Via Variety, Universal Content Productions are launching UCP Graphic, a new comic book publishing initiative. The first project from the NBCUniversal division will be “Proctor Valley Road,” a five-issue series from writers Alex Child (Temple) and Grant Morrison, which will take place in a California beach town in 1964, and follow a group of teenage girls suspected in the disappearance of several boys. It will be published by BOOM! Studios.
UCP studio president Dawn Olmstead said the imprint will allow the studio to create intellectual properties that could be adapted into other mediums, instead of acquiring other, preexisting properties. The studio similarly launched UCP Audio, a podcasting platform, for this purpose in June. “Similar to our strategy with launching UCP Audio, we want to offer storytellers the opportunity to create for multiple content platforms including graphic novels,” Olmstead said. “Our goal is for UCP to be a home for great storytelling, no matter the medium.” UCP Graphic will specifically seek projects from new talent like Child.
The initiative continues Morrison’s creative deal with UCP, which he signed in 2018 (when the company was called Universal Cable Productions). The partnership also led to Peacock’s television adaptation of Brave New World (released today), which Morrison wrote the pilot for, and served as an executive producer on. In an interview earlier today, Morrison mentioned he and UCP are continuing to develop a series based on “The Invisibles,” and Chronicle, a spec script about a fictional comic book company.
