BMP FAQ

BMP (Classic) had three business partners: Bruce Love, Jozef Szekeres and Julie Ditrich. BMP (New Wave) has two business partners: Julie and Jozef. These terms were invented to delineate the changes to the creative team once Bruce left at the end of 2003. The terms are used colloquially but not legally.

In 1991 Bruce, Jozef and Julie worked independently as contributors to a new Australian comic called Oblagon which was released in Autumn 1992 and lasted one issue. In the process we discovered that we had similar ideas and interests (ie. mermaids, Disney, music, mythology), so decided to work on a project together. The opportunity to contribute to Elfquest arose, and we completed a proposal in two weeks because we were so creatively in tune. Out of that collaboration Black Mermaid Productions was born.

Bruce left to pursue his passion for acting and directing which is where he wanted to focus his creative energy. All of us are still great friends and supportive of each other's goals.

BMP as it currently stands, still holds the copyright to the pre-existing intellectual property. BMP (Classic) has an agreement in regard to rights and dispersals of these creative properties.

The Black Mermaid logo was conceived by BMP director and artist Jozef Szekeres in 1991 after the creative team (business partnership) was named. Since then she has appeared on all our corporate stationery, and became a popular and identifiable character in her own right. When we started planning the website in 1998, we decided to use our black mermaid as a hostess to introduce each page to the reader. She appears in several (often symbolic) incarnations throughout the BMP website.

No. The Black Mermaid logo is copyright and trademarked to BMP. She has become a strong identifiable part of our business brand for the last 15 years and has been affectionately embraced by our readers. In many publishing circles and networking groups we are in fact known as the "black mermaids" or the "black mermaid people". In accordance with this brand recognition we have never licensed or given permission to any individual or organisation to reproduce the logo as she appears in our corporate stationery and also in all her website incarnations for commercial or non-commercial use, including tattoos.

Time constraints do not allow Jozef to design any specific tattoos for interested people. Tattoo design is also not part of our core business. However, we do get occasional requests from readers, seeking permission to use some of the published BMP characters as tattoos. In principle, we do give permission in those circumstances, provided that the person contacts us by email. If you have such a request, you can email us on: permissions@blackmermaid.com.

All BMP's previously published comics (EQ: WaveDancers and Dart) are out of print. However, individual issues occasionally come up for auction on ebay, so stay on the alert.

Do you accept 'work-for-hire' projects or do you work specifically on creator-owned projects?

BMP (New Wave), as well as the directors, take on work-for-hire properties individually or as a team. We also have creator-owned intiatives in various stages of pre-production that we are now marketing one by one to publishers.

We both grew up with a love for mermaids. Jozef was drawing them from a very early age, and Julie has a large collection of mermaid oriented artwork and books.

BMP hopes to bring out a Tilaweed and Hyfus graphic novel in 2007/8, which will be the first release within the world of Elf~Threaal. Shortly thereafter we will be publishing a sequel that focuses on Illora (Tilaweed and Hyfus' daughter), Inkbottom, Shoresprout and a host of new Elf~Threaalite children's characters.

Mermist Seas will be released, but not in the time-frame and the format we originally anticipated and announced. BMP has made a decision not to publish Mermist Seas in single issue comics. Rather, we are preparing and packaging the work as a series of graphic novels. This translates into finishing approximately 132 colour pages before the first volume can be printed. Though the project is well underway, and some of the finished pages are looking extraordinary, we still have a lot of work to do on it.

Yes, we have developed several other properties in the last few years. One is a graphic novel based on Greek mythology called The Gathering of the House of Phorcys, and the second is another mermaid property specifically geared to the children's market. We will release information closer to publication.

No problems thanks to modern technology. Communication takes place by phone, fax and email.

Black Mermaid Productions. A proposal was sent to Warp Graphics for an Elfquest "what if" story in June 1992. The story revolved around a colony of sea-dwelling elves and the package contained many character sketches and character profiles, including a number of "mer-elf" characters. The concept of "mer-elves" had never appeared in any of the previous ElfQuest work, and tailed elves made their first published appearance in WaveDancers #1 (December, 1993).

Sea-elves had appeared previously in a role-playing game: The Sea Elves: A Complete Culture for Elfquest by Elizabeth Cerritelli (1985) in which "wavedancers" were actually dolphins. Richard Pini thought the word "wavedancers" sounded musical and suggested we call our colony "WaveDancers".

I'm a huge fan of the original WaveDancers. Will the subsequent series of the original WaveDancers ever come out?

No, but you can read the WaveDancers story synopsis in BMP Properties to find out where the action would have taken the reader.

Warp gave BMP an opportunity to break into the American market. Richard Pini was a very good editor, and Jozef and Wendy shared a mutual respect and close relationship via phone and fax. However, once the business relationship faltered over creator and ownership differences, then all personal and professional relationships ceased at that time.

We hope to, but it may not happen for a while since we are concentrating our energies on Elf~Fin and Mermist Seas.

Julie
WaveDancers – Kirith & Hyfus
Dart – Sirene, Shaq Splayd, Walrus & Carpenter
Mermist Seas – Peris & Cussiandra

Jozef
WaveDancers – Tilaweed, Raenafel, Irralee, Maron & Paffa
Dart – Sirene, Rosette, Death Gaze, Mistress Brouhaha
Mermist Seas – Serenai, Ondissa, Sisatii, Jessur, Rynan, Orselon [Note: I would also include Peris, but Julie goes hysterical and says, "He's mine, he's mine, I'm not sharing him!"]