Could studios try to make comics popular?

[Sven the Returned]

Multimedia franchises start to become a thing. We know the old Star Wars EU is dead but they seem to be pretty serious about making a multimedia empire, and the Prometheus/Alien franchise is supposed to be in the in the same continuity as the comics. NuTrek had not contradicted the Nutrek comics yet.

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

[Cyberstrike]

Depends on the companies and the franchise.

Both of BioWare's extremely popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age video game franchises have used comics to explore the backstories of popular characters and introduce new ones and explain events in the games, both have also used prose novels, anime movies, and they was Dragon Age: Redemption a live action web mini-series written by and starring Felicia Day. The problem is that some gamers are not interested in reading comics, novels, watching anime movies, or a live action web mini-series, or any combination mentioned. They just want to play the games and not be bothered by backstory, history, character motivations, and etc. Just as some comic book fans aren't interested in reading prose novels, watching anime movies, live action web mini-series, or playing video games or any combination mentioned. They just want to read comics. Now in the case of Mass Effect and Dragon Age the comics that Dark Horse has put out are for the most part great because in most cases the lead writers of both franchises have plotted, co-written, or have written the comics themselves so at least you get a story that ties into the universe and depending on your choices in either series will have references made to it (and in the case of Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Invasion both were preludes to Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3: Omega DLCs respectfully) showing the events that caused the main support characters in those DLCs to be where they are in the game. Dragon Age: The Silent Grove showed why Alistair's father and his whole bloodline are important. The DA comics also introduced Mae, the first transgender character to Dragon Age universe and her popularity led to another transgender character to be put into Dragon Age: Inquisition but you will have to play game to find who it is (I will say they are not a love interest however). I don't know if multimedia franchises can make comics ultra popular again but they can help multimedia franchises explore different characters, ideas, themes, and allow for controversial characters, concepts, ideas, themes, and etc away from the main franchise.

IDW's G1 Transformers comics have been turned several second and third string characters into uber-popular Transformers: Generations toys. I mean even characters that were original characters like Drift and Windblade both debuted in the comic books and are very popular characters (and throw in characters that were created at Marvel like Straxus Darkmount, Jhiaxus, and Impactor) even the bios tend to be closer to IDW versions of these characters. Even cartoon characters like Arcee and Chomina are closer to their IDW counter-parts than their 80s cartoon show counter-parts. Some of the artists IDW has hired has even helped design some of the toys and some designs are clearly based off the IDW comics.

G.I. Joe on the other hand has been screwed over to point other than Larry Hama's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series seems to be the only thing keeping the franchise going and even it's showing wear and tear (and I'm not sure if Transformers vs. G.I. Joe should count since it's a crossover series). IDW has rebooted their own G.I. Joe Universe about 6 times and each time it seems like they get writers who either get the series bogged down in politics, or want to do a book more in the style of the campy 80s cartoon show, or make it super grim and dark that you want to blow your brains out after reading it. Only Mike Costa seems to be the only writer who can write the damn series for the 21st century and was/has been hailed by many Joe fans as Hama's heir apparent and some even said he was better than Hama. Then he blew his rep on a lack-luster run on The Transformers and did a 2 hour podcast complaining that the fans and Dreamwave (the company that published the Transformers before IDW) were to blame for his poor writing of it.

So yeah comics can be used to expand various multimedia franchises but it depends on the publisher, owners of the property, the comic book creators, and the property itself. I don't think every franchise will work as a comic book or needs to be a comic book like IMHO none of the CSI shows really wouldn't work as a comic book (and yes I know IDW has done CSI comics in the past) due to all the talk and technobabble on those shows would be pretty boring read and Galaxy Quest doesn't need to be a comic (and again I know that IDW is publishing one) because it was a funny movie but it was funny because it didn't try to insult sci-fi fans, and also it story was done and the joke was funny once. I feel that the longer the comic book goes it would just become a more mean spirited series (because that is what always happens because it's easier to write a mean spirited joke) and really hurt a really great and funny film.

