Greetings readers!

Usually when I sit down to figure out my weekly blog, it takes me a while to scan through the world of comics and find my inspiration. As I was perusing the usual places, it slowly dawned on me that there is an inordinate amount of comic related madness out and about this week. From strange to silly to triflin’, the comic book news cycle was just a bit off. Don’t believe me? Let me share a few tidbits with you:

Lil Obama? A while back, Image comics and Robert Kirkman put out some pretty hilarious teaser images poking fun at Marvel’s AVENGERS promo for the upcoming GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE book. The images depicted increasingly ridiculous characters joining the team, from Spawn to Barack Obama, to a very Harry Potter-like child (you can check em out here). Well, it turns out that these images were so popular that Image will now feature the team in a series of one page back up stories. The characters will also be cute-ified, as you can see from the cover above. When I saw this, I couldn’t help but think, “Why?” Was the world calling for lil’ Spawn? You can get the official press release over at Image’s Website.

IRON MAN double dipping? Last Friday, Marvel Comics announced that on June 30th INVINCIBLE IRON MAN ANNUAL #1 would be released simultaneously in comic book stores and on their ipad/iphone/ipod app, the first comic to be released in such a fashion. I know that Marvel has been on the forefront of digital distribution, and that your average digital reader might not be your average LCS shopper, but doesn’t this seem kind of, I don’t know, ho-ish? When I read this, I just felt bad for the comic shop guys. Yes, it’s only one comic, but it is still money out of retailer pockets. I guess I’m just amazed that Marvel would treat retailers (who kept them in business through many a rough year) with such disdain. Boo to you Marvel. You can read the press release on Newsarama.

X-men vs. vampires? Sticking with Marvel, the X-franchise has a new issue #1 coming out, with the mighty mutants taking on… vampires? I’m taken aback. Admittedly, I haven’t read an X-book in a little while, but doesn’t this seem kind of out of left field? Out of all the characters in the Marvel U, the X-men don’t really seem like the group to go undead hunting. There’s preview art for you if you are into that sort of thing over at Marvel.

90s trading cards? I came across this small piece of madness over on Comics Alliance and it boggled my mind. For those who don’t feel like following links, let me sum up; in the 1990’s Eclipse Entertainment actually made trading cards for comic book creators. Not characters, creators. Now, I think it’s great that Jack Kirby got his own trading card, but Shirtless McFarlane in the skinny jeans? No, with a side of no. I have often harped on the silliness of the 1990’s comic book scene, and this just proves me right. (On a side note, if you do click over to the main article, how scary is the resemblance between Clive Barker and Adam Sandler?)

World Record? Last week Melbourne, Australia broke the Guinness world record for… get ready for it… “largest number of people in superhero costumes gathered in one place”. That’s got to be one of the strangest world records I’ve ever heard of that didn’t involve some sort of bodily growth. The Aussies snagged the record with a whopping 1245 people in costume, beating previous record holder London, England by a scant 154 people (only one week after London had gained the title). Thanks again to Comics Alliance for filling me in on the craziness.

Super-Dwight? Yesterday, Adidas announced that they would team with Warner Brothers to produce a line of shoes and Apparel featuring Superman and Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard (pictured above). I’m all for cross-promotion, but what Brad Globe of Warner Bros. had a quote in the article that made me groan. I’m sure you want to see the quote:

“Superman is the universal symbol of strength and speed, not to mention he has one heck of a vertical leap. Dwight’s super heroic feats on the court make this partnership with Adidas an ideal collaboration for basketball and comic book fans alike.”

The article goes on to talk about the history of Superman and the achievements of Howard. The more I read, the odder the pairing seemed. That being said, more power to DC and Warner Bros. for pimping out Supes like a cheap trick, he needed to be taken down a notch. Thanks to comic book resources for the story.

