AMC Networks (NASDAQ: AMCX) is an entertainment company in the United States that owns the national cable channels AMC, IFC, WE tv, and Sundance Channel; the art house movie theater IFC Center in New York, New York, and the film company IFC Films.

The company was originally launched in 1980 and formerly known as Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Cablevision, but was spun off as a publicly traded company in July 2011.

History and Former Assets[link]

When Rainbow was formed in the early 1980s, it originally included Bravo and SportsChannel New York. As SportsChannel expanded by adding other regional networks, these also would become part of Rainbow (see SportsChannel America). When SportsChannel was merged into Fox Sports Net, all of these networks except SportsChannel NY (then Fox Sports New York) were gradually sold off. Fox Sports New York was then transferred to the MSG Media and rebranded MSG+.

Rainbow originally started the Playboy Channel in 1982 as a joint-venture with Playboy, Cablevision would later sell its share back to Playboy.

In 1988, Cablevision merged their cable networks with NBC, giving NBC 50% ownership in Rainbow..^[1] Through a series of transactions, NBC's stake was eventually reduced. In 2002, Cablevision would sell its share of Bravo to NBC and as part of the deal, NBC gave up its then 20% share in Rainbow.

Rainbow ran the local-minded MSG Metro Channels which launched in 1998, before folding them in late 2005.

The company had also founded Orlando, Florida station WRBW in 1994, which it eventually sold to Chris-Craft in 1998; it was affiliated with the since-defunct UPN, which Chris-Craft owned half of at the time. Chris-Craft later sold its stations, including WRBW, to Fox Television Stations, who currently operates WRBW as a MyNetworkTV station.

In 2005, Cablevision considered spinning off its content subsidiary Rainbow Media as a publicly traded company, and making their core cable business private, but withdrew the plan. In 2006, a new plan emerged to privatize all of Cablevision, including Rainbow Media. In January 2007, with no word on if the privatization would go through, Liberty Media expressed interest in acquiring Rainbow Media from Cablevision.

Rainbow Media also formerly owned the music channel Fuse; the channel would become a part of MSG Media in 2010, as Madison Square Garden would also be spun-off as a public company. Rainbow Media also owned Wedding Central which was shut down the same day AMC Networks went public.^[2]

On March 10, 2011, Cablevision, as approved by its board on December 16, 2010,^[3] announced that Rainbow Media would be spun off as a publicly traded company, AMC Networks, later in 2011, and, as said in 2005, making their core cable business private. Rainbow Media's former president Josh Sapan serves as the president and chief executive of AMC Networks^[4] which went public on July 1, 2011.^[5]

Carriage controversies[link]

2012 Dish Network dispute[link]

On May 4, 2012, Dish Network announced that it would no longer carry the AMC Networks family of cable channels upon the expiration of the satellite provider's distribution agreement with the company in June 2012, citing that AMC Networks charged an excessive amount in retransmission consent payments from the service for their carriage and low audience viewership for the channels.^[6]

AMC Networks responded to Dish's announcement of its pending removal of the channels as being related to a 2008 breach of contract lawsuit against Dish Network by former company parent Rainbow Media's Voom HD Networks (which is pending trial in the New York State Supreme Court), in which it is seeking more than $2.5 billion in damages against Dish for improperly terminating its carriage contract; Voom's high-definition channels were carried on the provider from May 1, 2005 until May 12, 2008 when Dish removed ten of Voom's fifteen channels from its lineup (with the five remaining Voom HD channels were removed from Dish the day after).^[7] However, Dish states that the lawsuit is unrelated to the decision to remove the AMC Networks channels and that it ended the carriage agreement on its own terms.^[6]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

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Robert Kirkman
Kirkman at the 2011 New York Comic Con
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Editor, Letterer
Notable works	The Walking Dead Invincible Marvel Zombies

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead and Invincible for Image Comics, and Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt.^[1] He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of its co-founders.^[2]

Career[link]

Robert Kirkman's first comic book work was the 2000 superhero parody Battle Pope,^[1] which he co-created with artist Tony Moore, and self-published under the Funk-O-Tron label. Later, while pitching a new series, Science Dog, Kirkman and artist Cory Walker were hired to do a SuperPatriot miniseries for Image Comics. While working on that book, Kirkman and E. J. Su created the 2002 Image series Tech Jacket, which ran six issues.

