HOW TO SAVE THE

COMICS INDUSTRY

A Fanzing Special Report

by Michael Hutchison, editor

THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing20/specrept2.shtml

Now for some solutions. No single one of these will save the industry (although a couple are biggies), but in concert they would cause a dramatic shift in profitability:

CONSTANT PROMOTION OF LOCAL COMIC RETAILERS

You know that toll-free number for finding the comic shop near you? That should be advertised relentlessly. It should be in every ad DC runs. It should be prominently on the back of every action figure box, every trade paperback, every licensed product. This should be a contractual obligation of practically every license. If Kraft has "DC Superhero Macaroni and Cheese", the comic shop ad and phone number should be below the characters on the back of the box.

Comic shops aren't the total answer; comics should also be in the grocery stores, etc., as we've discussed. But as long as comic shops are the main source, then DC needs to hammer the fact that comics are available at comic shops and there's one near YOU!

SET COMPETITION ASIDE FOR THE MOMENT

The comic book industry is friendlier than a lot of other competing industries, at least as far as we readers can tell. After all, inter-company crossovers are common, whereas you never see Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen building a car together. The comics companies have employed many of the same people. Nonetheless, the corporate focus is always on beating the other companies for prominence and attention. DC may have a friendly competition with other companies, but Warner Brothers would be happy if Marvel, Archie and the others all went out of business.

Right now, we can't have that. If the other comic businesses went belly up, DC could not retain the market on its own. No comic shop could stay in business with only DC Comics, and when they're gone, comics are done for. If you run a suspender company and only a few hundred people are wearing suspenders anymore, you don't obsess over your competition getting some of those few hundred people. You could have every suspender-wearing person wearing your brand and it wouldn't keep you in business. Plus, your competitor's efforts get people into the stores where your suspenders are also sold.

Right now, if Marvel mounted a massive Marvel marketing promo to get kids reading Marvel characters in Marvel comics and buying Marvel action figures and Marvel t-shirts and just sold the hell out of the Marvel name, it would STILL benefit DC. Because it gets more kids going to the comic racks and the comic shops, and SOME of them will buy DC comics too.

So let's use that. Comic books need to advertise, and their parent companies don't seem to want to pony up the dough to save this little wing of their corporate empires. Each company alone may not have the money for radio, TV and mainstream magazines, but a modest campaign may be do-able if resources are pooled. What if Superman, Spiderman, Batman and The Thing did a TV ad together, mentioning that you can find all kinds of comics at your local comic shop and giving out that important 800 number? Heck, go beyond Marvel and get Archie, Topps, Dark Horse, Pokemon and others to put some characters in the ad (all getting equal time, of course) and you'd have a decent budget for the campaign!

Cooperation at this stage of the game is vital.

For if we don't hang together, we'll all hang separately.

BIGGER ADVERTISING BUDGETS

Easy to say, of course, but you can't get the corporate purses to open very easily. This one's probably nothing that DC doesn't already know. Let me just give them some ammunition next time they talk to Warner Bros' accountants.

Comic books could be BIG again. Really big. But right now, we're at a disadvantage because of this recent generation of kids that we failed to rope in. No sense in crying about it. We can get them back, but it's going to take money. Namely, the money to implement the measures mentioned in most of these other suggestions. They will pay off, but for that to happen DC needs the full moral and financial support of Warner Brothers.

The problem is, of course, that Warner Brothers will never make as much from comic books as they will from movies, and some of the tyrannical control over DC Comics resulting from that situation is grating. Read Fanzing's interview with Mark Waid for more details, such as the way a DC editor was nearly fired for getting some newspaper attention for the Batman comics when it conflicted with the WB's promotion of the new Batman movie.

But in order for WB to profit from Superman and Batman, these characters must have comic books. Oh, they could exist without them to a certain extent, the way Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse continued to be profitable for decades after the "animated short segment" was dropped from theaters…but it's not a sure thing. The Looney Tunes found new life in Saturday Morning TV (how many people today even realize that they weren't originally written for kids?) and Mickey Mouse survived via his Mickey Mouse Club TV show and theme parks, and now videotape makes all their adventures accessible. Cartoons are timeless and can be rerun. Kids don't know Bugs Bunny because he was a theatrical figure in the 1950s, they know him because he's a TV cartoon star now, and those cartoons must be kept in the public view or Bugs loses his value. How many kids know who Underdog is when his balloon goes by in the Macy's parade? In the same way, can comic book characters survive for long without comic books? Without comics, there'd be only Superman and Batman's cartoons and some older cartoons to keep a handful of the most prominent DC characters alive in the public memory.

And who's to say that DC won't invent new, popular characters with merchandising potential IF comic books continue to thrive? If DC had closed up shop a decade ago, we wouldn't have the cool Robin costume or Nightwing, the Ventriloquist or Bane. DC has managed to use all of those in its cartoons and action figures. We wouldn't have Kingdom Come, which turned into its own little cottage industry of posters, shirts, reprints, a novelization and an audio dramatization. We wouldn't have Morrison's revitalized JLA. We wouldn't have Impulse, a great character who could have his own TV show or movie someday.

In order for Warner Brothers to HAVE a DC Comics to exploit, the comic books must not only survive but thrive. They don't have to bring in MORE money than the movie industry to be valuable.

ADVERTISE TO POTENTIAL READERS,
NOT COMIC READERS

Don't get me wrong. Ads for a new comic series or a special event in Wizard, Comics Buyers Guide and other trade magazines are good. Very good. But they don't work wonders. Imagine if The Gap ONLY advertised in fashion magazines, Jeep ONLY advertised in Motor Trend and record companies ONLY advertised in Rolling Stone. I'd never have heard of them. In the same way, reaching out to the dwindling pool of existing comic readers cannot draw an astounding number of readers to your next comic.

Advertising budgets are limited, so they might be better spent elsewhere. And promotions should be creative and done with gusto; none of this cracking down on an editor for doing his job of promoting his comic book!

