From Scoop:
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=8586&si=121
Image Comics announced this week that comics from Beckett Entertainment will be published under the Image banner beginning with the September release of the Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai. With the previously announced sale to Apprise Media of the other divisions of Beckett, the comics division lost its sales, marketing, and other support infrastructure. But how will the deal affect their comic output?
"It actually frees us up to spend more time on content," Beckett's Jeff Amano told Scoop. "Right now, our plans are to produce original graphic novels, so we're gearing up production on new titles as complete stories to be ready to ship with the new year." Ronin Hood, which was previewed in Beckett's Free Comic Book Day giveaway comic, is the company's first property not to appear in individual issue format before being collected in a trade paperback. It was in the works well before the move to Image was announced.
Beckett has just released the trade paperback of The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty, and their initial line-up from Image reflects not only the Ronin Hood OGN but also a continued collection of their previously published series. Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai is scheduled for September 2005, with Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown following in October, Fade from Grace collected in November, and Ruule: Kiss & Tell appearing in December.
Amano also told Scoop that he was very happy that his daughter, Mandy Amano (known to many as "That Pepsi Girl" from her Super Bowl commercial), got a plug for Free Comic Book Day on a major Los Angeles radio station when they were interviewing her about the Pepsi spot and her appearance in Maxim.