[Chiclo]

NuTrek had not contradicted the Nutrek comics yet.

Good. Then it will fit tidily in the special corner of Hell reserved for Nutrek.

[Heath]

NuTrek had not contradicted the Nutrek comics yet.

Good. Then it will fit tidily in the special corner of Hell reserved for Nutrek.

[Sven the Returned]

NuTrek had not contradicted the Nutrek comics yet.

Good. Then it will fit tidily in the special corner of Hell reserved for Nutrek.

Hell has hot chicks and no preachy demonisation of vices.



Good enough for me.

[dornwolf]

Depends on the companies and the franchise.

Both of BioWare's extremely popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age video game franchises have used comics to explore the backstories of popular characters and introduce new ones and explain events in the games, both have also used prose novels, anime movies, and they was Dragon Age: Redemption a live action web mini-series written by and starring Felicia Day. The problem is that some gamers are not interested in reading comics, novels, watching anime movies, or a live action web mini-series, or any combination mentioned. They just want to play the games and not be bothered by backstory, history, character motivations, and etc. Just as some comic book fans aren't interested in reading prose novels, watching anime movies, live action web mini-series, or playing video games or any combination mentioned. They just want to read comics. Now in the case of Mass Effect and Dragon Age the comics that Dark Horse has put out are for the most part great because in most cases the lead writers of both franchises have plotted, co-written, or have written the comics themselves so at least you get a story that ties into the universe and depending on your choices in either series will have references made to it (and in the case of Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Invasion both were preludes to Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3: Omega DLCs respectfully) showing the events that caused the main support characters in those DLCs to be where they are in the game. Dragon Age: The Silent Grove showed why Alistair's father and his whole bloodline are important. The DA comics also introduced Mae, the first transgender character to Dragon Age universe and her popularity led to another transgender character to be put into Dragon Age: Inquisition but you will have to play game to find who it is (I will say they are not a love interest however). I don't know if multimedia franchises can make comics ultra popular again but they can help multimedia franchises explore different characters, ideas, themes, and allow for controversial characters, concepts, ideas, themes, and etc away from the main franchise.

IDW's G1 Transformers comics have been turned several second and third string characters into uber-popular Transformers: Generations toys. I mean even characters that were original characters like Drift and Windblade both debuted in the comic books and are very popular characters (and throw in characters that were created at Marvel like Straxus Darkmount, Jhiaxus, and Impactor) even the bios tend to be closer to IDW versions of these characters. Even cartoon characters like Arcee and Chomina are closer to their IDW counter-parts than their 80s cartoon show counter-parts. Some of the artists IDW has hired has even helped design some of the toys and some designs are clearly based off the IDW comics.

G.I. Joe on the other hand has been screwed over to point other than Larry Hama's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series seems to be the only thing keeping the franchise going and even it's showing wear and tear (and I'm not sure if Transformers vs. G.I. Joe should count since it's a crossover series). IDW has rebooted their own G.I. Joe Universe about 6 times and each time it seems like they get writers who either get the series bogged down in politics, or want to do a book more in the style of the campy 80s cartoon show, or make it super grim and dark that you want to blow your brains out after reading it. Only Mike Costa seems to be the only writer who can write the damn series for the 21st century and was/has been hailed by many Joe fans as Hama's heir apparent and some even said he was better than Hama. Then he blew his rep on a lack-luster run on The Transformers and did a 2 hour podcast complaining that the fans and Dreamwave (the company that published the Transformers before IDW) were to blame for his poor writing of it.

So yeah comics can be used to expand various multimedia franchises but it depends on the publisher, owners of the property, the comic book creators, and the property itself. I don't think every franchise will work as a comic book or needs to be a comic book like IMHO none of the CSI shows really wouldn't work as a comic book (and yes I know IDW has done CSI comics in the past) due to all the talk and technobabble on those shows would be pretty boring read and Galaxy Quest doesn't need to be a comic (and again I know that IDW is publishing one) because it was a funny movie but it was funny because it didn't try to insult sci-fi fans, and also it story was done and the joke was funny once. I feel that the longer the comic book goes it would just become a more mean spirited series (because that is what always happens because it's easier to write a mean spirited joke) and really hurt a really great and funny film.

