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Horatio (Ray) Weisfeld is a writer and editor who co-founded mass-market comics magazines and developed other media properties.
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[edit]Early Years In Business/Publishing
As a teenager, Weisfeld made his living by speculating on the 1st issues of new comic books and related magazines. His ability to sniff out quality led Weisfeld to purchase thousands of copies of new publications and resell them, shortly thereafter, at steep markups. This caught the eye of screenwriter Joel Cohen (Toy Story) who began shopping a script ("The Four Color Fix") based on Weisfeld's exploits. Arthur Suydam's highly regarded Cholly an' Flytrap story, "My Favorite Restaurant" (published in the last issue of Marvel's Epic Magazine), was also based on an incident in Weisfeld's life during this time (this involved a man ordering the lunch special at a restaurant, and then finding a bug in his food).
In the mid 80s, Weisfeld became involved with Comico, a Pennsylvania based comic book publisher, and he was instrumental in the decision to begin Matt Wagner's Grendel as an ongoing comic book series. Grendel is the only Comico title that survives, and is presently published by Dark Horse Comics. In 1988, Weisfeld suggested Grendel to a film producer who optioned the property in conjunction with the William Morris Agency.
In the early 1990s Weisfeld co-founded Bullet Comics, which published one of the first Manga influenced American comics: Greg Boone's RADREX. Weisfeld was also instrumental in helping his friend, artist Mark Beachum, set up Aju-Blu Comics. Weisfeld then consulted with Brian Pulido in the formation of Chaos! Comics (Lady Death), one of the more successful independent comic publishers of the era.
A former publisher of New York Post hired Weisfeld to work on the startup of Her New York, A daily newspaper published from offices of New York's Trump Tower. Weisfeld became Newsroom Manager and later, assistant to Editor-n-Chief Marsha Cohen (formally of The New York Daily News and Entertainment Editor Barbara Gordon (who wrote bestseller, I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can).
[edit]Penthouse Comix
In 1993, Weisfeld was hired to help coordinate Penthouse Comix, an ongoing section that ran in Penthouse Magazine. He was eventually given the title Managing Editor.
Penthouse Comix sections featured artwork by top comic book talent (Kevin Nowlan, Arthur Suydam, etc) and some characters created by Weisfeld. After the initial sections appeared, publisher Bob Guccione requested Penthouse Comix become its own stand alone magazine. The first issue of the 96-page stand alone Penthouse Comix appeared in the spring of 1994 and was an immediate success. Issues appeared after that on a bi-monthly basis.
Penthouse Comix published through 1998, producing thiry-five issues.
[edit]Bad Magazine
In 1997 rap mogul Russell Simmons struck a deal to develop an “urban” spin off of Mad Magazine with Warner Publishing. Weisfeld was recruited to develop editorial for Russell Simmons Presents B.A.D Magazine and eventually became Managing Editor. Film designer Floyd Hughes was named Art Director. Writers and artists on the project included Deborah Gregory (who later created Disney's Cheetah Girls), Arthur Suydam (who went to later fame with Marvel Zombies), Walter Moore, and others. Warner publishing eventually decided that BAD was too edgy for America’s newsstands. The project was re-conceived as an animation project for HBO and disappeared into development hell.
[edit]Forbidden Zone Magazine
In 1999 Weisfeld was named Managing Editor of another glossy comics magazine, Forbidden Zone, which was designed to present new trademark characters and compete with Heavy Metal Magazine on the newsstand. Forbidden Zone published only one issue stacked with top comic book and fantasy art talent, including: Simon Bisley,Richard Corben, Arthur Suydam, Joe Linsner, Larry Stroman and others.
Before publication of the first issue, Forbidden Zone parent company Galaxy Entertainment sank into (tech-bubble) financial trouble, which led to the short-lived nature of the project.
[edit]Industry Of War
In 2004, Industry Of War, a comic book property co-created by Jordan Raskin and Horatio Weisfeld (back in 1993), was optioned for film by Alien, Total Recall, Minority Report producer Ronald Shusett. The Deal received major coverage in Variety and Hollywood Reporter, among other media outlets. In the Variety article, Industry Of War was referred to as "… a high-concept Jerry Bruckheimer action-thriller, but with a sci-fi twist." Image Comics later published a comic book series based on the property.
[edit]Weisfeld / Simmons Entertainment
In 2005, Weisfeld and Danny Simmons (Producer of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and Brother of mogul Russell Simmons) formed Weisfeld/Simmons Entertainment. The company acquired media properties for live action and animation. In 2006, Weisfeld and Simmons developed a historical action drama to which Russell Simmons become attached as executive producer.
[edit]Heavy Metal Magazine
Joe In The Future, an ongoing series of short comic stories, written by Weisfeld (with Peter Koch) and illustrated by Trevor Von Eeden, is presently published by mass-market comics publication Heavy metal Magazine. The title character, Joe, spends most of his time seeking cigarettes (which are hard to acquire in the future) and often comes into difficulty with a variety of humans, robots, mutants, etc, who seek to disrupt Joe’s agenda to suit their own. The series has received good reviews and developed a cult following. Heavy Metal ran the first Joe In The Future story in 2001 and the most recent episode appeared as the lead feature in the January 2007 Heavy Metal.
http://www.metaltv.com/images/channels/magazine/0107/05.html
In late 2007, Weisfeld began developing an illustrated text format for Heavy Metal magazine. Painted artwork for the initial segment (Slaughter of the Exterminators) was completed by film production designer, Rafael Kayanan (The Hunted, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, John Carter Of Mars). The Story appeared in Jan. 2009 issue of HM.
http://www.imagecoast.com/images/joe2/oe8.jpg
In late 2008 Weisfeld began overseeing script development for the film version of Danny Simmons novel, "Three Day as the Crow Flies". Abel Ferrara is slated to direct.
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