Maybe it would be best to illustrate with a practical example: I love the character The Shining Knight, as many of you may have guessed from his appearances in Fanzing. (Yes, I love Elongated Man even more, but this is a better example.) In my opinion, this character isn't a "biggie" but he could be as cool as Wonder Woman or Hawkman if used well. He's got a majestic flying horse, invulnerable armor, a sword that cuts anything and the speed to deflect bullets with it. Plus, he's got a history that's both medieval and 1940s wartime. So I've thought about sending in a proposal to DC to do a Shining Knight mini-series. And that's when I started thinking about his assets:

• He's a handsome blonde man, around late 20s (technically, he's centuries old, but I digress)
• He's a knight in shining armor, brave and dedicated
• He rides a beautiful white horse that flies majestically on big, beautiful wings
• He's a chivalrous gentleman who is acclimating to our modern times
• His name is Justin

Now, is it just me or would this character not be a HUGE hit with the Lisa Simpsons of the world? This character could potentially go over big with the "ponies, rainbows and pouty-lipped hunks" crowd, aged nine to seventeen. So here's the marketing plan. You first get some stunning artwork of brave Sir Justin astride Winged Victory, flying gracefully through a beautiful sky at sunset. Put together a full page ad and begin placing the ads in Teen Beat, Seventeen and any other magazine dedicated to Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnathan Taylor Thomas and "Dawson's Creek." Once again, feature that 800 number for finding your local comic shop. Include a coupon at the bottom of the ad so that girls can send away for a free wall poster of Sir Justin and Winged Victory, or put one IN the first issue of "Shining Knight" and announce that in the ad.

This is a lot of marketing money, granted, but consider: This isn't just selling a measly four-issue miniseries. This is about getting girls reading comic books and into comic shops. Shop owners could be encouraged to put Sabrina the Teen-Aged Witch, Wonder Woman, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., Young Justice and any other female-oriented comics by any company in the same spot during the promotion. If Warners says, "No, only DC Comics" remind them that this is about getting females into comic shops on a long-term basis; if DC wants the female market, they simply need enough books with that appeal.

Take it further. Have a real hunky, pouty-lipped model for the cover and poster artwork (either drawn or as a photo-altered cover, like Damage and The Ray did a few years ago), then give one of these girl magazines a "Behind the Scenes" story with photos of the modeling shoot and how the cover was done. If any of these magazines ask, you can talk about the character, what it's like writing a comic book for girls, etc. (Personally, I think these magazines are too superficial to do interviews like that, but you never know. I'm a guy so I may just be judging them too harshly.)

All that's just for one proposed idea. The Shining Knight. I have others. ANY proposed series (for my proposals or the proposals of others) could be tied-in with some non-comic book interests. Kurt Belcher and I are discussing a proposal to DC for a Captain Comet series. Captain Comet is a man who is evolved tens of thousands of years ahead of modern man. In the 1940s (according to Elliot S! Maggin in the Kingdom Come novel), the young Adam Blake talked to Einstein. So, for the first issue of a Captain Comet series, maybe Professor Stephen Hawking would allow us to show him discussing physics with Adam Blake! (The guy appears on Star Trek and The Simpsons, so it's possible) That gets the science fans interested…and some free publicity.

A new Sgt. Rock comic? Do interviews for veterans' publications. Talk about how hard you're working to make it period and authentic. Invite veterans to read it and send you letters about what they think. Do everything "Saving Private Ryan" did.

And if I EVER get my chance to do an Elongated Man comic book, you can bet I'm going to try to create some buzz among mystery fans. I'd do interviews with mystery magazines about the trials of writing real detective dramas in only 22 pages. I'd encourage DC to take out ads in mystery magazines. I'd push for a trade paperback collection of all those old Elongated Man stories from Detective Comics; if DC did, I'd start petitioning the Mystery Book Club to offer it to its members.

All you need is some imagination applied to the book at hand. Just look at the elements featured in the book at hand and then look for venues appealing to those elements. If Lobo ever does another violent lowlife drunk biker mini-series, why not take out an ad in "Easy Rider"?

One last thing I should mention about that Shining Knight promotion: If DC makes the commitment to drawing in female readers in droves, make sure it isn't just a superficial appeal to that audience. The finished product would need to be satisfying for girls. No hacking things apart with that sword. No gritty, revisionist take on the character a la Kid Eternity. Treat women well in the book. In the same way, an Elongated Man Mysteries book which had aggressively pursued a mystery-loving audience would need to be a mystery title. If a large segment of Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie lovers picked up the book to find Elongated Man fighting an energy creature for 22 pages, they'd feel gypped and the ad campaign would be for naught. This should all be self-evident, but I just thought I'd be complete and mention it.

ESTABLISH A "NO TPB VERSION FOR 2 YEARS" RULE

Trade paperbacks generate a LOT of profit for DC and they've helped get profits from bookstores that wouldn't carry individual comics. But as I said earlier, the rapid conversion of successful comic to trade paperback is not only hurting the collector's market (which doesn't affect DC monetarily) but hurts the sales of potential-hit comics (which DOES hit DC in the wallet). Let's see a show of hands: How many of you gave up on hunting for back issues of "Batman: The Long Halloween" and just waited for the book? How many of you aren't even buying Mark Waid's "Brave and the Bold" mini-series because we know it'll be a more affordable paperback by next spring at the latest?

Problem is, it's tempting to ride the transitory popularity by releasing a repackaged paperback right away. "May as well sell the TPB while there's still buzz about how good it was!" Nonetheless, this instant cash is hurting the industry in the long run. The more a TPB becomes a guaranteed part of the publishing agenda, the more people will just wait for it and pass up the comics.

Imagine if DC proclaimed that they'd never do a trade paperback until the comic was at least two years old. Two years is arbitrary, but it's just enough time to make a person not wait for the book. The value of the next comic equivalent to "The Nail" or "Long Halloween" would skyrocket! Furthermore, because the readers would be reading these books, fewer would be in NearMint condition. DC would have to do reprints. All of this would be far better for the comic shops and the collectors and would stabilize the comic economy.

