http://www.sigongsa.com). They are very well known for their magazines, children’s books, art books, novels, and of course their manga. As an important division of Sigongsa, ICE has been involved not only in comics, but also many other multimedia industries for a long time. Many of their key members are main character designers for hugely popular video games - notably Lineage 2, Magnacarta, Kingdom Under Fire, and more, as well as animation, music videos and even movies.

NRAMA: One of the first things that jumps at people about the studio is that, although “based” in Korea, Studio ICE has members from all over the globe. How did the studio grow from a Korean-based publisher to this international collection of artists and writers?

CP: Well, Eddie’s original studio had some American talents to begin with. Becoming a part of Sigongsa only meant for the inclusion of even more broad and higher profile talents to work with. Since almost all of Studio ICE’s projects are for the Global market, it’s very important for us to have as many diversified talents as we can.

NRAMA: How did Studio ICE enter an agreement with Devil’s Due? Udon played a role, correct?

CP: Yep. When Erik and I met up with Eddie Yu at last year’s SDCC, we knew that we can help each other greatly. Soon after that, Erik and I became Studio ICE’s North American representative. Our first task was to find the right publishing partner for Studio ICE in the US. It wasn’t an easy task since there were some major changes happening in US comic industry at the time. However, when Erik told us that Devil’s Due Productions became a publisher of their own after their success – and with Udon teaming up with them – it was very clear that DDP is a perfect partner for Studio ICE as well, so I flew to Chicago, met up with those cool guys at DDP and sealed the deal.

NRAMA: OK… but considering the fact that Studio ICE already has a fairly significant amount of publishing experience, what was the motivation for joining forces with Devil’s Due?

CP: Well, Studio ICE prefer to have an oversea partner because it’s better to have a partner who’s native and already familiar with the particular market they are in. In North American comics, we believe DDP is just the right publishing partner for us. We know DDP had done a marvelous job growing exponentially under Image before, and now as a new publisher, they are doing such a wonderful job again, so it was very natural decision for us.

NRAMA: One of the Studio ICE books that seems to be generating the most buzz at the moment is Megacity 909. What’s this title all about?

CP: Megacity 909 is a sci-fi/horror title that’s in the near future. It’s similar to their old title Defiance in style and setting. It’s about the future where humanity achieved a true eternal peace by eliminating human rage after the planet-wide struggle… but mysterious parasites called “Pulses” started to appear right after, and a team to handle them called “Phobia” was created. Megacity is an intriguing story of Phobia with beautifully painted artwork in every page. I’m quite sure that many fans of sci-fi will love this title.

NRAMA: You’re are also developing a comic based on the online videogame MU. Is the comic version of MU an extension of what happens in the game… or does it delve into completely new territory?

CP: MU Online is the largest online MMORPG in the world currently with 40 million plus accounts all over the world. Our MU comics will be based on the world setting of MU Online and many key characters of the game, but it will also have a lot of our own original ideas and imagination.

NRAMA: What other projects will Studio Ice be releasing in the immediate future, and who are your target audiences?

CP: We have a lot of titles planned and five of them are already deep into the production.

As we already discussed, Megacity 909 is a Sci-Fi horror title targeted for sci-fi and horror fans, and MU is a fantasy title based on the popular online RPG.

We also have Ghost Face, an action adventure story, the Gothic Fantasy Angel Doll, and another project I can’t mention just yet.

Starting this September, Megacity will be published through DDP, and from November, MU will join. One additional title will be added each month after that.

NRAMA: Cool. Finally – just for the record – is Studio ICE’s product manga?

CP: Nope, all the titles that are planned in US currently are color comics. Sigongsa has extensive amount of manga lines and many of them are being already published all over the world right now. In the US, many of their title including, The Priest is being published by TokyoPop. You never know the future, but for now and immediate future, Studio ICE’s titles will be color comics.

[Landry]

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