Platinum ramps up publishing division

I talked today to Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, chairman and CEO of Platinum Studios, and Jim McLauchlin, editor in chief of Platinum Studios Comics.

Rosenberg founded Platinum Studios 10 years ago, but the print and publishing division just got going. Its first graphic novel, “Cowboys & Aliens,” came out in December and it has a handful of miniseries launching in the next few months. Platinum’s core business is bringing comics to film and TV. (Before Platinum, Rosenberg founded Malibu Comics and helped bring “Men in Black” to the big screen.)

Rosenberg isn’t looking to muscle aside Marvel and DC on the comic-shop shelves. The publishing division will remain relatively small. Some of the upcoming titles McLauchlin briefed me on: “Hero by Night,” in which a young guy finds the lair of a long-vanished superhero and draws the ire of that hero’s arch-nemesis; “Blood Nation,” featuring a vampire threat in the former Soviet Union; and “Unique,” about a seemingly ordinary guy who finds he can travel between dimensions. “We’ll be a small publisher, but we’ll be a very interesting publisher,” McLauchlin says.

I’ll have more on Platinum in an upcoming Comics Fan column.