On a Friday evening in October, a lively group of 40 or so people gathered on the lower level of Manhattan’s Javits Center for a New York Comic Con panel. Matching red and black hats, t-shirts, and pins spattered the crowd. A petite brunette woman in the front row donned a temporary tattoo of Nicolas Cage’s bloody face on her left cheek. The volume of the applause at the start of the session belied their numbers.
The fans weren’t there to geek out over a treasured artist, author, or franchises like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or the Avengers. They were there to learn about a new, wholly original work from a creator half the people in the room might not have heard of before. The panel—one of the last in a long day of sessions—introduced a new project from Legion M, a two-year-old entertainment company focused on investing in original movies, TV shows, and other projects.