By Fawney Bologna
Special to DFG ONLINE!
DFG President and Co-Publisher Dan Graves spent last weekend in Peterborough for a high-level corporate meeting with DFG VP and Co-Publisher Darryl Andrews. The contents of the meeting was, for the most part, hush-hush, but when reached for comment Mr. Graves was able to give the following details:
"Essentially, we plotted out the entire upcoming year of DFG Comics. Here's what I can tell you. Captain Nepto Prime is on hold for the moment while Darryl Andrews works on a brand-new title The Winged Avenger! As for Spy Comics Presents, issue #6 will be released soon and issues 7 through 10 have been completely scripted. We are also excited about our new line of comic strips. Leighton Graves and I are working Cosmic Man, while the Todd Abbot Studio has resurrected an old DFG Movie concept, Mitchum and Felix and have completed the first three installments."
We reached DFG VP Darryl Andrews to ask him about the new Winged Avenger! comic. "I really can't let the bird out of the cage on this one just yet," he said, "All I can say is that this was a concept Dan and I came up with waaaay back in 1984. Due to other commitments it has been on hold for 25 years! Dan recently slipped the character in as a background character in the Battle of the Invincibles story arc in Spy Comics Presents. It seemed that the timing was finally right to tell the story of a character who is destined to be one of DFG's powerhouse properties!"
Leighton Graves had this to say about the upcoming Cosmic Man strip: "Well, Dad and I wanted to work on something together so I suggested that we explore another one of DFG's little used characters. He appeared on some covers in the early 1980's and in recent issues of Spy Comics Presents. We began to wonder about his secret identity, origins and powers, and then I said, 'hey Dad, why don't we let the fans decide?!" Dad agreed and so we will be featuring special polls on the DFG fan club page where YOU get to decide everything about Cosmic Man!"
Todd Abbot was reached about the Mitchum and Felix comic strip and made the following comments: "Mitchum and Felix were really unused properties in the DFG canon. I'm led to understand that Peter Repovski (who had starred in the Holden and Bates detective series with Dan Graves) was tired of playing the bumbling sidekick against Dan's straight man William Holden, so Darryl Andrews, who directed the DFG films commissioned a new series. In that series Dan starred as the ultra-cool, Don Johnson-esque police detective 'Mitchum', while Peter played his computer geek info-tech partner 'Felix.' Pete really didn't care much for that role either and the series was cancelled after two episodes due to poor distribution. At the Peterborough corporate meeting we were going through our video archives and rediscovered the series. It really is a hidden gem in the DFG corpus. There was a strong feeling we should revive Mitchum and Felix in comic strip form (after all Holden and Bates had been recently revived in Spy Comics Presents as part of the New Invincibles). All the staff were busy with other projects so I suggest that my studio take a crack at it. We have three episodes written, pencilled and inked. Flora is now colouring them." When asked if he was personally involved with the project, Mr. Abbot added, "I drew all the faces. I like to maintain quality control over all my studio's projects and this is one way I can ensure the 'Todd Abbot stamp of approval.' And by the way, eagle-eyed fans will note that Felix is drawn much like Frank Bates. The reason for this is that we really wanted to retain the Peter Repovski look. He's such an impressive actor with incredible facial gestures. We love drawing him. Here's a juicy little tid-bit, we're hoping to reintroduce the DFG villain Milo, who was also featured in the Holden and Bates series and last seen in Spy '96. My artists are carefully studying pictures of the actor who portrayed him, John Burgess, to ensure an authentic portrayal!"
Special to DFG ONLINE!
DFG President and Co-Publisher Dan Graves spent last weekend in Peterborough for a high-level corporate meeting with DFG VP and Co-Publisher Darryl Andrews. The contents of the meeting was, for the most part, hush-hush, but when reached for comment Mr. Graves was able to give the following details:
"Essentially, we plotted out the entire upcoming year of DFG Comics. Here's what I can tell you. Captain Nepto Prime is on hold for the moment while Darryl Andrews works on a brand-new title The Winged Avenger! As for Spy Comics Presents, issue #6 will be released soon and issues 7 through 10 have been completely scripted. We are also excited about our new line of comic strips. Leighton Graves and I are working Cosmic Man, while the Todd Abbot Studio has resurrected an old DFG Movie concept, Mitchum and Felix and have completed the first three installments."
We reached DFG VP Darryl Andrews to ask him about the new Winged Avenger! comic. "I really can't let the bird out of the cage on this one just yet," he said, "All I can say is that this was a concept Dan and I came up with waaaay back in 1984. Due to other commitments it has been on hold for 25 years! Dan recently slipped the character in as a background character in the Battle of the Invincibles story arc in Spy Comics Presents. It seemed that the timing was finally right to tell the story of a character who is destined to be one of DFG's powerhouse properties!"
Leighton Graves had this to say about the upcoming Cosmic Man strip: "Well, Dad and I wanted to work on something together so I suggested that we explore another one of DFG's little used characters. He appeared on some covers in the early 1980's and in recent issues of Spy Comics Presents. We began to wonder about his secret identity, origins and powers, and then I said, 'hey Dad, why don't we let the fans decide?!" Dad agreed and so we will be featuring special polls on the DFG fan club page where YOU get to decide everything about Cosmic Man!"
Todd Abbot was reached about the Mitchum and Felix comic strip and made the following comments: "Mitchum and Felix were really unused properties in the DFG canon. I'm led to understand that Peter Repovski (who had starred in the Holden and Bates detective series with Dan Graves) was tired of playing the bumbling sidekick against Dan's straight man William Holden, so Darryl Andrews, who directed the DFG films commissioned a new series. In that series Dan starred as the ultra-cool, Don Johnson-esque police detective 'Mitchum', while Peter played his computer geek info-tech partner 'Felix.' Pete really didn't care much for that role either and the series was cancelled after two episodes due to poor distribution. At the Peterborough corporate meeting we were going through our video archives and rediscovered the series. It really is a hidden gem in the DFG corpus. There was a strong feeling we should revive Mitchum and Felix in comic strip form (after all Holden and Bates had been recently revived in Spy Comics Presents as part of the New Invincibles). All the staff were busy with other projects so I suggest that my studio take a crack at it. We have three episodes written, pencilled and inked. Flora is now colouring them." When asked if he was personally involved with the project, Mr. Abbot added, "I drew all the faces. I like to maintain quality control over all my studio's projects and this is one way I can ensure the 'Todd Abbot stamp of approval.' And by the way, eagle-eyed fans will note that Felix is drawn much like Frank Bates. The reason for this is that we really wanted to retain the Peter Repovski look. He's such an impressive actor with incredible facial gestures. We love drawing him. Here's a juicy little tid-bit, we're hoping to reintroduce the DFG villain Milo, who was also featured in the Holden and Bates series and last seen in Spy '96. My artists are carefully studying pictures of the actor who portrayed him, John Burgess, to ensure an authentic portrayal!"
Following the meeting, Dan Graves flew home on the DFG corporate Jet DFG-1, pictured above.
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