In 2003, Kirkman and Walker created Invincible for Image's new superhero line. The story surrounded the adolescent son of the world's most powerful superhero, who develops powers and starts his own superhero career. Walker later failed to meet the monthly title's deadlines and was replaced by Ryan Ottley.^[3] In 2005, Paramount Pictures announced it had bought the rights to produce an Invincible feature film, and hired Kirkman to write the screenplay.^[4]

Shortly after the launch of Invincible, Kirkman and Moore began The Walking Dead (2003). Moore, himself struggling to keep deadlines, was replaced by Charlie Adlard, beginning with issue #7.^[5] Moore continued to draw covers until issue 24 as well as the first four volumes of the trade paperbacks for the series.

Kirkman was first hired by Marvel Comics to pen a revival of the 1990s Sleepwalker series,^[6] but it was canceled before being published; the contents of its first issue were included in Epic Anthology No. 1 (2004). He soon became a mainstay at Marvel, writing the "Avengers Disassembled" issues of Captain America vol. 4, 2004's Marvel Knights 2099 one-shots event, Jubilee #1–6 and Fantastic Four: Foes #1–6, a two-year run on Ultimate X-Men and the entire Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 and Irredeemable Ant-Man ongoing series.

At Image, Kirkman and artist Jason Howard created the ongoing series The Astounding Wolf-Man, launching it on May 5, 2007, as part of Free Comic Book Day. Kirkman edited the monthly series Brit, based on the character he created for the series of one-shots, illustrated by Moore and Cliff Rathburn. It ran 12 issues.

Kirkman announced in 2007 that he and artist Rob Liefeld would team on a revival of Killraven for Marvel Comics.^[7] Kirkman that year also said he and Todd McFarlane would collaborate on Haunt for Image Comics.^[8]

In late July 2008, Kirkman was made a partner at Image Comics, thereby ending his freelance association with Marvel.^[9][10] Nonetheless, later in 2009, he and Walker produced the five-issue miniseries The Destroyer vol. 4^[11] for Marvel's MAX imprint

In 2010, he also began producing the television adaption of his comic book series The Walking Dead,^[12] the pilot of which is directed by Frank Darabont.^[13] Kirkman wrote the fourth episode, "Vatos".

In 2009 Kirkman and Marc Silvestri took over the 2009–2010 Pilot Season for Top Cow Comics. The 2009/2010 Pilot Season contains a series of five one-shot pilot comics that readers will be able to vote on which becomes an ongoing series. Each series is co-created by Silvestri who also provides cover art.^[14]

In July 2010, Kirkman announced he would launch and run a new Image Comics imprint called Skybound.^[15]

On February 9, 2012, Tony Moore filed a lawsuit alleging that Kirkman, in 2005, had deceitfully engineered him into surrendering his rights to The Walking Dead comic book and eventual TV series in exchange for payments that never materialized. Kirkman said in a statement the following day that he and Moore "each had legal representation seven years ago and now he is violating the same contract he initiated and approved and he wants to misrepresent the fees he was paid and continues to be paid for the work he was hired to do."^[16]

Personal life[link]

Kirkman lives in Kentucky.^[17] He named his son Peter Parker Kirkman after Spider-Man's civilian identity, Peter Parker.^[18][19]

Bibliography[link]

Early work[link]

Titles published by Funk-O-Tron, Kirkman's own publishing company, include:

• Battle Pope #1–13 (with Tony Moore, Matt Roberts, Jonboy Meyers, Cory Walker and E. J. Su, 2000–2002)
• Battle Pope Presents: Saint Michael #1–3 (with Terry Stevens, 2001)

Image Comics[link]

Titles published by Image include:

• SuperPatriot:
  • SuperPatriot: America's Fighting Force #1–4 (with Cory Walker, 2002)
  • SuperPatriot: War on Terror #1–4 (with E. J. Su, 2004–2007)
• Tech Jacket #1–6 (with E. J. Su, 2002–2003)
• Invincible (with Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, 2003–...)
• Masters of the Universe #1–3
• Capes #1–3 (with Mark Englert, 2003)
• Tales of the Realm #1–5 (with Matt Tyree, MVCreations, 2003–2004)
• The Walking Dead (with Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, 2003–...) collected as:
• Noble Causes #2: "Rite of Passage" (with Cory Walker, 2004)
• Youngblood: Imperial (with Marat Mychaels, Arcade, one-shot, 2004)
• Savage Dragon: God War #1–4 (with Mark Englert, 2004–2005)
• Four Letter Worlds: "Blam" (with Matt Roberts, graphic novel, tpb, 144 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-58240-439-9)
• Image Holiday Special '05: "The Walking Dead" (with Charlie Adlard, one-shot, 2005)
• Suprema: Supreme Sacrifice (with Jon Malin, Arcade, one-shot, 2006)
• The Astounding Wolf-Man (with Jason Howard, 2007–2010)
• Image United
• Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: "The Origin of the Bear, and the Origin of the Shark" (with Jason Howard and Ryan Ottley, 2010)
• Guardians of the Globe #1–6 (with Benito J. Cereno III, Ransom Getty and Kris Anka, 2010–2011)
• Spawn #200: "Prologue" (script and art, 2011)
• Outlaw Territory: "Man on a Horse: A Dawson Brothers Tale" (with Shaun O'Neil, anthology graphic novel, tpb, 240 pages, 2011, ISBN 1-60706-321-2)
• Super Dinosaur #1-ongoing (with Jason Howard, 2011–...)
• The Infinite #1-ongoing (with Rob Liefeld, 2011–...)
• Thief of Thieves #1-ongoing (co-writer, 2012–...)

Marvel Comics[link]

Titles published by Marvel include:

• Epic Anthology: "Sleepwalker: New Beginnings" (with Khary Randolph, Epic, 2004)
• X-Men Unlimited #2: "All the Rage" (with Takeshi Miyazawa, 2004)
• Spider-Man Unlimited #4: "Love Withdrawal" (with Cory Walker, 2004)
• Captain America #29–32: "Super Patriot" (with Scot Eaton, 2004)
• Jubilee #1–6 (with Derec Donovan, 2004)
• Marvel Team-Up (with Scott Kolins, Jeff Johnson, Paco Medina, Cory Walker, Andy Kuhn and Roger Cruz, 2005–2007)
• Fantastic Four: Foes #1–6 (with Cliff Rathburn, 2005)
• Amazing Fantasy #15: "Monstro" (with Khary Randolph, 2006)
• What If?.. featuring Thor (with Michael Avon Oeming, one-shot, 2006)
• Marvel Zombies:
• Ultimate X-Men #66–93, Annual No. 2
• New Avengers: America Supports You: "Time Trouble" (with Alex Chung and Scott Hepburn, one-shot, 2006)
• The Irredeemable Ant-Man (with Phil Hester and Cory Walker, 2006–2007)
• Destroyer #1–5 (with Cory Walker, 2009)
• X-Force Annual No. 1 (with Jason Pearson, 2010)

Other publishers[link]

Titles published by various American publishers include:

• 9-11 vol.1: "Untitled" (with Tony Moore, anthology graphic novel, tpb, 196 pages, Dark Horse, 2002, ISBN 1-56389-881-0)
• Top Cow:
• Tales of Army of Darkness: "Weekend Off" (with Ryan Ottley, Dynamite, one-shot, 2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Kirkman

• Official website
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Buy My Books, a column by Robert Kirkman.
• Robert Kirkman on the State of the Comic Book Industry – Video and Transcript
• Robert Kirkman at the Comic Book DB

Interviews[link]

• 2010 Interview on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast
• An Excerpt of George Khoury's Kirkman interview from IMAGE COMICS: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE at PopImage
• Podcast interview at comiXology
• An Interview with Robert Kirkman about Pilot Season with the Legion of Dudes.
• Nerdist Podcast #93: Robert Kirkman May 2011 podcast, recorded live at NerdMelt

v t e The Walking Dead Comic book Creators Robert Kirkman • Tony Moore • Charlie Adlard Television series Episodes Season 1 "Days Gone Bye" • "Guts" • "Tell It to the Frogs" • "Vatos" • "Wildfire" • "TS-19" Season 2 "What Lies Ahead" • "Bloodletting" • "Save the Last One" • "Cherokee Rose" • "Chupacabra" • "Secrets" • "Pretty Much Dead Already" • "Nebraska" • "Triggerfinger" • "18 Miles Out" • "Judge, Jury, Executioner" • "Better Angels" • "Beside the Dying Fire" Season 3   Developer Frank Darabont Characters: (comics/TV) Grimes family Rick Grimes • Lori Grimes • Carl Grimes Survivors' group Andrea • Glenn • Daryl Dixon • Carol Peletier • Hershel Greene • Maggie Greene • Dale Horvath • Michonne Antagonists Shane Walsh • The Governor Novels The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor Other Video game • Talking Dead • The Walking Dead: Torn Apart