Bubble comics

Bubble Magazine

Bubble Comics was founded by Artyom Gabrelyanov, the son of Aram Gabrelyanov , as a division of the media company News Media Holdings ^[12] in 2011 ^[13] . In the same year, the satirical Bubble comic magazine began to appear, in which public life, politics and show business were ridiculed, for example, in one of the stories was a character based on Bruce Willis , who came to Russia and became Bruce the Ill-Powered ^[14] , except In addition, Nikita Mikhalkov , portrayed as the character "Nikita Migalkov", and Yuri Luzhkov were ridiculed. It was assumed that the target audience of this magazine is scammers and youth ^[15] . The magazine did not win much popularity and was published for less than a year ^{[13] [8] [16]} . The magazine was invested by Aram Gabrelyanov, however, who did not really believe in his success, but gave up under Artyom’s persuasion. Subsequently, Aram justified the failure with the magazine "life experience" ^[14] . Over time, Artyom Gabrelyanov decided that the publisher should abandon the humorous comics in favor of adventure and superhero ^{[8] [16]} .

Superhero Comics

To expand the potential audience, Gabrelyanov began the development of archetypal stories: a detective about a policeman, a mystical action movie, etc. Initially, two lines were conceived, then two more were added to them ^[12] . Since October 2012, the Bubble publishing house began publishing four series of comic books about superheroes that formed the basis of the Bubble comic book universe: “ Major Thunder ”, “ Besoboy ”, “Monk” and “Red Fury” ^[13] . The first line started "Wrecking" ^[16] . Gabrelyanov claims that he tried to make the comics as simple as possible in the plot, including in terms of the morality of the characters, with a clear division into good and evil. He explains this by saying that he wanted to set worthy examples for young people, and, in addition, he notes that he makes comics, including for those who have never read them, and are unfamiliar with this format of works. “We are creating a new market, we are to some extent a locomotive that will drag other publishers along with it. In mass culture, we don’t have a lack of realistic stories, but demons, explosions are just cooler. And besides, the simpler the story, the clearer and more popular it is ”- this is how Gabrelyanov explains his position. After the release of the Major Thunder comic, many began to accuse Bubble of pro-Kremlin propaganda, as the main villain of the first storyline of the comic book, the serial killer Plague Doctor, marks his killings with a white ribbon , punishes corrupt officials and businessmen, and in the wake of protests based on protests in Russia in 2011-2013 , the public in the comics begins to consider him a hero. Even Aram Gabrelyanov, who did not hide his pro-Kremlin stance, at that time was worried that his son in the comic strip denigrated the Russian opposition. Artyom, in response to the accusations, said that when he conceived the image of the Plague Doctor, he did not plan to make him such a notorious villain, and the white tape was inserted into the plot "by chance, for laughter, and for provocation, of course." According to him, he noticed that the Plague Doctor’s readers liked the protagonist of the series Igor Grom more, and considered that “he was taking the reader in the wrong direction,” and therefore decided to make him such a villain who would be hard pressed to sympathize with: a maniac who, using peaceful by the protest of the people, he wanted to prevail over him and arrange a bloody coup, and he commits murders in order to get rid of his minions, as it became likely that they could disclose information about his previous crimes ^[14] . In later editions of Major Thunder, the authors decided to move away from the politicization of the comic strip ^[17] .

In the period from December 2013 to February 2014, the first crossover between the Bubble comic book lines was published: a joint story arch “Inoka” and “Besoboya” was released under the name “Inok vs Besoboya” ^{[18] [13]} . Starting from the 25th issue, each of the four lines has been updated so that even a reader unfamiliar with the previous issues can start reading the comic from that moment. The inscription “ideal for new readers” appeared on the covers of the issues, meaning that to read these issues it is not necessary to delve into the plot of issues 1–25 ^[16] . In 2014, two figures of characters from the "Red Fury" were released. The company PROSTO toys took up the issue, which itself proposed the production of figures based on this comic, because, according to the company, the figures of beautiful girls will attract more attention of buyers than, for example, the figure of Major Groma ^[16] .

Since October 2014, Bubble began publishing two more comic book series - Ex-librium in the urban fantasy genre and Meteor in the cosmic opera genre. The Ex-librium line, which tells about the order of book-mages guarding the borders of the real and artistic worlds, received high reviews ^{[19] [20] [21] [22]} , including among foreign critics ^{[23] [24] [25 ]} .

In October 2014, Bubble became a partner of the first Comic Con Russia festival ^[1] .

Since October 2015, Bubble comics have been published in English on the comiXology platform ^{[26] [27]} . At the same time, from October 2015 to March 2016, the “Raven Time” crossover was published, the events of which affect all six episodes of the publishing house ^[28] .

In 2016, plans were announced to release a special edition of the Ex-librium comic book for the US market ^{[29] [30] [31]} .

In December 2016, at the Khomyakon comic convention, the publishing house announced the final closure of four main lines (Major Grom, Besoboy, Inok and Krasnaya Fury) and the opening of four new ones (Igor Grom, Besoboy vol.2 "," Peacewalkers "and" Allies "). Each of the old stories ended on the 50th issue. The first releases of the new rulers went on sale on January 20, 2017. This initiative is called “Second Wind”.

In September 2019, on its VKontakte page, the publishing house announced its abandonment of the print publication of its comics in singles format. The publisher announced a review of the approach to the release of its products ^[32] .

