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THE LONG-AWAITED GRAPHIC NOVEL BASED ON THE HIT WEB COMIC


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FUTURE COMICS: Skip Farrell, Publisher & President Bob Layton, Editor-In-Chief Dick Giordano, Inspiration Emeritus Scott Friendlander, Production Manager

IDW PUBLISHING: Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher Greg Goldstein, President & COO Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Ofcer/Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Ofcer Alan Payne, VP of Sales Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services

ISBN: 9781623021429 DIGITAL

Send all inquires to: [email protected] www.idwpublishing.comCOLONY. OCTOBER 2012. FIRST PRINTING. COLONY published by Future Comics, Inc., 405 Pine St., Burlington, VT 05401. 2012 by Robert B. Layton. All Rights Reserved. COLONY & FUTURE COMICS, all characters, distinctlikenesses thereof and all related indicia are trademarks of Future Comics, Inc. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Ofce. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial ofces: 5080 Santa

Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permission

of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.

IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

A production in collaboration with


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INTRODUCTION

The story concerning the creation oCOLONYhas a long, checkered history, replete with twists and

turns, highs and lows, victories and deeats, with numerous developments being manipulated by

the ckle hand o ate itsel.

Originally, I conceived the saga oCOLONYto be an ongoing television series.

Shortly ater leaving my job as Senior Vice President/Editor-In-Chie o Valiant Comics in

1996, I realized that, as a writer, I became rustrated by the limitations o the monthly comicsormat. I always yearned to create a magnum opus that avoided the limitations o the standard

22-page comic book ormat. I began searching or a new medium, one where I could create a

complex cast o characters with an intricate plot line taking years to unold.

Eventually, I set my sights on television.

I began writing a television treatment and timeline that would serve as an analog to the

ounding o Australia, but set in the ar-ung uture on a planet I described in the documents

introduction as the asshole o space.

As I threw mysel into the project, the COLONY treatment and character bible began to

balloon into a staggering 75-page document, one that detailed the background history o everycharacter in the story, as well as the 200-year timeline o the malevolent Galactic Conederacys

rise to power.

Realizing that the saga oCOLONYbecame almost too unwieldy or a single story, I took a

page rom George LucasSTAR WARS playbook and ocused my attention on the second act o the

story, which contained the most action and drama.

I decided that COLONY would be broken into three separate tales that interconnected

through the main characters. This graphic novel represents Chapter Two.

With my massive outline nally complete, I prepared to venture into the jungles o Hollywood

to pitch the project to the networks.O course, beore I could do that, ate decided that my career would take an extraordinary turn.

Several years earlier, my long-time riend and mentor Dick Giordano let his job as executive

editor o DC Comics, ater a 15-year tenure, to go back to lie as a reelance artist. However,

his enthusiasm or that move quickly waned as he realized that the comics industry had sadly

devolved into something o a hot mess.

He realized that nobody was actively working to usher a new audience into reading comic books.

Instead, the industry appeared to take steps toward catering to die-hard ans and not appealing to a

general audience. Retailers seemed to be concerned about the lack o resh, new aces coming into

their stores, as well.

Dick and I elt that we should try creating comics that were, or lack o a better term, a little

more mainstreamthat would be enjoyed by anyone.

With my writing partner and close riend, David Michelinie, the three o us ormed Future

Comics, the industrys rst sel-distributing comic book company. Later, we were joined by

entrepreneur Skip Farrell, who assumed the role o Futures publisher.

It was a noble, sincere venture that attempted to bypass the monopolistic distribution

system and sell a more mass market product directly to retailers and ans via the Internet.

Unortunately, in 2002, internet commerce still remained in its inancy, and there were

simply not enough retailers online to sustain our efort.

But, even in that ailure, one needs to recognize the business genius o Dick Giordano, a

man who possessed the ortitude to try to revolutionize the business model o an entire industry

while in his 70s.

In some ways, Dick Giordano was the Preston Tucker o the comics industry.

During that time at Future Comics, I aquired representation in Hollywood or the companys

properties. Seizing the opportunity to add COLONY into the mix, my agent began to make the

rounds to various production companies with my unwieldy continuity bible.


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As ate would have it, the late, great Stan Winston took a keen interest in COLONY. Incidentally,

as I was to discover in the years to come, Mr. Winstons nal judgment on the series became the

mantra that I heard rom almost everyone in Hollywood or the next six years.

COLONYwas simply too epic a story or television.

In the years that ollowed, COLONYcontinued to make the rounds to numerous production

companies all ending with that same response too big.

My rustration level had reached the boiling point.

I elt that their assessment was a misconception.

Thats when I took another page rom the playbook o young George Lucas. I recalled that

Lucas originally arranged or painter Ralph McQuarrie to illustrate 12 plates o STAR WARS in

order to pitch the concept to Hollywood back in the 70s.

I approached Dickie with the idea o creating a web comic where we could serialize the saga o

COLONYon a monthly basis while also using the comic story to help sell the property to Hollywood.

Now, I have to coness that what I am about to reveal is contrary to the theme o this book,

which is to honor the talent and memory o my dear, departed riend.

But Dickie hated to draw science ction.

He preerred period pieces or characters without super-powers, such as his beloved Batman.

So, I struck a deal with him to do all o the design and concept work on the series. All I

needed rom him was his masterul dratsmanship and storytelling ability.

I I knew anything about Dickie, its that he loved character development more than anything

else, and he switly ell in love with the denizens oCOLONY.

