A group of veteran pop culture professionals have teamed up to launch Endpaper Entertainment, a new content development company focused on producing original stories in a variety of media, formats and genres.
Cofounded by CEO Rich Johnson, a former executive at Lion Forge and DC Comics and co-founder of Yen Press, and president Syndee Barwick, founder of Mythic Media Management and a former DC executive, Endpaper will develop content for novels, comics and graphic novels, film, TV, podcasts, SVOD, audiobooks, and merchandise.
Joining Johnson and Barwick on the Endpaper team are chief creative officer Jonathon Gilbreath, a producer and director of immersive theater and VR; chief content development officer James Killen, longtime Barnes & Noble buyer for graphic novels, sci-fi, and fantasy; and chief business development officer Kris Longo, formerly with DC and founder of Geek Riot Media.
Longo told PW the company is “self-financed” and began organizing about a year ago. The company, he said, plans to produce its content via partnerships with freelance creators, book packagers, and media production houses to bring a wide range of original story concepts to market. “We’re publishers at heart, so a lot of our properties will use books as a starting point and we’ll use our contacts across different media to start conversations with potential partners,” Longo explained.
Johnson said “we don’t want to force a story into a format or platform,” adding, “We focus on the property, studying the story, and decide: on what platform and in which format best tells this story.”
Barwick said the core mission of Endpaper Entertainment will be “creating and telling the stories in the best and most appropriate way we can for each property. At Endpaper, we are fans and consumers of a lot of movies, television, books, games, and everything else under the sun. We look at what types of properties we love – and what we’d like to see.”