The fear, of course, is that they'd initially lose some of that tempting trade paperback income from book shops…but not if they played their cards right. DC would just have to mine their earlier books for material. We'd get more TPBs of classic material, such as the wonderful recent "Mystery In Space: Pulp Fiction " or the monumental "Manhunter " collected edition. One nice thing about this is that the publication of a trade paperback of older material doesn't do as much harm to the value of the original book, for its collectible value has been established and will only dip slightly.

Another consideration: When you assemble a TPB of Grant Morrison's most recent JLA arc, you're just printing the same comics over again in a collected form. When you put together a collection of older material, you're often creating something new…for these old stories now get printed on high quality paper with computerized color blends for a brighter look. Plus, writers and editors usually write a page of recollections of working on this now-classic material, and sometimes there will be unpublished stories to add to it.

So instead of rushing out a collection of "The Nail" two months after we finished paying through the nose for the Prestige Format comics (which were still sitting on the rack at my nearby shop, for crying out loud), why not treat modern readers to treasures that they may not be able to read otherwise? Collect and repackage Tony Isabella's original Black Lightning, which tell an epic story when read as a whole (and you could include the unpublished last issue which fell victim to the late '70s Implosion and could only be found in canceled Comics Cavalcade). Collect all of Martian Manhunter's backup stories in Detective Comics, then do the same for Elongated Man. A J'onn J'onzz afficianado would spend a fortune trying to buy all these expensive Detective issues just for the 8-page stories in the back, but you could release a couple TPBs with Martian Manhunter's classic appearances. While Elongated Man is less beloved, I'm a die-hard fan and I've spent hundreds of dollars and numerous hours of hunting buying expensive Batman comics just for the little stories at the end. There's one story I'll never be able to see because it's in the same comic that Batgirl first appeared in; I'll NEVER be able to afford that! I mention this not for sympathy, nor is it likely that DC will ever put Elongated Man's appearances in TPB form, but it's an example of the frustrations fans go through in trying to read the older stories. Atom, Hawkman, Metamorpho, the Metal Men and others could all stand to have their adventures retold in TPB form. And I should make particular mention of Aquaman's run in Adventure Comics: do you realize that the tale where Black Manta kills Aquaman's son has never been reprinted or retold (so far as I've been able to discover)? I daresay Aquaman, a high-profile DC character with a current series, could benefit from a TPB collection of his earlier stories!

DIGESTS ON THE IMPULSE RACK ARE A MUST

Work on getting the comic books space on the magazine racks in grocery stores, sure…but what comics NEED is some presence on the impulse-buy rack near the checkout lane. To this end, DC needs to relaunch their "Blue Ribbon Digests."

Currently, Archie Comics are the only ones doing digests (as they have successfully for at least two decades). DC should commit to publishing digests on a monthly basis and make this an ironclad guarantee in order for the merchants to consider placing these digests at the checkout counter.

For those of you who don't even know what I'm talking about, digests are like paperback books (only about an inch wider) and contain about 3-4 full comic book stories reprinted from the DC library. DC's earlier effort, "Blue Ribbon Digest," ran in the early 1980s. The contents varied. "Secret origins" of popular characters were always good. There were reprints of great story arcs such as the original Ra's al Ghul Batman stories and the "Seven Soldiers of Victory" arc from JLA. Numerous Silver Age Superman stories and Batman stories abound. And every other month, the digests would contain more kid-oriented fare such as "Funny Stuff" and "Binky and his Buddies."

Digests could be a tremendous promotional tool if done right. If DC plans to relaunch an existing character, they could reprint some classic stories in the digest in the months preceding the new series. DC could repackage many of the better "Secret Origins" from the 1980s title of the same name, particularly those of currently published characters. Other months could feature selected stories from the more accessible books of the DCU, such as Impulse, Robin, Nightwing and Birds of Prey (books that have wide appeal, little objectionable material, lots of action and humor, and few big vocabulary words or technojargon).

The only REAL impediment to featuring modern comics in the digests is the squint factor. Contrast the number of word balloons, number of words in each balloon, font size and the level of detail in modern DC Comics with the same in an Archie comic and you see the problem. Squish that down to digest size and it'll be a little harder to read.

This isn't a fatal flaw, of course, because DC has books intended for kids. Titles like Pinky and the Brain, Gotham Adventures and Superman Adventures would work better in digest form. And let's not forget that DC can draw upon a VAST archive of old comic books which would also fit into digest format. In addition to the regular Silver Age superhero stuff, titles like Space Cabby, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, The Oz-Wonderland War, Funny Stuff, Sugar N Spike, Binky and His Buddies, Ambush Bug, Phil Foglio's Stanley and His Monster and Angel and the Ape mini's from the early 90s (as well as the classic versions), Legion of Substitute Heroes and numerous others would delight kids and adults alike.

Package all these old favorites into a compact book for $3 a month (the price on Archie digests) and you'd not only have a tempting impulse buy for the supermarket check-out…but the comic shops would also sell them like gangbusters.

I really can't stress this one enough. DC MUST do this. If they don't make a penny from the actual digests, they should still print them every month and consider it the equivalent of a giveaway sampler…with the added advantage that you're breaking even. Because if these digests were done right, they'd have a further purpose: outright promotion. If this month's selection was Nightwing stories, then there should be a full page promoting Nightwing's current adventures. Mention that Nightwing is found at grocery stores and discount stores…and if you still can't find it, just call this 800 number and we'll tell you where you can find it! There could also be a tear-out subscription form, although subscriptions from kids aren't as likely.

Oh, and if I may? The first issue should feature some of the best Impulse stories, just so that the cover can proclaim "IMPULSE PURCHASE" in big letters.

LICENSING SHOULD COME WITH A PRICE

You know how all TV shows now squish their credits down to a fraction of the screen and run them twice as fast so that they can take that time to promote other stuff to you? (If you've ever wanted to find out who did the voice for a character on "The Batman/Superman Adventures", you'll see what a challenge this is.) Well, why aren't Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond taking the time during the credits for their show to talk about how they're now appearing in comic books of their animated exploits and you can find them at stores and comic shops? It amazes me that the WB can spare 30 seconds to show Bruce Wayne singing a lullaby from "Pokemon" to Tim Drake, or Batman playing a video game where he's trying to shoot the Superman symbol, but they don't advertise the comic books. (Advertising the very show that you're watching seems like a redundant waste of time.)

This should be a requirement of licensing for cartoons and other media. There should always be some support for the comic books where those characters appear, even if it's just a sentence ("Look for Batman comic books at your local comic shop!") and the 800 number for finding the nearest comics retailer. Given that you're only trying to get one branch of the Warner corporation to support another branch, this should be a no-brainer! Why NOT do it?

REVISION: Well, I've since been reminded that the FCC actually prohibits kids' shows (or is it ALL shows?) from advertising a product related to the show during the show. It's the law…whether it's a fair law or a good law is debatable. (I just don't understand why a company should be prohibited from advertising to its target market. If I ever get in Congress I'll try to change this.) Nevertheless, I stand by the idea that licensing should require some promotion of the comics in some way, even if it's not during the actual show. Perhaps in the form of discounted advertising time during other shows?

IF WARNERS ONLY CARES ABOUT MOVIES,
THEY SHOULD SHOW IT!

This is all we hear from the pros these days. "Warner Brothers would drop DC Comics if it wasn't for the immensely profitable licensing of the major characters for movies, TV shows and other products." So why is there so little mental effort exerted towards doing this properly?

Making movies of DC's most popular characters could mean BILLIONS to Warner Brothers over the decades, but there seems to be so little concern over the actual movies being done well. Look at the Batman films. Jon Peters and Joel Schumacher have managed to take an immensely popular character who could be a monolithic franchise if done right…and ruin him. By all accounts, Jon Peters has also taken Superman and came this close to producing a wretched piece of film flotsam.

I'll tell you something for free: Dennis O'Neill could write a Batman film that could be nominated for an Oscar, net $500 million total and still yield numerous merchandising possibilities. Chuck Dixon could certainly write a better movie than the four recent Batman films. So could Frank Miller or Doug Moench or James Robinson. Hell, I could! But for that to happen, Warner Brothers needs to allow the film to be created naturally.

Right now, the process is bass-ackwards. Various bigwigs discuss what marketable characters will be in the movie. Next, casting is done NOT by which actors could play the roles best but by which box office draws are willing to do the role for an unbelieveable amount of money. Producer Jon Peters begins throwing out ideas based on stuff he recently saw, while director Joel Schumacher starts conceiving ways in which we can get to see Batman's butt. After all these secondary factors, a script is assembled based on the need to work in all the new characters into one cohesive (not "coherent") story, while working around all the set pieces which Jon Peters has demanded should be in the new film ("I saw a hockey game last night. Let's have Batman and the bad guys play hockey!" "I watched 'Apollo 13' last night. Let's have Robin riding a rocket!" "I leafed through an extreme sports magazine while I was on the can. Let's have Batman and Robin go skyboarding!"). The screenwriter will try to write a good story under these conditions, but after other screenwriters are brought in to doctor it up with catchphrases, there won't be a movie left.

I'm glad that animation isn't truly appreciated, or these nuts would be messing with that too. Right now, Paul Dini and friends are the only ones able to create a finished TV/film product with any vision or message (to say nothing of a cohesive, coherent plot!).

Warner Brothers needs someone way up in the hierarchy to clamp down on such nonsense. Corporate movie-making will always be a difficult process, but when the difference between a good and bad movie affects your marketable character franchise for decades to come, this should be important to the WB boardrooms. It's time to put the script at the center. Have a great script worth making or don't make it. Otherwise, the temporary benefits (i.e. profits now…even the wretched "Batman and Robin" made a profit) will be offset by the laughingstocks your marketable characters have become.

Who cares whether "Batman and Robin" made some money or not!?! A movie engenders benefits beyond simple monetary gain of a few million dollars. The fact is, we could be watching a fifth Batman film next summer if the last one hadn't been such a botch-job. We should all be slobbering with anticipation at the thought of another fantastic Batman movie. Instead, mention the possibility of "Batman Five" to a Warners exec and he'll get queasy and mutter "not for a few more years at least". Intense desire for a sequel vs. retching at the thought of it…all determined by the quality (not the profitability) of a movie.

I've heard that the people who own the Lone Ranger are really tough to deal with. You know what? I respect that. Sure, it may be a little aggravating to try to license him, but it wouldn't take much for an outsider to heedlessly ruin this great character's image. The people at Warner Brothers (and DC, although they're in too weak a position to demand anything) who care about keeping Superman and Batman popular and successful for ALL must bring some perspective to the film-makers. It shouldn't be just outsider Kevin Smith (screenwriter of the first draft of Superman Lives) arguing for the need to treat the Man From Krypton like the legend he is. The only guy arguing for treating Superman well is the one who won't profit from it in the long run? That's absurd!

I'm ranting, I know, but the situation IS aggravating. The assertion that Warner Brothers intends to use DC Comics only as a springboard to much more profitable movies just doesn't gibe with the lack of care and attention these projects receive.

In summary: I could understand if a bunch of money-minded businessmen didn't care about Superman's history or his character or his stature. It's their job to care about profits and there's nothing wrong with that; that's just basic capitalism. It's the failure to see a connection between Superman/Batman's treatment and their marketability (i.e. profitability) that I find baffling.

IT'S NOT JUST NAME RECOGNITION

This is another licensing/movie point, but it's relevant in that it increases the value of DC Comics for Warner Brothers.

