Fox Television Studios has signed a development deal with Spacedog to create projects based on three graphic novels. In a move right out of the book of synergy, plans call for the books to be published simultaneously with TV projects and content for digital media platforms. (Graphic novel are books with comic book cels!)

As part of the deal, according to a story in today’s Hollywood Reporter, Spacedog, will co-develop three projects based on yet-to-published graphic novels from Top Cow Comics (known for its Tomb Raider and Witchblade franchises).

“We’re developing the stories simultaneously,’ a Fox exec is quoted as saying. ‘There are writers working on it from the comic book side and writers we are bringing in on the TV side. Each group is telling the same story, with the goal that we’ll have a comic book/graphic novel that will work in its own right but also have been designed beforehand with the notion of spring-boarding a series.”

The first project, Revved, centers on four special vehicles, all of which are made with a piece of the same magical metal found in such items as the Holy Grail, Joan of Arc’s armor and King Arthur’s Excalibur. The cars’ drivers, possessed with the same powers as those symbols, embark on a series of dangerous missions.

Among other things, Fox is reportedly exploring ways extend the content into such digital platforms as mobile phones and the Internet.