GRAPHIC CONTENT OVERSEEING A COMIC BOOK EMPIRE.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

If his life played out in one of his comic books, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg could fill many roles - boy wonder, cunning mastermind, perhaps even the mad genius bent on world domination.

He's on his way there, with some impressive allies backing his play. Aliens, cowboys toting laser pistols, muscle-bound monsters and a scantily-clad lady detective who can handle herself in a fight - they're all along for the ride as the Calabasas resident grows his empire across the planet.

As chairman of Platinum Studios LLC, Rosenberg controls titles dreamed up by 500 creators, published in 50 countries in 25 languages - and that's just in the real world. In Platinum's so-called ``macroverse,'' he can play with nearly 2,500-characters across seven dimensions, multiple Earths and a timeline spanning from before the Big Bang all the way into the future.

The Beverly Hills-based company is currently in the process of acquiring the exclusive film and television rights to France's Hexagon Comics, as well as a 20-percent stake in the 50-year-old company, adding another 500 characters to its vast library. With all the outlandish alternate realities, Rosenberg now finds many directions in which to guide the company.

``When someone says, 'I want to do something in the future,' we say, 'Which future?''' he grinned. ``Are there aliens? How about superheroes?''

Coming from just about anyone else, that would seem like a good reason to end the conversation quickly. Rosenberg's just getting warmed up, however. In an office that would be the envy of any arch-villain, with its eight computer monitors and oversize cutouts of costumed warriors, he stretched out on his cartoon-like sofa and rhapsodized over his plans to build up the company he founded in 1997.

Though he's still in his 30s, he's marking his third decade in the industry. An avid collector in his youth, he started a mail-order company at age 13 to sell comics and provide capital to build his own collection. The sales kept on through college, when he found a niche as a supplier of hard-to-find issues to small shops. Before long, he had his own publishing house, Malibu Comics, which developed such titles as Ex-Mutants and Men in Black.

After Malibu got bought out by industry giant Marvel in 1994, Rosenberg launched his current venture with the express intent of turning comics into other forms of media. So far, it has transformed the Belgian graphic novel ``Jeremiah'' into a 35-hour series on Showtime and inked a $200 million, 10-picture deal with Gold Circle films, for projects including high-profile titles like Witchblade and Cowboys & Aliens.

With DC Comics' ``Batman Begins'' and Marvel's ``Fantastic Four'' hauling in more than $200 million between the two of them this summer, Rosenberg's strategy of pulling characters from panels to the screen seems like a sound one. While the aliens and gunslingers that populate Platinum's pages don't have quite the iconic status of the Caped Crusader, box office analyst Gitesh Pandya said they have the potential to become successful films.

``A lot of times with a modest budget, you can make an interesting film with a good director or a good script,'' said Pandya, who edits BoxOfficeGuru.com. ``The bigger (comics) lead to bigger box office, which is no coincidence, but because there's been so much money made by those, the B-level ones like The Punisher and Hellboy got turned into movies.''

Exactly, said Rosenberg, arranging the Men in Black figurines among curvy Witchblade sculptures on his coffee table. Even when his competitors are reeling in cash, he figures that only means more business for Platinum down the road.

``Anytime there's a win for comics, that'll help us,'' he said. ``We have our fingers in so many things, they don't even have to mention our name and it'll help us.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who at 13 sold comic books, now serves as chairman for Platinum Studios of Beverly Hills.

(2 -- 3 -- color) no caption (Comic book art)

(4 -- color) ``When someone says, 'I want to do something in the future,' we say, 'Which future?''' says Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, overlord of the Platinum Studios comic book empire.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer