Is it a bird? is it a plane? Well, it's a plane anyway, and a record label, and a mobile phone provider, and a comics publisher......

Richard Branson: A man of many things, entrepreneur, showboat, a poster child for the good old fashioned british beard, and now, a superhero? Virgin already have a tie into the book market with Virgin Books, an online book shop that sells everything from cookery books to dictionaries, but Virgin have recently announced that they will soon be launching Virgin Comics. Initial information is slightly sketchy, but it is believed that Virgin are looking to base their two new companies, Virgin Comics LLC in America and Virgin Animation Private Limited in india. Exactly why this company is going to be based in Inida is unclear, but given the country's rapidly growing appeal for foreign business, and Virgin's ties to it with Virgin Atlantic, as well as Branson's partners in crime in this venture being Indian, it's hardly surprising.

These two compaines are to be formed by the joining of India filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, author Deepak Chopra, asian comics producer Gotham Comic LLC, which produces comics under license for many of the larger publishers such as Marvel, DC and Dark Horse. It is believed that Virgin Comics LLC will try to imitate the success Marvel and DC have found by pushing their charcters into other mediums such as Films, Books and Movies, along with action figures as well.

Virgin are also already planning to release two imprints, tentatively titled Maverick and Director's Cut. Whether they will specialise in mainstream comics such as superheroes and villains or whether they will look to produce more "off the wall" titles remains to be seen, but we can be sure that these imprints are looking to foster new talent and bring new blood into the industry, which can only be a good thing. It is thought that the very first titles will be released shortly, but the actual titles themselves were not known to me at the time of writing this. I espacially liked one quote from Mr Chopra, "Comic book characters are the new cult; the new religion."