LOS ANGELES - Ask Barry Levine, an upstart movie producer and comic book publisher, what he is working on, and he will start peeling off his shirt. There, tattooed on his shoulder, is a large image of Hercules. “My baby,” Mr. Levine says .

“Hercules: The Thracian Wars” is a movie project headed toward Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer, but it is only one of Mr. Levine’s cinematic endeavors. In less than three years, his company, Radical Studios, has deals set up at DreamWorks Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and New Regency Pictures, which is affiliated with 20th Century Fox. Scott Rudin, the Oscar-winning producer, is working with Radical to produce “Mata Hari,” the tale of a mysterious dancer and spy.

Radical has also created a music division, started publishing games for mobile devices, and expanded efforts to publish what it calls illustrated novels -elaborate comic books - in China. Increasingly, film studios expect producers to bring financing to help produce a movie, or proof that an idea will work.

Against this backdrop sit companies like Radical Studios. Mr. Levine, who spent the 1970s and 1980s as a rock photographer, started in 2008 by publishing comics and graphic novels. That gave him a revenue stream and intellectual property to use as collateral. Radical now has 72 publishing properties with more than 1,000 characters.

Mr. Levine, 62, and his top lieutenant, a 30-year-old financial whiz named Jesse Berger, repackage Radical’s sleek comics as movie pitches.

“It’s extraordinarily valuable in the current business atmosphere to be able to pitch studios a story that is visually represented - it validates the idea if you can give executives something to hold in their hands,” said Mark Gordon, a producer who is working with Radical to adapt its zombie comic “Driver for the Dead.”

They are also increasingly focused on digitizing that artwork for use in digital publishing, gaming and smartphone apps. “An enormous amount of energy right now is going into their expansion in Asia,” said David Schiff, Radical’s manager.

The true bar of success is actually to get a movie made, which Radical has so far been unable to do . Mr. Levine said it was impossible to say with certainty whether plans could advance first with Disney or DreamWorks or MGM. Already, one project has fallen apart because of scheduling problems: Radical’s “Caliber,” which was to be directed by John Woo.

“We want to make films,” Mr. Levine said. “We don’t just want to sell them and have them sit on a shelf.”


By BROOKS BARNES