DC has many more marketable characters than WB thinks. The accepted thinking is that "The public recognition of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman is high, and Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Plastic Man are to a lesser extent 'name' heroes, so those are the ones who we can put in movies." Or rather, the only selling point of a superhero is whether his name has any cache with the public, and little else matters. I disagree.

Simplest example? A "Batman 5" which used the publicly-obscure Ra's al Ghul in an intelligent master plan would be a far superior film to a "Batman 5" which shoehorned the 'name' villains of Scarecrow and Mad Hatter into some contrived plot. (I'll grant you that Scarecrow and Mad Hatter can be good characters when done right, but they aren't as "deep" as Ra's.)

Trust in the American people to know a good story when they see it. (And good movies are rare, no matter how many are produced every year.) Move beyond the instant name-recognition factor. Just focus on making a good movie and advertising it right.

But how do you get superhero movies made in Hollywood? Well, instead of saying "I think we should do a Hawkman movie. He's a guy who flies through the air in a bird costume!"…focus on the STORY of the character and pitch it that way. Because an astounding truth is that the WB already owns properties which are better than half the movie pitches out there!

Here's how I'd pitch some of the finer, unexplored gems of the DCU:

• Studious archaeologist Adam Strange thought he was happy studying ruins and clay pots…until the day he was struck by an alien teleportation beam and met the woman of his dreams on a planet 25 trillion miles away. He helps her defend her planet from menaces and invaders, and he finds a new definition of happiness by her side. Just one problem: the teleporter energy wears off. And if he doesn't move heaven and Earth to reach the coordinates of the next beam, no matter where it is…he'll never see her again!
• Jefferson Pierce was the pride of Suicide Slum. Raised by a single mother and a kind neighborly tailor, Jeff pushed himself to the limit to become first an Olympic champion, then a college student and a teacher. He actually escapes Suicide Slum…only to come back for his mother's funeral. Teaching at his old school, he fights to keep his students in school, out of gangs and off drugs. But when the criminal gang known as the One Hundred tightens its grip, Jeff realizes he can't risk his students. So he fights them in disguise…as Black Lightning. His battles against the One Hundred and the crimelord Tobias Whale will push him to the breaking point…and yield a crushing blow when Jeff finally confronts the man who murdered his father years before.
• Okay, this one's like "Ghost" meets "D.O.A." with a pinch of "Heaven Can Wait." Circus aerialist and stunt performer Boston Brand draws crowds peforming amazing aerial feats in his costumed character "Deadman". As a celebrity, Deadman's going to be bigger than the Masked Magician, bigger than Hulk Hogan, bigger than Jesse Ventura. And then, in front of thousands of people, a sniper's bullet rips through his chest…and Boston Brand really is a dead man! Asking for more time on Earth before entering the afterlife, Boston is permitted to catch his killer. But he can only communicate or act by temporarily taking over people's bodies.
• This one's a comedy, not an action movie. Bart Allen is cursed with a genetic affliction. He is superfast…but his mind and physical growth are also accelerated. He's only two years old, but he looks 12. Raised in a highspeed virtual reality environment in order to give him some sort of normal life, Bart has no concept of the real world and thinks life is just a video game with a reset button. Concerned for his well-being, his mother finally steals him from the lab and takes him to Max Mercury, a retired superhero with speed powers. Max fixes Bart's aging problem…but now he has to teach Bart about life. Unfortunately, Bart operates at the speed of thought and has the patience of a two-year-old. The movie follows Max's attempts to turn Bart into a normal, everyday kid, while both must find a way to elude the lab's security force and get the charges dropped against Bart's mom.
• Jack Knight is a junk dealer, and he couldn't be happier. All he wants in life is an authentic Hawaiian shirt, a transistor radio and a rare jazz 45 LP…and maybe a few more tattoos. But his dad wants to pass on something else: his legacy. See, his dad was a lame superhero from, like, the 1900s or the stone age or something. The guy's been retired for decades. But now he wants one of his sons to take over the good name (so he says) of Starman. Oh, and you have to wear this puke-colored outfit and carry a little wand that Freud would have a fun time analyzing. PASS! So Jack's square brother Dave becomes Starman. Only one problem: one of dad's old enemies hears that Starman is back and goes on a killing spree. Now Dave's dead, his dad's in the hospital, his store's blown up and Jack is next…unless he takes up the starwand and goes into action. And maybe he'll understand his dad more when it's all over.

Those are just five of the characters the WB could use…and any of those movies would be great. And when you make a low-profile superhero movie, there's less corporate meddling. As proof, consider: Shaquille O'Neil's "Steel" was actually a better movie than "Batman and Robin", any way you slice it.

SEINFELD'S GONE; GET A NEW FRIEND

Here's a little-known fact: when The Fonz took about thirty seconds to espouse the benefits of having a library card (in his own inimitable way) in one single episode of "Happy Days", requests for library cards went up 500% the next week. One could wonder aloud what all of his nonstop womanizing in every episode of the show did for the viewers of America, but that's another discussion altogether.

TV has a huge effect on people…probably more than we'd care to admit. Whether overt (advertisements), subconscious (product placements) or unintended (Rachel's haircut), TV shapes the way we think about things. TV execs insist that either TV has no effect (if we're talking about bad influences) or that TV will change humanity (when their show does a "special episode" about drugs). Let's face it, the latter is more correct.

So what does it do for comic books when the most positive image of comic book fans on television are Bart Simpson and his friends…and even then, we have the obese 40-something virgin Comic Shop Guy who lives with his mother? Jerry Seinfeld was a Superman fan, but his show is gone. The only other comic fans I know of on TV are the nerdy loser David Finch on "Just Shoot Me" (who sold his comic books to afford a ring for his fiancee) and the nerdy loser friends of Dave Nelson on "Newsradio." It's gotten so bad that if there's ever a balding man in his 30s or 40s on TV, I expect him to talk about his comic book collection and living with his mother.