Bubble Studios and comic film adaptations

According to the acknowledgment of the general director Artyom Gabrelyanov and the chief editor Roman Kotkov, Bubble has had plans to create a film adaptation of his own comics since the beginning of the publication’s history. A few years later, when Bubble had already won a leading position in the Russian comics industry ^{[8] [4] [5] [6] [7]} , the company decided to start the process of developing the first film adaptation of its own comics ^[9] . According to Gabrelyanov, he received offers from television companies and producers, although Bubble decided to create a picture on their own, citing it as “having complete control over the creative process” ^{[9] [33]} and Marvel’s experience: even before creating its own film division, Marvel sold licenses on their characters to third-party film studios, but subsequently the publisher decided to create screen versions with their own hands, founding Marvel Studios . The concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Expanded DC Universe , which allows you to collect the heroes of individual solo films into one movie crossover , came to the producer's liking; it was decided to follow the same format ^{[9] [33]} . Following their example, Bubble decided to start the foundation of its own film division, Bubble Studios, which would be responsible for creating films based on comic books by the publisher ^[34] . The company developed a schedule for several years in advance, following which over the course of ten years the film studio was supposed to shoot seven adaptations of its comics ^{[9] [33]} . Before starting the creation of feature films, Gabrelyanov considered it necessary to first try the strengths and capabilities of the studio in a short film, making the first project Bubble Studios a short film ^[8] , originally designed for seven minutes. The fact that the choice of the first film fell on the comics about Major Thunder , Gabrelyanov commented as follows: “I can usually talk about uplifting, which is very important to show the image of a policeman - but in fact it will be much cheaper in production than Besoboy ’s which is all in hell, in demons, a bunch of computer graphics ” ^[35] .

Gabrelyanov came up with the idea of ​​creating his own film studio after a long collaboration with director Vladimir Besedin and composer Roman Seliverstov on various third-party projects from Bubble Comics ^[33] . According to him, he made this decision after he saw a clip for the IOWA song directed by Besedin ^[9] . The first result of their collaboration within Bubble Studios was a two-minute promotional video for the Raven Time crossover series, which tells about the unification of the main characters of the Bubble comics - Major Thunder, Red Fury, Inok and Bessoboy - in confronting the dead god of lies and deception Kuthu , whose image was based on the eponymous character of Itelmen mythology - the embodiment of the spirit of the raven . The video was shown to the public on October 5, 2015 at Comic Con Russia, where it was announced the creation of the film division and the filming of the adaptation of “Major Thunder” ^[36] . After the announcement of the creation of the adaptation of comic books about Major Thunder, most of the details about the film were kept secret (especially the cast of the film). Details of the project were disclosed at Comic Con Russia in October 2016, on which the trailer was demonstrated ^{[37] [38]} . The trailer was shown on the stage, which was attended by scriptwriters and producers of “Major Thunder” Artyom Gabrelyanov and Vladimir Besedin, creative producer Roman Kotkov, as well as the main cast ^[39] .

Initially, the premiere of “Major Thunder” was to be held in December 2016 ^[40] , but because of the desire to demonstrate their work at the Berlin International Film Festival as part of the European Film Market, the creators had to postpone the date to February 2017 ^{[41] [4]} . The first film demonstration in Russia took place for the press on February 15, 2017 in Moscow, and then on February 16, 2017 in St. Petersburg ^{[42] [43] [44] [45]} . The premiere for a wide range of viewers was postponed to February 19, 2017 and was supposed to take place in the form of an online broadcast on the Life.ru website ^{[43] [44] [45]} .

The show was frustrated by server technical problems caused by, according to Artyom Gabrelyanov, a large number of viewers. The incident was actively discussed on the network - people were unhappy with the failure of the broadcast ^[46] . For this reason, it was decided to stop the broadcast and delete it from the site. The creators promised in the coming days to put the movie on their channel on YouTube video hosting. The film, with a total duration of 28 minutes 50 seconds, was uploaded to the channel on February 21, 2017. In the first day, the video collected more than 1.7 million views ^{[47] [48] [49]} .

Representatives of Bubble Studios have repeatedly stated that the short film “ Major Thunder ” will be a test project before filming a full-length film, which, if successful, will be followed by adaptations of other Bubble comics ^{[33] [9]} . The plot of the expected film “ Major Thunder: The Plague Doctor ” is borrowed from the first story arc of the original comics, telling about the struggle of Major Thunder with a serial killer, hiding under the image of a plague doctor . In the scenario itself, the leaders of Bubble Studios plan to leave about 80% of the plot of the original comics and add 20% of the “new content” ^[50] . The same people will work on the full-length Major Thunder as on the short one ^[9] . The start of filming is scheduled for the summer of 2017, the release is for hire in 2018 ^{[35] [11]} . The planned budget is about 5 million US dollars ^[7] .

• Major Thunder (2017) - short film ^[53]
• Major Thunder: The Plague Doctor (2019 / TBA) - first full-length film

• Saduov R.T. Experience of the North American comics industry in organizing the production of modern Russian mass comics // Studia Litterarum. - 2019 .-- T. 4 , No. 1 . - S. 274-285 . - DOI : 10.22455 / 2500-4247-2019-4-1-274-285 .

Official Links

• bubble.ru - official site of Bubble Comics
• English official website of Bubble

Interviews and Articles

• BUBBLE: RUSSIAN COMIC BOOKS at BearsAndVodka.com
• Gabrelianovs and the Russian empire of comics on GQ