



Post-nuclear punk odyssey Godkiller is making the jump from indie comic book to “illustrated film” with engaging animation that merges sequential art, 3-D CGI and motion graphics. Which is different from a motion comic because … wait, how is it different again?

“It’s a purely aesthetic difference,” explained Matt Pizzolo, the Godkiller writer and filmmaker who founded indie studio Halo-8.

“In illustrated films, we drive the pace of the storytelling with the dramatic voice performances and the sound design, so that allows us to showcase the illustrations in a way where you can really take a moment to absorb the art in the same way you can when reading a comic book,” Pizzolo told Wired.com in an e-mail interview.

Godkiller, previewed in the exclusive clip above, is a horrific yarn of apocalypse, quantum physics, culture jamming and conspiracy theory. The illustrated film features voiceovers from sci-fi standouts like Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Millennium), Nicki Clyne (Battlestar Galactica), cult priestess Lydia Lunch and singers Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack and Davey Havok of A.F.I.

“Motion comics are closer to a form of ‘limited animation’ that uses comics as source material,” Pizzolo said. “Illustrated films are closer to the experimental cinema of Ralph Bakshi‘s work, Chris Marker’s La Jetée or animation like Liquid Television.”



Halo-8 is adopting the comic book world’s episodic release schedule for Godkiller, which will come out on short-form DVD in three stages. The first episode drops Tuesday, with the second due Nov. 24 and the third in January 2010, when the full feature will premiere theatrically. In March, the whole enchilada lands on DVD and Blu-ray.

With Godkiller, the self-described “Hollywood 2.0” studio is riding a comics-cinema merge that’s as interesting as it is lucrative. And Halo-8 is not just riding Godkiller: In September, the studio entered into a deal with DreamWorks Animation and reboot kingpins Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers) to turn James Farr’s Flash-animated sci-horror series and comic Xombie into a live-action blockbuster.

“Comics are driving media right now because so many creators grew up as obsessive fans,” Pizzolo said. “You now have one of the first generations of media makers who are as influenced by comics books as they are by film and TV.”

If the new digital paradigm of motion comics, illustrated films or whatever you want to call them finds success, expect even more creative crossovers.

“In terms of it exploding as a market, that all depends on whether or not comics readers embrace the new animation formats and digital comic technologies,” Pizzolo said. “If they feel like we’re bastardizing the art form, then they’ll tell us to fuck off and the market won’t grow.”

Graphic novels, whether rendered into traditional panels or Flash-animated series, have already become pop culture’s de facto narrative format. Now they’re primed to unseat conventional novels as box-office beasts, just waiting for some producer to come along and pluck them off the money tree.

At least, that’s the theory. The reality is still messy.

“I think one of the problems is the role of comics shops,” Pizzolo said. “They are one of the few remaining mom-and-pop marketplaces not yet dominated by chains. A lot of these technologies are circumventing comic shops in favor of iTunes and others, and I think that’s dangerous.”

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