Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Mark Millar, millarworld, netflix, Sharkey The Bounty Hunter, simone bianchi

World Finally Learns of Mark Millar and Simone Bianchi's Sharkey The Bounty Hunter

As American media outlets finally emerge from their Turkey-induced comas, websites other than Bleeding Cool are finally talking about Mark Millar and Simone Bianchi's new Netflix comic, Sharkey the Bounty Hunter. Bleeding Cool, of course, has been talking about the comic (and feature film adaptation) for nigh on a week now, which is long as it's been publicly listed on the PreviewsWorld website, but apparently, due to EXCLUSIVITY and EMBARGOES and other fun entertainment media shenanigans, no one else was allowed to talk about it… until today.

The thing about embargoes, of course, is that they only work if everyone agrees to them, and if you don't send press materials to certain sites, those sites don't have any chance to agree to anything at all, even if they gladly would have if given the chance, and then everyone else just looks silly pretending not to know about something that's publicly available information. Of course, it's possible Netflix subsidiary Millarworld doesn't send Bleeding Cool press materials because Rich Johnston likes to say mean things like this about them…

We got significant traffic for the story – as it was revealed that no other website was covering the release of this comic book. Mark Millar wasn't even mentioning it on social media. And this is Mark Millar, remember. Famed for accompanying comic book launches with the most outrageous and fictitious PR stunts – including fake Eminem starring in Wanted, fake videos showing a real life Kick-Ass, a fake elderly comics reviewer getting a tattoo of Starlight on her back, a fake ad for Nemesis on Times Square, a fake copy of Superior in Obama's hand, fake visits to Detroit to research MPH and a fake huge launch for The Magic Order, where it was revealed that US comic convention organisers Reed POP had ordered a hundred thousand copies at discount, in order to secure Mark Millar's appearance at a show or two. And who still most of them warehoused – though if you order anything from them, you usually get a free copy of The Magic Order. Plans to hand them out willy-nilly at shows were scuppered when they realised that it featured a naked blue floating bloke with his willy out, Watchmen style.

Ouch! Will Lemmy… er, we mean, Sharkey… hang dong in this comic? We'll have to wait and see.

In any case, Netflix has released a teaser for the comic, as well as a PR statement to sites like Deadline:

When I joined Netflix on staff last year we had this crazy plan of a big sci-fi universe of movies and Sharkey is the first of these.  The Magic Order is our fantasy/ horror franchise, Prodigy is our big adventure movies and Sharkey kicks off a whole world of sci-fi that's just a great action comedy in the style of all the movies I grew up with. I love blue-collar heroes and I like the parent/ kid dynamic from movies like Paper Moon or Leon The Professional and, of course, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. This is all the things Star Wars or Marvel can't get away with. We start where they kinda draw the line and I love this freedom creatively as we've never seen space done this way before. To have Simone Bianchi drawing the comic book side of all this and working from the amazing production designs is an honor. The team is just incredible. Simone and I have talking about working together since my days at Marvel so it's a total blessing to finally be working with this Italian genius.

Deadline also reports that Michael Bacall will write that feature film adaptation.

So, there you have it. Sharkey the Bounty Hunter is coming in February 2019… but you knew that already, dear BC reader. Pip pip.

SHARKEY THE BOUNTY HUNTER #1 (OF 6)
WRITER: MARK MILLAR
ARTIST / COVER A: SIMONE BIANCHI
COVER B (SKETCH VARIANT): SIMONE BIANCHI
COVER C: FRANK QUITELY
COVER D: MATTEO SCALERA
COVER E: OZGUR YILDIRIM
COVER F: BLANK
COVER G: KARL KERSCHL
FEBRUARY 20 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99
MINISERIES PREMIERE
Set in a brilliant new sci-fi universe, Sharkey is a blue-collar bounty hunter who tracks criminals across the galaxy in his converted, rocket-powered ice-cream truck. Aided and abetted by his ten-year-old partner, he's out for the biggest bounty of his career.

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