Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, frank cho, liberty meadows

Frank Cho Gets Liberty Meadows Back To Do With As He Pleases

Published Mon, 16 May 2011 09:00:12 -0500

Frank Cho has announced the current status of his Liberty Meadows comic and strip and potential animated adaptation.

Basically, he's got the rights back from Sony, and he's working on issue 38 of the comic, due out at the end of the year. He then gives the whole twisty, turny journey of getting back to square one with the comic.

Let's back track a minute. About 3 years ago, Sony got the rights to Liberty Meadows to develop it as a downloadable original cartoon series for their new Sony Digital division. I wrote the original pilot episode but it was rejected for being too "risque". So other writers were brought in to tone it down and make it more kid friendly. Once I read the rewrite, I thought it completely missed the point of Liberty Meadows. So I rewrote the rewrite, and this went back and forth couple of times until we reached a compromised script. We turned that script into an traditional 2D animated pilot episode.

Enter Sony Television division. They saw the pilot episode and liked it. Liberty Meadows get bumped up to their television division and a TV series is planned. However there is one request, Sony Television people wanted Liberty Meadows to be more "risque" with adult humor like the "Family Guy". This is the point where I rip my hair out in frustration. Sony Digital people rejected my original script for that very reason, for being too "risque".

So I go back and re-polish the original script, adding more scenes to make it longer to fit the television episode time frame. As I'm doing this, a new Sony television contract is being drafted to replace my Sony digital contract. Then the recession hit. Then the three Sony executives who were shepherding this project along since the beginning leave Sony. The new guy who takes over have no interest in projects started by his predecessors. Thus Liberty Meadows TV show goes into limbo… and we wait and wait. Ultimately under the inactivity clause, all the Liberty Meadows rights revert back to me, and concludes my 2 year journey at Sony.

Now Liberty Meadows is back home, firmly under my complete control again.

I know a number of people who have just pumped the air with the fist going "yes!" Are you one of them?

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