I think Cyberstrike nailed it here. Personally I'm a massive sucker for tie-in media of any kind, comics, books, tv/movie projects. However, companies don't really take them seriously. There was a short attempt by Sony with Infamous, God of War, and Uncharted which after the minis wrapped nothing came after. Blizzard with the massive well over 8 million users on WoW had those comics come to a dead stop. Ubisoft is start and stop with Assassins Creed. They've tried with Halo but that's been hit or miss as well.

The only ones I've ever enjoyed was the Uncharted one and three Assassins Creed titles

[ilzuccone]

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

short answer… no.

the money that comics bring in to these larger companies is worth a pocket of jelly beans compared to what feature film and video games bring in. if you were making money hand over fist would you invest a lot of time and money into a flat lined medium? no you wouldn't. I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

[Sven the Returned]

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

short answer… no.

the money that comics bring in to these larger companies is worth a pocket of jelly beans compared to what feature film and video games bring in. if you were making money hand over fist would you invest a lot of time and money into a flat lined medium? no you wouldn't. I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

But you can make money out of loyal comic readers even in the down years of the franchise...

[leonmallett]

NuTrek had not contradicted the Nutrek comics yet.

Good. Then it will fit tidily in the special corner of Hell reserved for Nutrek.

Hell has hot chicks and no preachy demonisation of vices.



Good enough for me.

[leonmallett]

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

short answer… no.

the money that comics bring in to these larger companies is worth a pocket of jelly beans compared to what feature film and video games bring in. if you were making money hand over fist would you invest a lot of time and money into a flat lined medium? no you wouldn't. I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

But you can make money out of loyal comic readers even in the down years of the franchise...

In relative terms only a small amount compared to movie merchandising.

The problem for me is the medium is simply expensive, and perhaps too expensive to grow again, unless there was a vast increase in audience that would reduce overall costs and keep prices lower.

Comics fandom is reaping what has been sown, and unless there is a radical shift (perhaps digital harnessing a large new audience), then I cannot really see significant growth.

[ilzuccone]

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

short answer… no.

the money that comics bring in to these larger companies is worth a pocket of jelly beans compared to what feature film and video games bring in. if you were making money hand over fist would you invest a lot of time and money into a flat lined medium? no you wouldn't. I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

But you can make money out of loyal comic readers even in the down years of the franchise...

back up a bit. big picture. disney brings in over 40 billion $ a year. how big of a desire will they have to grow the comic market so they can sale 100,000 amazing spiderman books instead of 90,000.

i don't think comics will go away. as you said there is some money there. but really comics now funnel directly into more lucrative media.

smaller entertainment companies like valiant are doing a great job of promoting comics. i don't think the heavy hitters are that interested. IMO

[leonmallett]

Could you see studios trying to popularize comics as a medium in order to create multimedia franchise loyalty and therefore make more money?

short answer… no.

the money that comics bring in to these larger companies is worth a pocket of jelly beans compared to what feature film and video games bring in. if you were making money hand over fist would you invest a lot of time and money into a flat lined medium? no you wouldn't. I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

But you can make money out of loyal comic readers even in the down years of the franchise...

back up a bit. big picture. disney brings in over 40 billion $ a year. how big of a desire will they have to grow the comic market so they can sale 100,000 amazing spiderman books instead of 90,000.

i don't think comics will go away. as you said there is some money there. but really comics now funnel directly into more lucrative media.

smaller entertainment companies like valiant are doing a great job of promoting comics. i don't think the heavy hitters are that interested. IMO

Well said.

[ilzuccone]

[Tim]

I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

Truer words are rarely ever posted to this board.

[StarBrand]

I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

Truer words are rarely ever posted to this board.

[ilzuccone]

I think comic movies were great. but since they started catching steam i've been reading a lot of half a$$ed comics written by guys who would rather be writing films.

Truer words are rarely ever posted to this board.