Jan Lucanus is an American comic book writer, filmmaker, martial artist, musical artist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the transmedia company Creative Impulse Entertainment, Inc., co-creator/co-writer of the mixed martial arts comic books series JFH: Justice For Hire, is a filmmaker, an international martial arts champion in sanshou and tai chi pushing hands, and a rapper/singer/songwriter. Lucanus also consults on business, production, and creative strategies for companies and individuals across comics, film, television, music, and games. He is a graduate of the New York University Maurice Kanbar Institute for Film & Television, Tisch School of the Arts, holding a degree in Film Production.
As a transmedia artist, Lucanus has been called a "martial arts comic book prodigy" and an "entertainment renaissance man" for his work combining comic books, film, animation, and music, most notably for the JFH: Justice For Hire entertainment property. Comic book legend Neal Adams was quoted on interview with iFanboy stating, "Understand we've got new people doing new things – Jan is an example of that... There's a new interrelationship between the forms that's beginning to develop from comic books to motion comics to film and television. Those of us who are aware of it are going to be involved in making entertainment from beginning to end".
Comic Books and Motion Comic Animation
Lucanus' childhood saw his father, Jan C. Childress, writing as a contributing journalist for several "Zines" (fan-created magazines) including the Marvel Zombie Society comic, publications such as The Overstreet Comic Book Monthly (an offshoot of Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide) and Comic Critics Calvacade, and writing The Good Guys (comics) monthly series for Jim Shooter's Defiant Comics. Lucanus' father wrote the original script for the comic series, JFH: Justice For Hire, based on Lucanus' series of shorts in film school. The original "JFH" comic script was adapted into a feature film screenplay by Lucanus and his writing partners Mercer Boffey and Banyan Williamson-Masuda, then re-adapted back into a comic script for cinematic clarity. This marked the beginning of a project development model for Lucanus' company, Creative Impulse Entertainment (CIE) a method of sourcing and developing comic book content prime for film and television, inspiring the young filmmaker to call upon his father and several creative partners to create comic books ideas to be moved into production via a new CIE subsidiary, Creative Impulse Publishing, which officially launched in 2007.
As the company's flagship title, JFH received wide support from both the martial arts and comic book communities, including a comic book giveaway contest with Inside Kung Fu Magazine, Black Belt, and comic book website Newsarama. JFH: Justice-For-Hire was followed up with several other Creative Impulse Publishing properties on the comic book market with a focus on digital releases.
Creative Impulse Entertainment branched out into motion comic animation, starting with Junior Energy (2008), a children's intellectual property created, written, and produced by Jan Lucanus and Mercer Boffey for the Clinton Global Initiative and JuniorEnergy.org. Lucanus officially began taking credit as a comic book director on Paula Garcés' Aluna comic books (2010), where Lucanus paneled writer David Cornue's original script and photo referenced every shot in the story with live actors and props from which comic artist Antonio Rojo used to create original drawings (a process he adopted for his work on capturing martial arts choreography for the JFH comics). Lucanus then directed the motion comic adaptation of Aluna, working directly with several notable actors including Paula Garces, Ahmed Best, and Malik Yoba. With Lucanus and the Creative Impulse team having designed all of the original characters in the Aluna comic book, Aluna herself became a playable character in the online battle arena game Heroes of Newerth (HoN) and has been downloaded and played millions of times.
Creative Impulse Entertainment partnered with Willow Road Animation to adapt the JFH comic book series into a motion comic animation. The pilot episode, directed by Jan Lucanus, was launched in February 2012 during the "JFH FreeFor All" Event with leading digital comic network, Graphicly, media outlet iFanboy, and animation software developer Reallusion. The event called upon artists from across the globe to submit drawings and animations of their favorite JFH characters as well free comics and animation software as incentives to participate. Winners were announced in April 2012. The JFH Motion Comic Animation had its premiere public screening at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con's Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza hosted by Ric Meyers, where Jan Lucanus and Willow Road President Zach Shelton announced a live action feature film and animated series production partnership for JFH: Justice-For-Hire with Spillwall Productions. Spillwall Vice President Sam Levine was present to address the event's audience.
In addition to his activities as a transmedia artist, Lucanus acts as a development executive and consultant on several comic book properties, and has a slate of intellectual properties in development and in production via a partnership between Creative Impulse Entertainment and Nine Dot Entertainment.
Filmmaking
In high school, he attended the New York Film Academy for two summers, and later attended and graduated from New York University's Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, Tisch School of the Arts, where he majored in Directing for Film & Television. Among his classmates were his creative partner, actor Mercer Boffey, and business partners Andrew Vannata and Patrick Brennan, cinematographers Jon Chen and Jody Lee Lipes, directors Jess Manafort and Lance Edmands, rapper/writer/director/actor Aldous Davidson, DJ Madame Turk, model/singer/actress Sinsu Co, Danity Kane singer D. Woods, and comedian Aziz Ansari.
While at NYU, he wrote, directed, and edited Hotel Harbor View, a short film based on the Japanese Manga graphic novel Hotel Harbour View by Natsuo Sekikawa and Jiroh Taniguchi. The film was an official selection at New York University's FirstRun Film Festival, and the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, and won several awards including Best Short Film at the Black Earth Film Festival. Hotel Harbor View was his first film to be produced and released under the then-newly incorporated Creative Impulse Entertainment banner, and was instrumental in securing the financing for his next film, the martial arts themed Justice-For-Hire, which was also his senior thesis film at NYU. JFH was one of two subjects of the textbook Making Movies from Pearson Publishing, an educational publication on independent filmmaking, shared with filmmaker Spike Lee.
Lucanus interned for Marc Klasfeld at Rockhard Films. He has directed several music videos, viral commercial video campaigns, short films, web series, and motion comic animations. His experience in martial arts aided in his direction of live action and animated fight choreography, for which he has won several honors, including induction into Budo Magazine's Hall of Fame for Outstanding Achievement in Martial Arts Cinema (2005) and recognition from Martial Arts Magazine's Hall of Honors for Outstanding Contribution to the Martial Arts (2007) and Goodwill Ambassador to the Martial Arts (2008). He has also directed martial arts and comedy shorts for former fighter, comedian Gabe Dorado (2009), directed talent such as Paula Garces, Ahmed Best, and Malik Yoba for the motion comic animation Aluna (2010) directed and starred in music videos with rapper Aldous Davidson, and shot music manager Paul Shull's "Mr. Butterscotch" action videos featuring fencing fight choreography (2012) based on the upcoming comic book of the same name in co-production with the Canadian-based Foundation Features.
As announced at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza, his feature directorial debut will be the live-action adaptation of his comic book series, JFH: Justice-For-Hire, slated for production via a partnership between his company Creative Impulse Entertainment. (CIE) and the Canadian-based Spillwall Productions. He will also co-star as one of the main characters, "Ebony", reprising his role from the JFH web series and short films. The feature follows an original story of his and developed via a partnership between CIE and Nine Dot Entertainment that will act as a prequel to the first season of JFH comics. He wrote the jointly with screenwriter and director Aurore Barry, and his father, comic book writer Jan C. Childress.
In 2013, the JFH creative team launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to shoot a short film to establish the cinematic tone for the JFH feature, as well as test out a martial arts camera system designed for the film, called "Weapon Camera Movement". The short, entitled JFH: Retribution Task Force, is currently in production, and is bringing together several characters across the JFH Universe for a common goal – stopping acts of violence against women committed by the Raskol gangs of Papua New Guinea.
Creative Impulse Entertainment (CIE)
Lucanus incorporated Creative Impulse Entertainment (CIE) in March 2003.
He had been producing writings, drawings, and films under the banner of CIE since high school, and upon official incorporation, continued to grow the brand with short films and music videos. Lucanus later launched the subsidiaries, Creative Impulse Films, Creative Impulse Music, Creative Impulse Publishing, and the freelance company, Creative Impulse Alliance, to compartmentalize productions across media. CIE operates as an umbrella corporation for creative design, intellectual property development, and production across comic books, filmmaking, music, and games. Among his strategic advisors are transmedia artist Michael Counts, producer Barry Navidi, and former Village Roadshow Pictures President & COO Steve Krone.
Music
Jan Lucanus began singing with his parents who would perform Hindu bhajans (songs praising the Hindu pantheon of Gods & Goddesses) on a weekly basis even before his birth. In high school, Lucanus' peers introduced him to rap music, and a few friends were rappers themselves. After several failed attempts to help his friends get record deals, Lucanus had started writing rap lyrics himself. In college, Jan was on the outskirts of the United Nationz rap crew led by Tox Simian (not to be confused with rapper Cam'ron's U.N. group), with his first official featured appearance singing the chorus on the UN track "We So Gangsta". Jan left the crew due to professional differences and focused on filmmaking.
In his senior year of college at NYU, Lucanus took a hip hop class to assist with his performance abilities in prep for his upcoming role in his Justice-For-Hire featurette. He returned to rap with his creative partner and JFH co-star Mercer Boffey, a proficient beatboxer, and performed several times as part of his duties in the class. In addition to rapping together on the "JFH" soundtrack song "Killa Icons" produced by Sage Michael, Lucanus and Mercer later formed a group with several athletes called Strip Hop, a burlesque-style act that included dancing and rapping that Mercer and Jan held in various homes for all female audiences. The act was picked up by burlesque showrunner Norman Gosney as part of a set that eventually became the Blushing Diamond Review in New York. Lucanus and Mercer left the act behind and formed the duo Sneakers & Jeans, as well as pursuing personal projects.