CSI: Mortal Kombat? Weird can work sometimes though as well. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this re-imagining of Mortal Kombat:

Pretty interesting. This short was put together in the hopes of landing a full length feature, and while parts of it are kind of silly (a former plastic surgeon becomes a martial arts master?), it seems like a shot in the arm for what has become a tired franchise. Given that my only memory of the original Mortal Kombat movie is laughing at Christopher Lambert as a lightning god, I’m rooting for this one to get made.

So, as you can see, it was an odd week for comic book news. Thanks for letting me rant, folks. Check back in tomorrow for the latest from Dr. Cellus. Have a great Thursday!

Greetings Semantinkists!

Today I want to take a look at something that has become increasingly important in comics: Promo images. In the last few weeks, all of the Semantink crew has been discussing how best to get people excited about our new upcoming titles. These days (though I suppose this has been true for a while) promotion before a comic is released is integral to it’s survival. If a book doesn’t get a good jump from the get-go, it’s as good as done. This is true for books big and small. Books like Marvel’s S.W.O.R.D. and DC’s BLUE BEETLE suffered premature cancellations due to low initial sales. Diamond wont even pick up small press books if they can’t meet a certain sales plateau. So, it all comes back to getting readers hooked early, and usually before a book is even launched, which brings us back to the importance of promotional images.

Companies have become increasingly savvy about what a promo image should look like, and when to release it for maximum exposure. There seems to be a difference in what kind of promotion a book gets based on what kind of book it will be. Mega crossovers obviously get a much bigger push, as they affect the sales of more books. New series get a particular kind of promotional image, trying to invite readers to try something new. Events within established books target specific audiences (i.e. the people that already read the book(s) involved).

Obviously, the big two have more money and can afford to do a lot more in terms of images. As an example take a look at some of the images that they put together for the latest events, SIEGE and BLACKEST NIGHT:

DC’s BLACKEST NIGHT promotional image shows that while the book might be Green Lantern-centric, a host of recently dead heroes will be involved. SIEGE highlights the re-teaming of Marvel’s big three Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, while showing who they are fighting against. Both pieces are very dynamic and feature a large cast of characters involved to get more fans drawn to the project. Marvel and DC have really cornered the market on the crossover event promotion, as most other companies do not have a shared universe to draw from. Smaller companies like Wildstorm or Crossgen have tried crossover events, but the promotional material is lacking, often using cover art from the books themselves as promo pieces.

Note how while both of these covers are striking images, neither lead the reader to pick up books that they might not usually go for. There is a reason that only Marvel and DC do the big cross over event, and it’s because they are the only ones that can do it well.

Promotional images for new comics are a little more diverse in how they can bring in new readers. Books that are hoping to gain a niche because of the creator(s) involved will often highlight that (those) creator(s). An excellent example of this would be the promotional image for the new Todd McFarlane series, HAUNT:

This title is banking on the fact that people will buy the book simply for McFarlane. The art itself is dynamic, but the name is the focus. Another tactic that a company might employ when banking on creator owned success is to just leak the name of a creator and give a dynamite picture to get people going nuts. Icon’s NEMESIS is an example:

While this isn’t the only promotional image that NEMESIS produced (they would go for a more HAUNT-like image later), the “leaked image” technique is an effective tool in the battle for sales.

For books that are getting a relaunch or feature established characters, the goal for promotional art is simple: remind fans that their favorite character is back. A great example of this would be the recent relaunch of the AVENGERS titles. For the better part of a month, Marvel would release an image a day showing some of the most well-known and well-loved Avengers back on the team. Take a look at Thor here:

Another route to take when launching a new book is to take a more humorous approach. Image comics, in an attempt to parody the rash of Avengers promos that appeared recently (just about all of them look like the Thor image above), launched a series of promotional images for their upcoming series, GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE. They were hilarious:

Yes, that’s Harry Potter.

Whatever tactic is used in designing promotional art, the end result is the same: get people hooked. Promotional art can be the difference between success or failure for a book, and is something that we all think a lot about here at Semantink. Thanks  everyone for stopping in, I’ll see you next week.