Halo-8 comics In June 2008, HALO-8 debuted a new comic book publishing arm at
Wizard World Chicago with
Godkiller (written by
Matt Pizzolo, illustrated by Anna Muckcracker). The following February at
Wondercon, Halo-8 unveiled its "illustrated film" format that fuses comic books with cinema and explained
Godkiller would be released simultaneously as a print comic book and as episodic illustrated films on shortform DVDs. In April 2010 at
C2E2 in Chicago, Halo-8 premiered the collected
Godkiller illustrated film and announced several new comic book series:
The Long Knives (a
giallo-style revenge adventure written by Pizzolo, illustrated by newcomer Ana Ludeshka),
Loaded Bible 2 (continuing the acclaimed Jesus vs vampires series by
Tim Seeley (
Hack/Slash)),
Medusa: Year One (a re-invention of the mythic character as a misunderstood heroine),
Godkiller 2 (reuniting Pizzolo and Muckcracker), and
Black Sky (a
Band of Brothers vs
Cthulhu series by
Ben Templesmith (
30 Days of Night)).
First annual Halloween multi-filmmaker showcase DVD In October 2008, HALO-8 debuted a unique, multi-filmmaker showcase project called
Slumber Party Slaughterhouse: The Game, a horror DVD game where each death scene is directed by a different HALO-8 filmmaker and stars actors and actresses from various HALO-8 films. Participating filmmakers included
Matt Pizzolo,
Doug Sakmann,
Joanna Angel,
Ramzi Abed, and
Kurly Tlapoyawa. Participating actors and actresses included
Tiffany Shepis, Masuimi Max, Joanna Angel,
Melissa Bacelar, and Katie Nisa. The project premiered at the
Halo-8: Films That Kill Halloween festival in Hollywood, where live hosts Joanna Angel, Matt Pizzolo, and
Daisy Sparks MC'd the event that mixed
pub-trivia style gaming with
Rocky Horror-style
audience participation.
Partnership with Epic Level Entertainment for Xombie In November 2008, HALO-8 announced the acquisition of the
Xombie web-series produced by James Farr and
Epic Level Entertainment's
Cindi Rice and
John Frank Rosenblum. The March 31, 2009 release date of the
Xombie: Dead on Arrival collected series DVD marked HALO-8's entry into distribution of
animated films, which was followed by
anime-style adaptations of the comic book series currently published under HALO-8's publishing arm.
Illustrated films Pizzolo and Giberson began developing what they termed "illustrated films" in late 2007, citing influences
Liquid Television, the
MTV cartoon adaptation of
The Maxx, the
Berserk anime series,
Chris Marker's
La jetée, the motion comic
Broken Saints, and the experimental cinema of
Ralph Bakshi. Since Pizzolo started out as a playwright, he was interested in using voice performances to drive the pace and action, while composing the visuals from sequential art illustrations in an experimental cinema style utilizing only subtle pans and zooms. Giberson, an Emmy-winning TV producer, pushed Pizzolo to integrate more elaborate animation. The two developed a style that mixed simple limited-animation puppetry with moments of fully animated 3D-CGI. Pizzolo (a longtime comic book fan who previously worked at St. Mark's Comix and Village Comics in NY) decided the sequential art should be composed as a comic book because it was the ideal workflow for creating sequential art. Pizzolo has made clear that this was all theoretical and they might never have executed on the illustrated film style if he had not discovered
Anna Muckcracker and recruited her to illustrate the first project,
Godkiller. Pizzolo told
Horror News: There are lots of reasons [Godkiller was made as an illustrated film], but I think the most important one was really being inspired by Anna Muckcracker's gorgeous artwork. Brian Giberson (my partner at Halo-8) and I had been experimenting with the illustrated film format for a while, but we might still have gone with traditional animation for Godkiller since it's really risky to experiment with a crazy story and a new filmmaking format at the same time. But once I saw Anna's art, I knew that no traditional form of animation could do justice to the grimy, textured, surreal aesthetic she created. It was really an artistic choice, because from a business point of view it's just so risky. Pizzolo has also clarified that the term "illustrated film" was not intended to be a snipe at
motion comics, saying he was aware of
Broken Saints and has always cited it as an influence but feels motion comics are only one element of the evolving illustrated film style, which is intended to be a constantly evolving multimedia format whose elements are determined by the story rather than the workflow.. He even told Bloody Disgusting that upcoming ill-films may incorporate heavily textured live action and be composed for 3D viewing. Pizzolo also says he is a fan of the
Watchmen Motion Comic, but that it hadn't been released yet when he, Giberson, and Muckcracker were producing
Godkiller. Pizzolo points out that the contemporary motion comics wave is largely influenced by the Watchmen Motion Comic, so motion comics and illustrated films developed simultaneously but separately from one another. He told Bloody Disgusting, "Godkiller was just a slower production than Watchmen because we had to create 200 pages of art and story from the ground up first, rather than starting with one of the greatest comic books ever made as source material. Plus, we had a dozen voice performers instead of just one."
Wired asked Pizzolo to explain the differences between motion comics and illustrated films: In illustrated films, we drive the pace of the storytelling with the dramatic voice performances and the sound design, so that allows us to showcase the illustrations in a way where you can really take a moment to absorb the art in the same way you can when reading a comic book ... Motion comics are closer to a form of
limited animation that uses comics as source material. Illustrated films are closer to the experimental cinema of Ralph Bakshi's work, Chris Marker's
La jetée or animation like
Liquid Television. Pizzolo, Giberson and actresses
Danielle Harris and
Tiffany Shepis presented two exclusive preview clips of the
Godkiller illustrated film at
Fangorias Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles on April 18, 2009. Due to overwhelming retail demand far beyond studio expectations, the first episodic DVD's street date was delayed a week until October 6, 2009, allowing for enough DVDs to be manufactured to supply stores. Due to retail holiday conflicts, this delay rescheduled the entire release to: Episode 1 Oct 6 2009, Episode 2 Jan 26 2010, Episode 3 April 16, 2010 (with day & date theatrical release of full feature), Complete film on VOD May 25, 2010, and on DVD July 20, 2010. The complete 75-minute feature
Godkiller: Walk Among Us premiered at the
C2E2 comic con in Chicago on April 16, 2010, before playing theatrically in 10 cities. On May 25, 2010, it was distributed via cable VOD to 75 million homes.
Growth of illustrated films division Following the success of
Godkiller, HALO-8 ramped up the illustrated film line by growing the slate of its comic book publishing division while also entering into partnerships with other comic book publishers and creators. HALO-8 announced deals to produce illustrated film adaptations of
Loaded Bible and
Xombie: Reanimated. Shortly after HALO-8 announced the
Xombie: Reanimated illustrated film, it was announced
DreamWorks SKG is developing a live-action
Xombie: Reanimated film to be produced with
Alex Kurtzman and
Roberto Orci. During Halo-8's panel at
WonderCon 2010, Pizzolo unveiled a first look at his giallo animation
The Long Knives, which had recently begun production. Two weeks later during Halo-8's panel at
C2E2, Pizzolo confirmed his collaboration with
Tim Seeley on
Loaded Bible and then unveiled two new projects in development:
Medusa: Year One and
Ben Templesmith's
Black Sky. In September 2010, MTV Splash Page announced that Pizzolo will direct an illustrated film adaptation of the popular comic book series
Hack/Slash. In December 2010, a teaser-trailer was released for the illustrated film
Black Sky, illustrated and created by
Ben Templesmith (
30 Days of Night,
Welcome To Hoxford,
Choker) and directed by Pizzolo.
H8LA In November 2009, HALO-8 launched branded-apparel division H8LA, enlisting stylist
Aubrie Davis (formerly of
Hot Topic and
H&M stores) to join the team as Creative Director. Davis began with a line of T-shirts based on
Godkiller. Actors
Bill Moseley,
Danielle Harris, and
Tiffany Shepis served double-duty on
Godkiller, performing in the film and modeling the T-shirts for H8LA. == Affiliated production companies ==