Later, joined by Canadian colorist Ian Sokoliwski, we began producing one o the industrys

very rst serialized web comics. COLONY: THE WEB COMIC debuted on my popular personal

website (www.boblayton.com) in 2006 and continued or years, being serialized each month inve-page episodes.

Then, ate reared its head again.

In the all o 2008, my webmaster came to me with a print-out o the annual web hits on my

site, bearing a startled look on her ace.

When I asked her what the matter was, she just handed me the print-out and told me to look

at the numbers.

COLONY, in the month o May o 2008, reached a high o 600,000 hits per month globally!

Somehow, we generated ve times the audience o any Marvel comic!

As I said in the opening, ate has an interesting way o tossing you some occasional,

unexpected twists.

Unortunately, ate can also be extremely cruel.

About that same time, Dickies health started to ail, and doctors eventually diagnosed him

with chronic leukemia.

We reached page 105 in the 150-page web comic saga but Dick needed to take time of.

Without hesitation, I suspended the series, in the hope that we could pick up where we let of

once Dickie recovered rom chemotherapy.

Trying to use the hiatus to our advantage, I relocated rom Florida to Hollywood in an efort topitch the project mysel. With Dickies health wavering, I elt that time was running out, and I wanted

to get this property sold while he was well enough to enjoy our artistic victory.

At one point, DUNEand CHILDREN OF DUNEwriter/director John Harrison took a huge liking

to the concept oCOLONYand pitched it to both Electric Entertainment (Dean Devlin) and the

SyFy Channel, where John had amassed an enormous amount o good will and a track record o

success.

But he heard the same old rerain too big.


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Then, in 2009, Industry Entertainment optioned COLONY and assigned two o their top

writers, Andy Burg and Matthew Carnahan, to develop it into a television series. Unortunately,

their take on COLONYproved disappointing, turning our story about a prison planet in the uture

into a present-day setting with the COLONYacility located in some sort o parallel dimension.

Both men are excellent writers in their own right, but it became obvious to me that they had missed

the mark on this project and it zzled ater six months o signing the deal.

As ate would have it, Dickie began to eel better and soon got back onto penciling the

COLONY series. Within a ew months, he was able to complete the main body o the book,producing the last 45 pages.

All that was let to do was or me to write the ve-page epilogue and get it to Dick to draw.

But that would never happen.

God-damned ate reared its ugly, ckle head one last time.

Dickies business manager and lie-long riend Pat Bastienne, called me to say that Dicks

health took a turn or the worse and that I should get my ass back East as soon as possible.

Dickie was the closest thing to a ather Ive ever known, and we had been riends since I was

a boy o 19 years old. Being an only child, Dick always said I was the little brother he never had.That was the nature o our 40-year-long relationship.

Dropping everything, I got on a plane or Florida the next day.

I spent the last two weeks o Dick Giordanos lie sitting (and sleeping in gown and mask) in

the ICU at his bedside.

With his immune system weakened by the chemo, Dickie developed complications due

to a simple case o pneumonia.

On the ateul day o March 27, 2010, I sent the ollowing press release to the media:

Dear Friends & Colleagues,It is my sorrowful duty to announce that legendary

artist/editor/entrepreneur Dick Giordano passed away today.

Few could ever hope to match what he accomplished in his

chosen profession, or to excel while maintaining great humor,

compassion for his peers and an unwavering love for the art

form. His unique vision changed the comics industry forever

and all of those who work in the business continue to share

inthebenetsofhissizablecontributions.Ihavebeen

honored to call him a business partner, mentor and dear

friend throughout the majority of my lifetime. We will not

see his like again.

Regretfully,

Bob Layton

Needless to say, Dick Giordano continued to be my role model, right up until the end, acing

his own demise with gentle humor and unwavering courage.

He aced his death the same way he tackled his lie... earlessly.

But ater returning to Hollywood, I ound that I truly lost interest in everything.

Dickies death struck me harder than anything I have ever experienced in my lie.

I knew it was normal human behavior to be depressed ater a deep personal loss, but I just

could not seem to get beyond it. Slowly and agonizingly, weeks just crawled by.

Ater his passing, I received hundreds o emails rom well-wishers. However, even with

the best o intentions rom their authors, the missives produced the opposite efect in me.

They just kept that wound open or me.


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Ater a while, my riends began to routinely call and check up on me. During one o those

phone calls with a particular close riend, this person asked me an important question:

What the Hell would Dickie say i he could see you right now?

In a moment o clarity, I replied without hesitation,

Hed tell me to get of my ass and get back to work.

So I did.

I decided that everything I achieved rom this point orward should serve as a monument to

Dicks years o tireless mentoring and unwavering riendship.

All my uture successes should be as much a part o Dick Giordanos legacy as anything he

personally accomplished in his long, brilliant career.

This graphic novel serves as one o those monuments.

But it wasnt easy to complete this book. It was almost a year beore I could ace inking

the last pages drawn by Dick Giordano. I had several alse starts, where I worked up the courage

to sit down at my drawing board, only to put the pages away once the proound loss o my riend

began to creep back.

Eventually, my ormer Future Comics publishing partner, Skip Farrell, ofered to nance the

project, suggesting that we publish COLONYas a nal tribute to our mutual riend and colleague.

With Skips help and moral support, I was nally able to complete the tale.

It is my proound wish that, as you read COLONY, you keep Dickies passion, sacrice, and

commitment to this saga in mind.

The uture o COLONY, beyond this graphic novel, will be up to the ckle hand o ate

once again.

This book is respectully dedicated to the memory o Dick Giordano and the legacy

o greatness he let to all o us.

Bob Layton

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