February 23, 2009:

THE BLUEWATER COOLER: Publisher Darren G. Davis rants and raves about the comic industry: ISSUE 8

This weeks blog is more about raves than rants.

I had one of the best weeks during my trip to Los Angeles last week. Not only for business but personal as well. After growing up there and working most of my life in the entertainment field, I have forgotten all the cool things in Los Angeles. Not that I am or will ever move back there.
My week started off having lunch at Mr. Chows in Beverly Hills with an iconic TV producer. There are plans to bring some of the shows he has produced to comic books. I can't say who it is but it would be a great get for Bluewater.

During that meeting I met with Craig Nevius who created Black Scorpion for Roger Corman. He is responsible for helping me out with Corman and Shatner. It was the 1st time meeting him face to face. He also wrote the 1st Fantastic Four film. He had stories about that I wish I could share.
That night I went to dinner with Paul Salamoff who is writing a couple Corman titles for us. He is also a talented screenwriter who has a couple things coming up. We went to dinner and then he took me to a screening of the "Watchmen." It was a cool event and nice to see. This movie is going to either do really well or tank. It will not have a middle ground. I told Paul I would not post about the movie, so that is all you will get from me until it comes out.

The next day I got to have lunch with William Shatner. My brother Scott who is writing Tek War came along as did the artist Erich Owen. Craig Nevius was there as well as Shatner's wife Liz who is a really nice women. It was one of the best meetings I have had since I have gotten into comics. Shatner is so excited about us doing this. He is really a part of this and had so many great ideas. You will not see any other comic on Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson and Howard Stern. He told us that he would go on all those show to promote the series. We spent over 3-hours talking to him.

Afterwards we went to Golden Apple comics and ran into a bunch of friends. We even met with Rob Burnett from the film "Free Enterprise" who will be doing stuff with us. We also set up a signing for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY with William Shatner for that day. I have gone into Golden Apple since I was in college. It is one of my favorite stores. Bill Liebowitz who passed away a couple years ago was a huge inspiration for me. I would go in there all the time and he would sit with me and give me advice on comics. He is missed!

I did get some time to spend with a bunch of friends of mine that night for dinner. I have not seen some of them for 10 years. This is the hard part of not living in Los Angeles. It is also one of the best reasons for signing up for Facebook. I have found so many people that I have lost touch with. I do like it so much better than Myspace. That night we went to a club called EDISION, which is totally amazing. It is a place in Downtown Los Angeles. http://www.edisondowntown.com/

Thursday I met with my entertainment manager and we talked about moving forward on some properties. You would be surprised at what we are developing for film and TV.

After that meeting I went to Jones to talk with a huge icon film director. He is looking for us to do something with him. Once the deal is inked I will mention who it is. I did get some relaxation on Thursday. I spent the rest with my best friend Diana getting massages at Burke Williams. She always gets me gift certificates for there for my birthdays. That night she had tickets to the LA Philharmonic at Disney Hall. Once that was done we searched for kittens in the basement of the Los Angeles Times. Diana works there and their were a bunch of feral cats down there. One had kittens and a bunch of people wanted to save them. We ended up getting two of the 4 kittens.

On Friday I met with my production guy for the 1st time. I did have a celebrity moment that day and ran into Spielberg and Kurt Russell. Then went to Dim-sum with a couple of producers who are talking about making a couple other Bluewater titles into film. More on that on a later date.
Friday night ended really nice, I had dinner with my manager Lisa and Reichen Lehmkuhl. We are planning a couple things with him. For those who read this blog will get the exclusive on this. We are developing a comic series about his grandmother who was one of the WASP's the 1st women air force pilots. Reichen is best known for winning the Amazing Race. He is a really nice guy and the 3 of us laughed a lot at dinner.

It is nice to be home, playing catch-up. Bluewater is starting to be a company that will take the industry by storm. We have a lot planned in this next year. So keep your eyes on us!

Until next time.

Darren