FEBRUARY 2005

THE VALIANT MOVIE THAT NEVER HAPPENED!  by Bob Layton

  Soon after the acquisition of Valiant Comics by Acclaim Entertainment in 1995, CEO Greg Fischbach charged me with drafting movie treatments for the three characters that I believed would make the best comics-to-film transition. As Editor-In-Chief and co-creator of the Valiant properties, I thought long and hard about the pros and cons that each of our characters would present as a film property.

 Eventually, I narrowed the selection down to X-O Manowar (a no-brainer), Shadowman and Ninjak.

I painstakingly worked for weeks on each one of those movie premises, taking valuable time away from the office in order to concentrate on what I felt was a critical step in getting my beloved characters to the mass market recognition phase.

Unfortunately, Acclaim never got the representation in Hollywood that they sought, in order to get my springboards into the hands of executive film producers.

  Many years later, I learned from the various connections that I made in Hollywood that Acclaim had been nearly impossible to work with, with the company’s management being prone to making unreasonable demands and asking for outrageous sums of money for the film rights to their virtually-unknown characters. 

One producer that I'm familiar with, whose reputation remains spotless to this day, told me about his nightmare deal scenario with Acclaim. In that tale, I was told that all of the negotiation points had been agreed upon, the handshake was done and the contracts were being drawn up—only to have Acclaim come back to the table in the ‘eleventh hour’ and hold the entire deal hostage with unreasonable demands for even more money.

Ultimately, those film springboards were dumped into a dead file and never seen again—until now.

I recently uncovered copies of the Valiant film treatments during one of my regular forays into the darkened depths of my storage facility.

 First off, I am presenting the X-O Manowar film treatment, scanned directly off of the original documents.

For those of you who are familiar with the character, you’ll notice that there are several premise changes from the original comic concept, as well as new characters that appeared only in the film premise.

I hope you enjoy this never-before-seen adaptation.

1/29/05

>>CLICK HERE TO READ THE X-O FILM TREATMENT>>

I know the Eagles are the 'dogs ' in this game, but I have to go with them to win by a field goal.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE NEW ARCHIVE PAGE>>

A NEW ADDITION TO THE Layton FAMILY

Jill and i welcomed this 19 WEEK OLD sheepdog into our home AND NAMED HIM -- 'IGGY PUP'

THE DOG HAS SINCE  EARNED THE NICKNAME OF 'IGGY-PIGGY', DUE TO HIS PHENOMENAL APPETITE AND PROPENSITY FOR CHEWING.

  hE'S ACTUALLY A GREAT LITTLE DOG AND TRULY HELPS TO FILL THE VOID LEFT BY SHERMAN'S PASSING.

OUR THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR E-MAILS OF SYMPATHY AND SUPPORT FOR THE LOSS OF OUR CANINE FAMILY MEMBER LAST DECEMBER. 

More Iggy news--as he develops.

Marvel Team-up #110 unpublished COVER

I had misplaced this unpublished version of the Spidey Team-up cover. It was so rough that I never considered finishing it once the editor had shot it down.
BTW: I used the Iron Man doodle on the back of this cover for one of my concept armor designs on my website, then totally lost track of where I stashed it until Jill and I did spring cleaning on her office last weekend and it turned up in a loose xerox bin with the Iron Man model sheets displayed this month in my latest art gallery.
This item has been sold.

TITANIUM MAN/ MARK IV

BOB TO CREATE TWO NEW VALIANT LITHOS FOR DYNAMIC FORCES!

DYNAMIC FORCES, distributors of fine comic-related collectables, has penned a deal with Bob Layton to create art for lithograph prints based on the popular Western Publishing and Valiant characters,

Magnus: Robot Fighter and Solar, Man of the Atom.

Copies of these prints will be offered on this website, once published.

Look for information to be posted as it becomes available or go to D.F.'s website by clicking on their logo.

IRON MAN

ARMOR  Wars

POSTER

bob has recently discovered a stash of  marvel promotional posters from the Classic armor wars storyline.

they are available in very limited quantity (ONLY EIGHT LEFT), autographed by bob, for only $10.00 + $2.50 for postage and handling

FROM BOB'S  UNPUBLISHED CONCEPT VAULT

"QB-1"

Production sketch by Bob Layton

Production sketch by Bob Layton

  QB-1 was a film project that screenwriters Massett & Zinman (Tomb Raider, Deep Blue Sea) brought to Future Comics for adaptation. Although many storyboards and a plotline

were developed, the project was ultimately shelved when the company was forced to close.

Here are two more pages of the preliminary art for the project by Bob, along with a brief synopsis of the story:

"Several decades into the future, gambling is globally legal and the game of Football has evolved into a technology-driven sport that has become the ‘Bread N’ Butter’ of the corporate bookmaking profession.

Fiber optic fields, holographic referees, computerized ‘smart balls’ and bionically-enhanced players have all become commonplace.

However, in spite of the corporate and technological stranglehold on the game, one man achieves the seemingly-impossible by becoming the top Quarterback in the World League—without any technological enhancements.  Emulating his heroes like Montana and Namath, Joe Jackowski dominates the game against cybernetic opponents with twice his speed and strength by skill, sheer guts and an iron will.

In spite of Joe’s amazing achievements on the field, the Corporation wants him dead and will break any rules to accomplish that end."

If you wish to write Bob, please send all correspondence to: 

P.O.BOX 2776,VALRICO, FL 33595 or e-mail him at BOB.LAYTON@boblayton.com