Video made by Playdead TV
Partner companies: Mandragora Productions & Arcus Animation Studios

Vital Publishing was formed in Oct 2014 by John Farman and Marc de Launay. Recognising the potential for a line up of new and edgy comic titles, the company released horror titles, The School of the Damned, Tales of the Damned and Purity Ring, as well as action packed social satire, Royal Descent.
John Farman 
- Writer, Editor & Publisher at Vital Publishing.
John has worked across a diverse range of media, including Radio and Theatre , this included selling 2 theatre scripts to BAFTA nominated ‘Mandragora Productions’. He is the creator of Vital’s current titles, Purity Ring, Royal Descent, School of the Damned and Tales of the Damned. More recently his latest creation, Royal Descent made a bit of a stir after being cited by the Daily Mail as ‘a sick version of the hunger games’. He is currently writing The School of the Damned, Royal Descent and the latest ongoing title within the damned universe, Tales of the Damned. Other new work includes Purity Ring, a mash up slasher in the style of John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ meets ‘Heathers’, this is the first part of the company’s American trilogy to be followed by Generation Gun and 11/11. John is also the commissioning editor for Vital Publishing and is happy to chat about all things comics.

 

Marc De Launay – Editor & Publisher at Vital Publishing

Marc is an award winning theatre and film director, writer and producer who has worked withint the creative arts and digital sectors for well over two decades.
After professionally acting for many years as a teenager and adult, Marc acted and directed in his own theatre company (Heretic Theatre Co) in the early 1990’s, touring nationally. Marc ran his own multi-media/videogame/sfx company ‘Terminal Creations Ltd’ in the mid 1990’s. He served an apprenticeship in film & TV freelance crewing throughout the latter 1990’s and worked professionally in all the areas of production, becoming a 3rd and then a 1st assistant director.
Marc is currently a Director / Writer / Producer within UK’s film and TV industry, working freelance and with his company ‘ Mandragora Productions Limited’. The television series ‘Vids’, with Marc as director for Channel 4, earned him a BAFTA Award nomination as ‘Best Director New Fiction & Entertainment 2001’. Marc has directed and produced many film shorts, including ‘A Small Piece of Paradise’ (TCM Classic Movie Prize Finalist, London Film Festival Judges Recommendation and the first film to be placed for global screening on the official Celtic Football Club website in 2001/2), another short film as director, ‘The Last Noel’, a comic tale of a disillusioned Santa Claus was screened internationally at over 30 festivals including Palm Springs International Film Festival 2005. He has directed several network commercials, multi-media, corporate and pop promos. Marc also directed ‘Winning Streak’ for Children’s BBC for UK broadcast Christmas Eve 2005 and summer 2006 and this won the Silver Mboni Award for Best Short Film at The Kenya International Film Festival 2006. Marc has written several commissioned drama screenplays (features, television and short formats).
Marc directed his first feature, the thriller ‘Dark Nature’, gaining a UK Theatrical distribution with Cineworld and a worldwide dvd/bluray distribution deal with Troma Films in New York in 2010. The film gained a UK wide DVD distribution deal in 2012 that saw it in Asda Superstores and HMV and gaining Top 30 UK Best Selling status. Dark Nature’s awards include WINNER of the Best Director Award for a Feature at the International HD Fest “Deffies” 2009 where it also won Best Cinematography and was RUNNER UP for Best Feature, has screened at several international festivals in Seattle, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo in 2011 and was nominated for BAFTA Best Director New Talent Award 2010.
As a screen writer his feature ‘Contorted Hazel’ has been successfully submitted to major US studios, such as Sam Raimi’s Ghosthouse Pictures, for consideration; this feature script was also a quarter finalist in the PAGE International Screenplay Awards and International Screenplay Bluecat Competitions. ‘Contorted Hazel’ was selected for the internationally recognised and prestigious BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 and has a BAFTA Best Actress Winner and international talent attached to the project. In 2015 he won an ‘Honourable Mention’ for his revised feature script of ‘Contorted Hazel’ in the Screenplay Festival (http://screenplayfestival.com ) Marc was commissioned in 2009 to adapt the best selling and award winning spy memoirs book ‘NOC – Non Official Cover’ by Nicholas Anderson into a feature script, ‘The Judas Tree’.
In 2014 Marc’s feature screenplay ‘Manifest’ was a semi finalist in the Screenplay Festival (http://screenplayfestival.com/?p=1608 ) and is currently in pre-production with Marc as director in association with Playdead TV in Scotland. Also in production with Arcus Studios is ‘The Promise’.- a WW1 animated short both written and directed by Marc.
He also has a number of children’s animation series in development with Arcus Animation Studios where he is a writer, director and executive producer with this and their other projects.
http://www.marcdelaunay.com
http://www.mandragora.net
http://www.darknature.net
http://www.arcusstudios.co.uk