User:Jkblack33/Bastet Entertainment

Bastet Entertainment is a media production company based in St. Louis, Missouri. Bastet Entertainment produces, markets, and distributes graphic novels and other entertainment properties in the United States and international markets. It was founded by Raven Mason, J.K. Black and Johnathan R. Phillips.

History
Bastet Entertainment was founded in 2010 St. Louis, Missouri by Raven Mason, J.K. Black and Johnathan R. Phillips otherwise known as "The Original Three".

Formation of The Guild
J.K. Black and Raven Mason began discussing story ideas as early as 2008. Mason has been writing stories and producing music since the early 2000's and has worked with other visual artists and writers developing comic book ideas. Unfortunately, due to internal conflicts within his group, things didn't make. Black has been writing stories and doing visual art since 2004 and was at the time developing his first full length graphic novel series Ghetto Warrior. Mason later introduced Black to his younger brother Roe who was also a visual artist. Mason later met Johnathan Phillips, a writer, in 2009. Later that year, he decided to put a team together, consisting of himself, Black, Phillips, Roe and Gerald Rowland, another visual artist. Mason called the crew "the Writer's Guild" or just "The Guild". The original concept was that each member come together, each representing their own aspiring business entities, and help one another develop their ideas. Mason represented Concrete Productions; Phillips, Madhouse Entertainment; Black, Bastet Entertainment; and Roe, Visual Underground.

Breakup of The Guild and Formation of Bastet
Within months, The Guild began experiencing production problems as its members had different interests. Mason sought to develop movies. Phillips had aspirations to write for film and see his work animated. Roe desired to create a magazine while Black wished to produce graphic novels. Rowland eventually left the group to pursue personal interests. Black, seeing an opportunity to develop African-American graphic novels, moved forward to further develop his own entity Bastet Entertainment and invited Guild members to be a part, offering to develop their ideas into graphic novels. Black reasoned that "it is far easier and within our capacity to produce graphic novels right now than animation or film". Mason concluded that it would be more beneficial for everyone to unite under an "umbrella company" and suggested that Bastet be that "umbrella". The concept later evolved into the development of a business that the Guild members own, that incorporates the interest of the whole. Mason and Phillips abandoned the concept of Concrete and Madhouse respectively and decided to take on Bastet as their identity. Bastet Entertainment became incorporated in March 2010. Roe opted to further develop his company, Visual Underground Studios and eventually dropped out of the Guild/Bastet. This left only Mason, Black and Philips, who would later become known as "The Original Three" founders of Bastet Ent.

Meaning of Name
In Kemetic Mythology, Bastet is an aspect of Het-Heru and therefore represents the aesthetics, creativity and the arts. Bastet's logo is a Black Cat sitting on the moon.

The Rough Draft Mixtape
Raven Mason released his first mixtape titled The Rough Draft online in May 2011. It consists of five songs and was generally well received.

The Anthology Vol. 1
J.K. Black and Johnathan Phillips are currently collaborating on a graphic novel anthology set to be released by September 2011. The anthology will consist of only four stories written by Black and Phillips. Black stated that the purpose of the anthology is to simply "show the world what we can do" rather than to make a significant amount of money. Black and Phillips plan to use the anthology as an opportunity to introduce characters in upcoming series planned by Bastet.

Ghetto Warrior and Demon Hunter
J.K. Black announced that the first two issues of Ghetto Warrior will be released online in October 2011. Phillips agreed to release two issues of Demon Hunter around the same time as well.