EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #189: THE PROS OF PROMOTIONAL COMICS

[Blake Petit]

Not every comic book on the racks is an original creation, and I’m not even talking about Rob Liefeld’s characters here. Some of the best comics ever, some of the most fondly-remembered comics ever and some of the ones that are just the most fun are comics that star characters from another medium or bring over those stories. Sometimes even a really cool promo comic will straddle the line between the world of the product and the world we in comicbookland love ever so much.

A few days ago, I popped open my mailbox (the one out by the street, not the one with the icon next to iTunes) to find a big, brown envelope straight from Saddle River City, home of the world’s most brilliant scientist, Dr. Floyd. To my knowledge, this comic book is a first. We’ve had thousands of comics based on TV shows, on movies, on toy lines and on works of literature. I’m pretty sure, though, this is the world’s first comic book based on a podcast.

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, one of my favorite shows to drop into my iPod, is a hysterical weekly comedy about the ingenious Dr. Floyd, his eager young protégé Dr. Grant and their faithful robot companion C.H.I.P.S. Our heroes have great adventures across the time and space stream as they pursue their arch-rival Dr. Steve (and his sock-shaped assistant, Fidgert) throughout the ages. Dr. Steve, using a time and space travel device he stole from Dr. Floyd, goes to different historical eras to try to steal important artifacts so he can sell them on eBay. Previous targets have included the contents of Al Capone’s vault, P.T. Barnum’s famous Fiji Mermaid, a piece of the Wright Brothers’ airplane, Orson Welles’ original radio script for War of the Worlds and the cake topper from the wedding of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. So far Dr. Floyd and company have always been able to stop them, but still, you’ve gotta worry.

I really love this show. It combines the wit and style of Jay Ward’s classic Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoons with the self-referential surrealism of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and often even manages to sneak in an actual history lesson. All this, friends, in about five minutes per week.

So imagine my joy when, on the Dr. Floyd website, I saw that there was a Dr. Floyd comic book for sale. Naturally, I snapped it up (and was lucky enough to get it in the early run that included a Best-Of CD featuring episodes of the show). The comic book is a pretty simple, straightforward adaptation of the first episode of the podcast, in which Dr. Steve steals the time and space travel device and their adventures begin, but it’s cool to see these characters brought to life, and I’d love to see even more comics (maybe even with some original stories) in the future.

This was unique, as I said, because it’s almost certainly the first-ever podcast-to-comic book adaptation. (There have been several comic book-to-podcast adaptations, such as Pendant Audio’s Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman dramas, but that’s another column.) This is not, though, the first ever promotional comic book, not by a long shot.

A great many of us here may have had some of our first exposure to comics thanks to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. As almost any child of the 80s can tell you, He-Man in his day was a merchandizing bonanza. (This is due, in no small part, to the fact that it was one of the first new cartoon shows produced after the FCC relaxed its guidelines preventing the basing of television programs on toys and merchandise. I actually learned this in a college mass communications class. Whenever I write my check to the student loan people I consider it well-spent.) The thing that made He-Man such a marketable property was the sheer number of different characters, accessories and playsets that were available – and kids wanted them all. It was something that had never been seen before and, frankly, isn’t seen very much these days. With a few notable exceptions like G.I. Joe, the TransFormers and Star Wars (all properties of the 80s), most mass market toy lines today tend to feature two or three villains and eight zillion different versions of the same hero. It’s kind of depressing.

And here’s the best part of He-Man: each He-Man toy came with its very own comic book, featuring that character and demonstrating his place in the Battle For Eternia. So in case you missed an episode of the show, you still knew exactly what sort of character Fisto or Man-E-Faces was and how to play with him. It was a thing of beauty.

Other toy lines, like DC’s Super Powers figures, would follow suit with their own mini-comics, and both Masters of the Universe and Super Powers would graduate to their own full-fledged comic book series. (Super Powers even featured a little Jack Kirby art.) I really credit comics like these, and the aforementioned G.I. Joe, TransFormers and Star Wars comics with the inclusion of a lot of the people in the comic book world today.

These days we don’t have nearly enough products making that effort to reach out and join the comic family. A lot of popular licensed comics these days are 80s or 90s nostalgia books (and yes, I include stuff like Army of Darkness and A Nightmare on Elm Street in that list) which cater to older fans. The hot toy properties of today don’t have very much of a comic book presence in the states. Disney is seriously missing the boat by not having a Pirates of the Carribean comic available. DC and Lego made an admirable effort not long ago with their well-received Bionicle comic, but I don’t think that’s in production anymore either. Except for Manga based on video games or card games, I can’t really think of any property really big with kids these days that has its own comic book, except for things like Teen Titans, which started as a comic book anyway.

(If I am wrong about this, I’m sure you’ll correct me.)

So what’s the solution? It comes back to the basics – give the audience what they want. Give kids comics based on what they love now and you may be able to wean them over to great original comics for kids like Amelia Rules and Buzzboy, and then ultimately to comics for us more mature folk. But you’ve got to get the comics in their hands first.

And give us more of Dr. Floyd, just because I love that stuff.

Favorite of the Week: November 1, 2006

In one of those “comics that came out of nowhere and wowed me” categories, I was really surprised earlier this year by how much I liked Top Cow quirky superhero comedy Freshmen. I was not, however, surprised by how much I liked Freshmen II #1. The summer break is over, the would-be heroes are back in school, and we’ve seen how they all have progressed since last we saw them. While the comedy is still there, a lot of the characters really have matured and developed, from Norrin’s urge to atone for his past mistakes to the “Drama Twins” realizing they’re no good for each other. Mostly comedy, a dash of soap opera… a lot of fun.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the weekly “Think About It” humor column at Think About It Central. His new comic, Evertime, is coming soon from Tightlip Entertainment. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.

[Walt Kneeland]

No mention of Dino-Riders?

I want to say it was '96 or '97--TSR put out several comics based on their RPGs--there was an Elminster (Forgotten Realms) comic. I particularly enjoyed the Dragonlance: 5th Age special.

And somehow, I think I'd enjoy a Lost comic. Got a handful of others around here who probably would, too.

Though I doubt it'd be feasible, it'd be interesting to see some sort of rotating/liscensing thing with a Lost comic: let it piggyback with some other comic or company, so that each issue has an original Lost story, but then features backups from other comic companies/imprints/properties.

just my semi-braindead $.02 for now...

[Blake Petit]

I don't know... I've heard it suggested before (especially since Lost has built-in comic connections through Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini and Damon Lindeloff), but I don't think a Lost comic would work. It's okay to do a comic adaptation for a more episodic show like Star Trek or The X-Files, because then you can easily place the issues of the comic in-between episodes of the show. With Lost it's a much tighter continuity, much tighter story, and I don't think there's really a lot of wiggle room. Look at the Lost novelizations they've done -- they're all about random crash survivors, with the main characters (the characters everyone cares about) only making cameos. And as a result, nobody really likes them.

Oh -- and Dino-Riders was a little after my time.

[Eric Barrett]

I didn't realize it was an FCC regulation that allowed He-Man to become so popular. The things you learn....

[Blake Petit]

Technically, it was the REMOVAL of an FCC regulation that paved the way for his success.

[Eric Barrett]

Don't they have to pass a regulation to remove a regulation?

[Blake Petit]

It's the government.

So probably, yes.