In just 20 years, we've moved beyond this age where most of America was selecting their shows on four or five channels and a character like Fonzie was seen by millions. Our media doesn't have the equivalent of a Fonzie, but there are still some shows with influence. I think it's time for Time/Warner to throw some of its multimedia weight around for the benefit of its comic book branch. Whether it's as benign as having adult walk-on background characters reading comic books or as overt as making comic collecting the hobby of a major character, Warner should use TV to change the attitudes of Americans towards people who read comics. The kids in TV shows (although there are fewer kids on TV, as producers now think everyone in the world is 20 years old) should certainly be reading comics. And am I crazy, or wouldn't a comic book writer be an interesting side character for a sitcom? (After meeting Chuck Dixon, I can tell you that there are humorous possibilities in this. Heh heh heh.)

GET BABY RUTH ON THE PHONE

Oh, how they whined, the obsessive fans on the Internet. Hawkman! Being used to sell Baby Ruth bars. And he's portrayed by this hammy actor, and the guy doesn't look like Mr. Universe. Oh, it's a travesty…a sacrilege!

Please. It's hardly any worse than what DC did to him.

And it was better than those old Hostess ads where Penguin and Joker stop their bank heist because Batman and Robin threw Twinkies and Fruit Pies at them. "Oh, the creamy filling! I don't want to be evil anymore!" (I'm not saying DC and Hostess shouldn't do those ads again, but they could be better written.)

Don't tell me this damaged Hawkman's reputation. He doesn't have one outside of the comic book universe. And you know what they say: There's no such thing as bad publicity. If anything, DC should form a lasting partnership with Baby Ruth and continue those ads, using the Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Elongated Man, Bouncing Boy and any other hero whose name sounds like a parody of a superhero. This also helps Warner Brothers to realize that characters besides Superman and Batman can be profitable. And if God is kind and there is EVER a Hawkman movie, no one is going to say, "How can you take a candy bar spokesman seriously?"

But I didn't put this category here specifically to defend the Baby Ruth ads. I think getting these characters' logos and costumes in the back of the mind of consumers will help comic books in the long run.

Take Firestorm. Aside from appearing in the last year of "Superfriends", his non-comic-book cache is zero. No one's heard of him. Now, imagine Firestorm appearing in a series of Matchlight charcoal briquette ads. Say, a satirical competition between a dad using a single match to start his Matchlight briquettes and Firestorm with his godlike nuclear powers trying to light the competition's plain old charcoal. The public doesn't need to know who Firestorm is; people have only to see the gaudy get-up, the flaming head and hear that he's called Firestorm The Nuclear Man to assume that he's a fire-based superhero. Matchlight might even slap Firestorm with the fiery head on the bag so that you remember which brand it was you saw in that TV ad.

At first, all this is doing for DC is raking in a LOT of licensing profits. But Firestorm's name is becoming a household word. The next time DC does a Firestorm comic, the costume and the flaming head and the name will ring a bell with the kids who saw the ads. Doesn't mean Firestorm is reduced to being the equivalent of The Kool-Aid Man any more than Snoopy is an insurance man or a Dolly Madison pitchman. Superman was in an American Express ad…but he's still Superman.

Maybe it's just my advertising background showing…but I studied "Positioning" and the importance of occupying a place in the consumer's mind, even if it's a subconscious one. What I'm getting at is that DC and Warners need to properly exploit their characters. ("Exploit" has taken on negative connotations, but it basically means to make use of what you have available.) Let me just "blue sky" (as we say in the biz) for a moment:

Put J'onn J'onzz in ads for Oreos. Put The Flash in sports car ads. Put Captain Carrot on those bags of mini-carrots which are just the right size for packing in school lunches. Make Kryptonite Candy and Bat Symbol fruit roll-ups and Plastic Man toy putty. Have the Atom fighting cockroaches and losing until he finds a Roach Motel. Put Captain Marvel in customer service spots where Billy Batson is at school and sees a friend doing something dangerous (whether it's running out in the street or encountering a drug pusher), then becomes Captain Marvel to intervene. Have customer service spots for fire safety or burglar-proofing your house or neutering your pet (DC hasn't used Krypto in a while anyway).

At the very least, it's dollars in the pocket of Warner Brothers, which can only help it to see the value in its cute little comic book subsidiary. Better yet, it gets these characters in the mind of Mr. and Mrs. Consumer…and that pays off in the long-term.

KEEP PRICES WHERE THEY ARE

The title of this one is weird, I know. If anything, prices need to go down…but no product ever goes down in price so I wasn't going to be foolish enough to put that in the title. But prices are getting prohibitive (and if you're Canadian or living abroad, they're outrageous). I'm a 30-year-old webmaster with a good job, so I'm not going broke, but I can't imagine affording many comics if I was only getting an allowance or working at minimum wage.

Today, a candy bar is 55 cents and pop is 60 cents. (I'm using middle-America prices, of course) Given that buying your basic comic book now requires sacrificing four candy bars or more, is it any wonder kids don't buy them? (Or, looking at it from another end, that convenience/grocery/drug stores don't carry them?) Compared to the price of milk, bread, gasoline, the minimum wage and most other dollar amounts that the middle and lower classes worry about every day, the price of comic books has gone up too fast.

Granted, we're not talking about published products; a Star Trek book was $2 in 1985 and it's almost $7 now. Perhaps the price of paper and ink really has shot up in the last decade and the comics publishers are just passing the expense on to the customer out of necessity. However, I've been told that the paper isn't necessarily responsible for the price increases.

For a while around the end of the 1980s, it looked like DC was aware that prices were getting too high. I remember the Superman books proclaiming "Still 75 cents!" and later, "Still $1". And then, shortly after that, it climbed from a buck to almost two overnight. I've been told that some of this was because the higher price points pleased the retailers, who were more willing to carry comics if they got more profit per comic, and THIS is why comic prices went up; the difference in paper quality and printing features being rather minor. That may or may not be true. I'll be honest: I've never given a rat's rear for paper quality and inks and colors. I don't even know the terminology aside from hearing words like "Baxter" and "Mando." Sure, as a webmaster, I like it that modern comics work better on a computer scanner…but that's hardly enough to justify the expense if there was a way to lower the price of comics.

