Wednesday, July 29, 2020

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY to Get CARD GAME After Successful KICKSTARTER



It began with a limited-issue series created by Gerard Way and drawn by Gabriel Ba for comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics that first came out in 2007. Since then, “The Umbrella Academy” has accrued three volumes, a spinoff anthology title and even a TV series adaptation streaming on Netflix that has a second season arriving at the end of the month. That is not half bad for a superhero team story that initially sounds like “X-Men” but stands out for how dysfunctional the members can get. Now it looks like the umbrella-carrying “heroes” are about to transition to a new media: trading card games.

According to Comic Book Resources, “The Umbrella Academy” is being adapted in card game form by Studio71 Games, in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics. That means the characters will be depicted in their comic-book art form rather than the live actors from the Netflix show. And to get this product off the ground, Studio71 Games has put “The Umbrella Academy” card game on Kickstarter for funding. An initial blurb about the game describes it as players assuming the role of any one of the seven members the titular Umbrella Academy gathered by Professor Hargreeves and must fight against multiple antagonist super-beings from the comic books.

The Kickstarter campaign for the card game set a relatively modest goal of $30,000 to launch the product, and it has already been reached and surpassed. Even as Studio71 Games and Dark Horse Comics prepare to start its mass manufacture of “The Umbrella Academy” card game, the franchise’s original writer and first illustrator Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba announced in a joint statement how very impressed they are, not just by the by this new iteration of their story but of the entire franchise thus far and its grand reception with print and Netflix audiences.

Netflix’s adaptation of “The Umbrella Academy” stars an ensemble cast including Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Robert Sheehan, Mary J. Blige, and Justin H. Min. Season 1 premiered on the streaming giant in February 2019. Season 2 is set to arrive this July 31.

Image courtesy of Hollywood Reporter

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