Cool Beans World review

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Cool Beans or Dead Beans: can the comic barons cross onto the web?.

There's recently been a spate of expensive and glossy full page adverts for something called Cool Beans World appearing in science fiction magazines like SFX.

Like most advertising, we totally ignored it for many, many months. After all, the adverts didn't say a lot. Just some obviously 3D rendered pictures of monsters and a URL.

Then, curiosity got the better of the Nest team. After all, such adverts cost thousands ... and to say so very little about the product for so many issues seemed a very expensive blast by people who obviously - forgive the pun - don't know a bean about marketing or advertising.

We were all under the impression, don't know why, that we'd be visiting some eBay online auction ripoff, but it was not to be.

It turns out that Cool Beans World is an attempt by the UK's top comic book creators to muscle in on the internet. It includes such blockbuster names as Pat Mills (aka 2000 AD's Slaine; the thinking man;'s Conan) and Simon Bisley, as well as Kevin O'Neill of Marshal Law & ABC Warrior fame. To that line-up you can also add Clive 'Hellraiser' Barker.

Basically, said creators and many more becides have banded together to try and make the jump into animation, using the Web and tools like Flash and Director to spearhead this transition.

The question of course is not, can comics make the leap onto the internet as some kind of CGI-fest hybrid of a cartoon and your favourite comic-book. It's more, is there a commercial model that will support this kind of effort?

A lot of stupid big name companies in the USA, mainly Hollywood, all rushed into this ground like Del Trotter on heat a little while ago thinking that they'd be retiring dot com billionaires in a year or two.

In reality, the only thing that got retired is their crappy business plans, shortly followed by a load of unlucky creative talent, now left wondering the streets of Silicon Valley, offering to code Flash for their next meal.

On the other hand, broadband penetration is definitely increasing, mainly via cable modems, due to the appalling feet dragging of BT in opening up fast Net connections in the UK.

When we visited the Cool Beans site, there wasn't a lot of live content we could see, just lots of trailers, although a May launch was promised on the site.

The trailers really whetted our appetite though. These included, in Cool Bean's own words ..

Bug Hunt
Whether it's oversized arachnids, an alien virus or just your plain old E.T. with an attitude, count on the Bug Hunt squad to clean up and clear out Whatever the planet, whatever the galaxy, no job is too small, no bug too big.

Nobody
She has many faces. She goes by many names. She can be anyone. Anywhere. Who is nobody? An occult investigator of incredible skill. A dangerous opponent. A skilled manipulator of the weak. She knows things few others will ever know. Nobody knows.

Writers Alex Amado and Sharon Cho, together with illustrator Charlie Adlard, deliver a tense series about an agent with the mystical ability to alter her appearance and look like anyone she wants.

Scarlet Traces
A decade after the events in HG Wells 'War of the Worlds', the industrious Victorians have assimilated the Martian technology into their everyday lives. The first and second world wars do not happen and the terrible Martian heat-ray has assured the dominance of the British Empire.

Meanwhile in London, bodies found, drained of blood are baffling the police. What link can a gruesome but simple crime have to the mysteries of the Martian past? Enter Robert Autumn, gentleman adventurer who gets drawn into a mystery that will affect the fate of the entire planet.

Author Ian Edginton and artist D'israeli launch an epic, animated comic book adventure that delves into the realm of the fantastic and the unknown.

Astronauts in Trouble
Fifty years after Neil and Buzz landed at the Sea of Tranquility, the world's richest man, Ishmael Hayes, uses his considerable wealth to plan a return to Earth's closest neighbor. Not everyone wants to see the mission succeed and the Eco-Terrorist faction, 'Greensleeves' has a plan and a bomb.

The crew, their fully loaded cargo ships and the channel seven news team are heading for the moon - and trouble. Creator Larry Young and artists Matt Smith and Charlie Adlard take you on a journey to the stars filled with suspense, action and deceit. Astronauts in Trouble - Live from the moon.

Blasted!
The place: Lost Vegas The year: 3054 When two brothers stumble across the ultimate weapon in a second hand store, their lives take a violent turn for the worse.

Cops, mutants, robots and criminals want their hands on this weapon known as the Blaster and nothing will get in their way. Written and illustrated by the manic Uwe De Witt, Blasted! kicks you where it hurts and doesn't stop.

It'd only take a few of these projects to make the leap to film - a la The Mask, The Crow etc - to pay for the Cool Beans site, so let's hope the guys can make a go of it.

They're also touting themselves as creators for hire to corporates to produce online content ... probably a more secure business model, we suspect, given how few fans pay to view online material. Heinz are always going to need Flash games for their brands!

From the nuggets above, it sounds like they've got some great concepts ... and with the creative talent lined up behind them, the toons should be very worth checking out online when it all gets going.

visit CBW over at coolbeansworld.com

for more traditional comics action, see what's happening in the new graphic novels section of the store

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