I remember the comics of the 1980s which were on a paper I'd describe as quality newsprint. In the mid-80s, they introduced "Deluxe Format" and then "New Format". Being a teenager in Wisconsin, all I knew about them was that they were more expensive and I couldn't find them. When a comic shop did open, I STILL didn't buy them. I mean, come on, they were 50 cents more and I could barely afford the 75 cents! People talked about the better paper and better colors and art that went all the way to the edge of the paper. None of that mattered to me, since I just wanted to get a good story for my 75 cents. Some comics like Booster Gold were printed at the "Basic" price, 75 cents, same as the rest, but used new techniques to look brighter and more glitzy.

Now, most comics are printed on high quality paper with better inks and the art that goes all the way to the edge and they're all pretty pricey. If DC was printing comics of the same printing quality as the basic comics of the 1980s (JLA, Batman, Superman), would they cost just as much? Or have the standards been raised so that what was once "Deluxe" is now standard? When industry pros say that comics cost so much because of printing costs, are they taking into account that they don't have to be this fancy? It's something to think about.

COMIC SHOPS NEED TO BE KID-FRIENDLY

Let's assume that mom gets talked into taking kids to a comic shop for whatever reason. Most of them are not kid-friendly. Not ALL, mind you. "The Source", my local shop in Roseville, MN, is doing great business…partly because it is okay for kids. Superman and Spiderman and Star Wars and Star Trek hang in the windows…Pokemon is right by the cash register…all the kids' comics are grouped in one section near the door…and the store's got a primo location by a beauty salon, a restaurant, a gas station and an appliance store on a big traffic corner. It has a good mix of comics and collectibles for all ages. It's one very good, very well-managed comic shop. I mention that because I don't want to stereotype them as ALL unfriendly.

So, let's assume mom takes the kids to one of the more typical comic shops which comprise the majority of stores I've seen. The owner is trying to make a statement that comics are sophisticated literature, so he refuses to put up Superman pictures. Instead, the door has that Jim Balent poster of Catwoman with half of her skintight costume torn off in strategic places. Mom takes the kids inside. The kiddie comics are…somewhere…so the kids wander off to find them. Mom looks around. The wall has huge posters of some pasty-skinned, statuesque, top-heavy woman who apparently battles evil with the power of her bikini. Some local artist's pencils hang on the wall, with vampires dripping blood and Lobo giving the finger saying "Up Yours, Fanboy!". Alien face-hugger models are mounted on the counter. She thumbs through a prominently-displayed Preacher trade paperback and is surprised to see that comic books now use the F-word all the time. Disturbed, she hunts down her kids. Little Jimmy is looking at the cartoony XXXenophilia comic which was two feet away from the Cartoon Network's Cow and Chicken books. Not finding little Brittany but knowing she wanted Power Puff Girls comics, she asks where the girls' comics are. The 350 lb. shop owner moodily gets off his stool, catches his breath from the exertion and points to a spot between the Predator statues and Judge Dredd figurines.

What are the chances mom will be bringing her kids here every Wednesday?

EMBRACE NEW MEDIA

Mad Magazine (another subsidiary of Warners) just released every single issue of Mad on a collection of CD-ROMs. This may someday be the way that every comic fan in the world will get to read those old pulp comics without paying dozens of dollars per issue. This may even replace trade paperbacks!

Compared to the cost of publishing a book on paper, it's considerably cheaper. Someday, comics may never be produced on paper; they may just be circulated on CDs or downloaded from a website through a code. This would save comic companies a good portion of their production costs.

The downside is, of course, that it's difficult to read comics in the bathroom with that monitor on your knees.

We may not be ready for this type of leap now, but the comics companies should definitely stay with the times as the world of media changes. (This is probably the one thing in this column which they're already doing, judging by the new 3D Multipath Adventures of Superman, but I needed to mention it.)

WORK ON THOSE FIRST "TWO STEPS"

It would be unfair to say that DC isn't aware of this situation, at least somewhat. There ARE some comics for kids (what I classify as "First Step") being published by DC; mostly these are licensed characters such as the Cartoon Network comics or Pinky and the Brain. Also, the Batman/Superman/Batman Beyond comics are great, because they are clean and uncluttered…and kids won't be lost in unfamiliar scenarios such as the Daily Planet being out of business, Gotham City demolished and without government, etc. This is a good start. In the late 80s and early 90s, DC had NOTHING for very young readers.

What of the "second step" comics? Does DC have a large number of books which older kids, pre-teens and teens can easily get into and easily read? (I'm setting aside the subject of "easily afford" for now.) All books have their good and bad points, of course, but let's look at some of the bigger ones. Bear in mind that I mostly love these books (I can't discuss the things I don't read, so obviously these are ones on my list), but we're specifically examining their accessability for kids.

The Superman books are undergoing some changes very soon. That's great, because the event-driven, story arc-heavy interlinked soap opera of the 1990s is not very kid-friendly. I don't know when the last time was that I looked at a Superman book whose cover promised a single, self-contained really good story in just 22 pages. I certainly don't like having to spend $15-20 just for a mediocre run-on story. For a kid it's even worse, for he has to get these comics only when his parents are taking him to the store and are willing to fork over the money for comic books; try doing THAT every single week for eight weeks! New Superman editor Eddie Berganza is trying to take the Superman books into a new, self-contained direction. We'll see whether this pans out.

The Batman books…I'm tempted to say 'no'. For DC's major player with appeal to all audiences, his books are nonetheless rather sophisticated in tone and structure. Not always; it depends on the writer. The artwork is often dark and confusing to follow, and just a *tad* too graphic at times. The current "No Man's Land" would be confusing for a casual reader. On the plus side, it rarely descends into difficult vocabulary words.

