Comics for Thought: Advertising Comics
By: Damien Wood
Do you realize that the hype of comic books is largely left up to the fanbase most of the time? There are rarely any ad campaigns outside of the comics themselves, rarely any real marketing plans at all and if we’re lucky, sometimes we get interviews with the creative teams on comic newsfeeds beforehand. That’s pretty much it, and it’s bad business. To the best of my knowledge, it’s also the only business where this is so alarmingly the case.
Rather telling of the publishers behind the comics, don’t you think?
Comic book publishers across the board seem to be dropping the ball when it comes to promoting the goods. While I don’t claim to know the specifics of their finances, it would take a lot to convince me that there’s a reason for this. DC Comics is backed by Time-Warner, Marvel is turning out movie properties like tricks and the independent publishers have nothing to lose if they want to survive. It’s silly that none of them are putting any significant effort into getting their core product noticed – particularly now, with more “superstar” creators taking on potentially high-profile titles than ever.
For example, by now most fans of the X know that Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fame) is writing Astonishing X-Men. But how many fans of his television shows know this? I’d bet a handful, if even. Where would they have heard? Nowhere – unless they already read the comics, and that’s just preaching to the choir. If Marvel really wanted to better their sales, the thing to do would have been to place some resources into running commercials during Angel's final episodes. Joss likely didn’t come cheap, so wouldn’t it make sense to try and bring as much of his mainstream audience as possible over with him?
The goal should be to bring new readers in with every shiny new, hot or jumpstarted property that’s put forward, and it shouldn’t be left solely up to current readers to do it. But that’s simply not the case. Meanwhile, comic book publishers wonder why they can’t catch a break in sales.
Solid promoting can sell anything. We know this, and I have to believe that the publishers know this too. So maybe deep down, they want comics to remain the ever-struggling illegitimate child of counter-culture. Or maybe they’ve just become so caught up in pimping their other products that they’ve forgotten the product that made them great. Either way, something needs to change. The fanbase can’t keep doing for free what the publishers should be paying for.
Next Friday: Why?
The opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the writer, and are not necessarily representative of TNI.
When not enlightening the masses and saving the world in service of TNI, the entity known as NmX attempts to carry out a semi-normal life as a writer and a student of journalism under his not so secret identity, Damien Wood.
Look for his online projects "I Will Speak. You Will Listen." and "Mental Puppetry" sometime in the near future.
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