Nixon's Demons

Created by Framestore’s Joe James and Murray Butler and produced by Gaby Darbyshire, Presidential Dark is a Comic and Motion Book™, the first installment of which, 'Nixon's Demons' is available on the Madefire platform. The project supported by Framestore’s venture arm and tells the story of the secret history of the forces that have haunted the minds of America’s most notorious leaders.

The Presidential Dark series starts with tales about the only U.S. president to ever resign in Nixon’s Demons which has been written and illustrated by Joe James. Jim Shooter - the former editor-in-chief of both Valiant Entertainment and Marvel Comics is its creative consultant.

Nixon’s Demons #1 is a 62-page, two story issue of the Nixon’s Demons four-issue mini-series and the second title from Framestore’s content slate for Madefire after Somnia: Origins. This new series is available on Madefire in 2D before it takes advantage of the platform’s Magic Leap partnership to allow readers can immerse themselves in the story as an AR experience, and also in VR on the Oculus Gear VR.

Nixon's Demons Synopsis

Up until May 27th 1972, Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, had seemingly been able to keep his thoughts in order.

In truth his thoughts have been fragmenting ever since he entered the White House.

But now, as he celebrates one of his greatest achievements - getting Russia to limit nuclear weapons - the President is having strange thoughts. On the one hand these thoughts make sense; on the other hand they could ruin him.

Thank God he has special friends that always give him good advice. They’ve been with him a long time and they always steer him in the right direction. The only problem is his friends are invisible. But that’s okay: secret friends are the best. And Nixon has always enjoyed secrets.

The series' creators

‘Creating Presidential Dark as a motion book on the Madefire platform gives Framestore an opportunity to support great storytelling - which we believe is platform-agnostic - in new media,’ said Gaby Darbyshire, the series’ Producer. ‘It’s really exciting to see these stories come to life on the Madefire platform.’

Talking about the story, Joe James, the writer of ‘Nixon's Demons’ and one of the Presidential Dark Series' creators, said: "We had an idea to do an other-worldly investigation into the things that compelled Richard Milhous Nixon to be who was and do what he did. We also wanted to give one of history’s most compelling figures an entirely new treatment on the unseen regions of politics, greatness, and the horrors of the mind."

Madefire Co-Founder and CEO Ben Wolstenholme commented; “Nixon’s Demon’s is a layered story in all respects, interweaving characters and narrative in a way was just not possible in print, it also introduces Nixons own audio speeches and threads it together beautifully, quite a feat, we’re very excited to launch this to fans on Madefire.”