Aquaman. Well, first of all, he looks nothing like the guy in the cartoons. That may be a stumbling block. I'll be honest: I don't read Aquaman, so I can't judge its story quality.

Martian Manhunter has a dark tone to the artwork, the character isn't simple to understand, and there are a lot of made-up Martian words. Despite all of that, the stories have tended to be self-contained with only a few arcs, and most of the language isn't difficult. Kids, if they pick it up, could enjoy it. But this book really needs a front page blurb which summarizes who J'onn is.

Hourman…this book has grown on me, and when judged for its kid-accessability it looks even better. This book is very easy to read, yet smart and fun. One problem: the time traveling technobabble. I really don't know what age level can get around stuff like "machine colony" (instead of just saying android) and "temporal chrono-whatever". That's really the only roadblock.

Impulse. GREAT BOOK! DeZago's new run on the book is too early to judge, but taken as a whole this is the most fun, easy to read and easy to love book around. It never fails to inform new readers of the book's premise…and with this character's difficult backstory, that's an accomplishment in itself. Check out my previous Fanzing article, "Why Impulse Sells." I'd buy up a few million copies and leave them in children's hospitals!

Birds of Prey, Robin and Nightwing. I'm grouping these together because Chuck Dixon writes them all and Chuck's got a good head on his shoulders when it comes to basic storytelling skills and eschewing difficult words (such as "eschewing"). Kids should enjoy all of these. My only recommendation? A monthly intro to the characters for new readers. How many kids don't know that Nightwing used to be Robin? How easy is it to tell the relationship between Oracle and Black Canary, or how they communicate? BC seems to talk to the air if you don't know she's wearing a microphone. (I figured it out, but I'm 29.)

Some books I won't bother to discuss, for books like The Titans, Hitman and possibly Starman are too complex and filled with big vocabulary words and adult situations to be reasonably considered less than "step three" comic books. They're not Vertigo, but you really need to be in your mid-teens to handle them. I'm generalizing, of course, as all parents have different standards for their kids…but unless you're Alan Moore who thinks we're all uptight and would give Judge Dredd to a three-year-old, most age ranges hold true.

Two last titles here…which I think should be kid-accessible but are making some grievous errors.

Young Justice SHOULD be a kids' book. It does a pretty good job of working on a kids' level. One big problem: WHO ARE THESE CHARACTERS? If you're a kid who sees issue #12 on the shelf and tries reading it, will you get it? Robin is obvious, sure, and maybe the kid knows Impulse and/or Superboy. But Impulse gets explained even in his own comic book, so why not here? Superboy also needs an introduction, really. Arrowette, Wonder Girl and Secret are unknowns and their abilities aren't always obvious. Why are these kids together? What are they trying to accomplish? Where did they get this headquarters? Who is Red Tornado? If he's an android, how can he have a "wife" and a daughter? Publishing a "Secret Files and Origins" isn't a replacement for intro-ing your characters to new readers on a monthly basis. Take a cue from the old Justice League of America and Teen Titans comics. Put a box on the front page or splash page with a roll call, head shot and a subtitle such as "The Boy Wonder", "Super-Powered Clone" and "Hyperactive Speedster", then an intro such as "…together, they fight crime and hang out…as YOUNG JUSTICE!" In my opinion, comic books should never have STOPPED doing this. Frankly, even new adult readers need some explanation about this book.

Finally, we have JLA…which is drawing hordes of new readers and rave reviews, and should be great. Right? Well, it is great (more or less)…but do you really think a kid would understand anything beyond "There's Plastic Man saying something funny" and "Superman catching that satellite looks so awesome!"? Between the number of characters and Morrison's penchant for complex plots and "aren't I the most imaginative person in comics" technojargon, JLA is really a mess. Sometimes, Ican't even understand what's going on in this book.

What DC needs is a JLA Adventures comic, sort of a "JLA lite" for kids. True, DC tried an Adventures in the DCU comic book, but it was more of an anthology and the artwork was lamentable. An animated JLA show may never happen due to modern complexities of licensing, but that shouldn't stop DC from doing a comic book of same. Give it a good writer/artist like Ty Templeton (who has done excellent work on the animated books AND on JLA) and DC would have a real winner.

What this all comes down to is recapturing some of the Silver Age "tricks of the trade" which made comics easy to read for kids and new readers. Intriguing (instead of just artistic) covers, splash pages, character introductions, editor's notes and an avoidance of large vocabulary words when possible will make more of the "general audience" books at DC truly that. This doesn't mean they have to be lame and boring! Look how Starman, that rebellious, outside-the-box comic book, has made a serious effort to keep readers up-to-date on what happened in previous issues…and does it so well that it doesn't seem out of place.

I remember reading an issue of Booster Gold (the number escapes me, but it was around issue #10) that opened with a splash page, complete with two-paragraph blurb of Booster's origin ending in his logo at the top, a scene of Booster and Thorn in the clutches of the giant figure of the villainous Director of the 1000, and the title and credits. It was overly dramatic and was meant as a parody of the old style of doing comics. And I can't help but think…had writer/artist Dan Jurgens just done that every month, a little better and a little more seriously, new readers might have been able to enjoy Booster Gold more!

And on that note, I'll leave you free to browse the "Further Reading" links below. Thank you for hearing me out, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the issue.

Michael Hutchison,   
Fanzing Editor    

THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing20/specrept2.shtml

FURTHER READING:

Fanzing Articles
Why Impulse Sells
Superman Lives? Maybe Not!
I See Batman…In A Dress
Jon Peters Stupidity Report

"Cheeks the Toy Wonder" Articles

Classic Comic Covers of the Silver Age: How They "Worked"…and Why
Why the Slow,Agonizing Death of the Comics Industry Is (Mostly) All Your Fault
On Being An Advocate For the Silver Age of Comics
WISDOM OF THE ELDERS: Smart Sayings…On Comics
"The Operation Was a Miracle of Modern Science…"
Cheeks' REQUIRED READING