PROFESSIONAL BIO
With five years experience in project management, editing, and publishing, I worked as both Managing Editor and Assistant to the Publisher at boutique comic book publisher Top Cow Productions, Inc. I oversaw the complete assembly line production, from conception to print, for all of the company’s monthly comic book series. This included the company’s flagship titles The Darkness, which 2K Games adapted into two hit video games, and Witchblade, the longest ongoing comic book series to star a female lead without cancellation or a reboot.
I co-authored and spearheaded the design of The Top Cow Bible, a company franchise and brand sourcebook cataloging 20 years of preexisting and in-development IP for the cross-media licensing in film, TV, consumer products, video games, and apps. Less than one month after the release of The Top Cow Bible, Mandeville Films optioned Alibi.
In anticipation of the digital distribution marketplace, I adapted 15 years of the company’s print history for digital release, making Top Cow the first comic book publisher to offer their entire publishing library digitally.
During my last month at Top Cow, I debuted Larime Taylor’s A Voice in the Dark, a black & white black comedy horror comic drawn-by-mouth by its disabled creator, to sales exceeding 10,000 copies and hired the first ever ongoing all-female art team on Witchblade with issue #170, increasing its sales by 9% from the previous issue.
My free time is spent writing and drawing all-ages comic books that I hope to develop into the next cartoon show, animated movie, or educational app.
Bryan Rountree: The Basics
I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, creating art under the neon lights of the Duke City and falling asleep to the howls of coyotes.
I chased the sunset until I found myself stranded outside the Subway sandwich shop at the corner of Santa Monica and Highland with a cracked oil gasket and using the butt of a broken golf club to keep the hood of my car open. Before that, I had attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, an institution of higher learning founded by the inventor of ‘Jell-O.’
Ever since that fateful night the light stopped glittering off the dingy stucco of that strip mall, I have remained in Los Angeles, working for a comic book publisher and dancing around the art scene. Even when my efforts aren’t focused on the entertainment industry, I am doing Founding Father Benjamin Franklin proud by further honing my knowledge of print and publishing and (hopefully) contributing to its evolution.
