By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — John Cooley, the founder of the independently Black-owned and operated Fanboy Entertainment, is proud to announce several exciting upcoming projects for his company following its most recent promotional circuit. This is great news for the dedicated cult fanbase that Fanboy has cultivated ever since its launch, as it also means the return of many of their most beloved characters that Cooley has created over the years in titles such as Rise of the Golden Dragon, Mr. Omega, and Warrior Breed.
Residing in their home city of Memphis, Fanboy Entertainment was founded by John Cooley in 2015 inspired largely by several jarring experiences in the comics industry while he was in his mid- and late twenties. While he was the sole owner and operator of Fanboy Entertainment during the early days of the company, Cooley would often reach out to his friend and music producer Chris Parker, whom he would bring onto projects in order to produce and compose soundtracks for the characters and comics Cooley was writing, including all three of the aforementioned titles.
“I started noticing more what he was doin’… It was so detailed and I was like ‘Hey, this is something I’d really like to do,’” said Parker during an interview. “So, after a while it was like, ‘Okay, maybe one or two things.’ Then it just kept scaling up … After about a year and a half he was like … ‘You’re doin’ too much, I gotta hire you.’ About late 2016 to early 2017, I became employee number one.”
Since launching Fanboy, Cooley has been hard at work building the company’s catalog. By his own account, this hasn’t been hard for him, as he hasn’t ever been a person who normally suffers from writer’s block, saying that he doesn’t practice any exercise to keep writing and rather that “something’s wrong with me.” One of the biggest reasons Cooley said he decided to go into business for himself was because he enjoyed the freedom of owning the identity of his characters as well as himself, but also because he wanted the freedom to determine the work schedule he was to keep while writing. He further detailed it was scheduling pressures that motivated him to not pursue a previous opportunity at Marvel, saying that he was unsure whether he could meet deadlines reliably due to his then-unmedicated attention deficit disorder.
“Some days I’m 100 miles an hour, and everything’s perfect, and the next day I can’t get out and drive,” said Cooley regarding his struggle. He would go on to receive the medication he needs but would have a second perspective-shifting experience with mega-corporation Sony while looking to pitch another one of his ideas. During this time, Cooley took a meeting with Sony representatives and pitched his idea, to which the suits said that they would get back to him. A few days later Cooley received a call saying that the execs liked the idea and decided Sony would be doing the idea themselves rather than including him in the title development. Not long after, Cooley would modify his idea enough so as not to copyright the now Sony-owned comic character he thought of. After receiving a green light from his lawyer, Fanboy Entertainment’s staple Golden Dragon comic series was born.
Fanboy has recently announced an upcoming trailer for their Convergence movie to be in production soon. He also announced a new comic projected to come out in September of this year, featuring his first female character Gauge Boson. Fanboy Entertainment is available to follow on their social media under the same name and their website www.fanboycomics.com.
