ShiftyLook and Why YOU Should Check them Out!
If you follow me on twitter (and you really should) over on @muldwych you will have seen me speaking about a site called ShiftyLook and some of the comics you can see from them like the brilliant Bravoman and Wonder Momo.
This article is for me to tell you a little bit more about the site/company and what exactly they do and what they are about.
ShiftyLook is a division of Namco Bandai that’s focused on taking older Namco franchises and making web comics based on them along with some original stuff too, they will be using web comics to re-invent forgotten characters for a whole new generation from games that I loved as a kid and I am sure tons more people did too.
I am thirty four years old with a brother of thirty eight and growing up in my household we had pretty much every gaming console you can imagine starting with the Atari 2600 and Spectrum 48k which was our first console and computer with two of the first games we got being Pac-Man and Dig-Dug which both happen to be owned by Namco Bandai and indeed Dig-Dig has already got some loving at ShiftyLook, the tunnelling mega game which I personally spent far to many hours playing as a kid is celebrating its 30th anniversary and so ShiftyLook is getting a bunch of different creators to create self-contained Dig Dug stories which in honesty this iconic epic game deserves.
The company itself launched live on March 9th 2012 with a couple of web comic strips and some high hopes but now after nearly three months the web comics are up to ten with an eleventh title announced (Time Crises) which just happens to be written by the legendary Marv Wolfman of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ fame for DC and the same Marv Wolfman who created Blade, Bullseye and Black Cat for Marvel.
Now for me this is where ShiftyLook are doing brilliantly as the standard and level of writers and artists is quite phenomenal and makes for great comic strips. Guys like Marv, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jim Zub and Ben McCool to name just a few.
Its very early days yet and obviously the focus is on web comics but I cant see why they shouldn’t extend this to say iPhone and android games, t-shirts, cuddly toys, posters and the like, I mean after reading through the news posts on their site and seeing the t-shirts that they have been handing out at cons like this Xevious one at WonderCon 
and look haw amazing this Bravoman design is used for MCMEXPO this weekend past I would actually pay money for them. I would also pay money for a Bravoman or Dig-Dug plush cuddly toy for my car and desk at work.
The potential for this company is huge and with comic/pop culture on their side and a monster backer in Namco Bandai I see good things for ShiftyLook and the people involved. I have had the pleasure to chat with some of the people involved from Rob Pereyda the companies Producer & Editor-in-Chief as well as a few words with Dax Gordine the artist for Bravoman and they are all genuinely passionate, focused and all round nice guys.
They are interactive and quite happy to chat away over twitter and this is where this company could work for Bandai Namco as they will be able to gage reaction on what is working and what isn’t, they can build a sort of interaction portal for people to not just read the comics but feel involved too.
“With ShiftyLook, we now have a platform where we can quickly test new ideas and get the community’s reaction in order to help drive product development” said Shin Unozawa, Executive Vice President and Representative Director of NAMCO BANDAI Games. “We are enhancing the cornucopia of characters we work with that our fans know and love.”
And here is the list of web comics you can read on the site HERE
Sky Kid
Xevious
Bravoman
Alien Confidential (original series)
Rocket Fox (based on an iOS game with the same title)
The Five-Dimensional Adventures of Dirk Davies (based on Warp & Warp)
Scar (based on Genpei Toumaden)
Rapid Thunder (based on Rolling Thunder)
Wonder Momo: Battle Idol (based on Wonder Momo)
Dig Dug
Time Crisis
Legend of the Valkyrie (based on Valkyrie no Densetsu)
Personally for me I am hooked on Bravoman and Wonder Momo in a huge way but have checked and will continue to check the other strips out, I mean people FREE and COMICS are two great words to go together.
All you need is a web browser on your computer, phone or digital device.
The head honcho in charge is as I mentioned Rob Pereyda, Producer, and Editor-in-Chief and here is what he had to say on ShiftyLook.
“In developing the ShiftyLook project, we recognized the need for a strategic approach to IP cultivation that could be a nimble combination of both analytical and cool,”
And
“We believe that what we have built will provide the community as well as the NAMCO BANDAI Group the opportunity to re-discover some really exciting properties.”
I urge you now to go and have a look at the site and when you have some spare time check out some of the titles available as you will be in for a treat.
It’s a site I now check regularly for updates to be posted and I think you will be hearing a lot more from ShiftyLook.
Regards
About the Author
Alex Giles Family man but quite possibly more childish than his two kids, loves Sci-Fi and is a renowned Whovian of over twenty years, collects comics (OCD about having first prints), poet and writer or randomness.
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