EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #268: YOU GOT A LICENSE FOR THAT?

[Blake Petit]

Licensed comics aren’t anything new. Dell comics was the master of ‘em back in the 40s and 50s, when virtually every movie and TV show – and even certain celebrities – had their own comics. The Hardy Boys, I Love Lucy, Looney Tunes, The Honeymooners… if it was popular, there was a comic. Licensed books lasted well through the 70s and into the 80s. By the 90s, however, although licensed comics never went away, they did drop in quantity drastically. Even having a hit TV show or movie was no longer a guarantee of a comic book adaptation.

That seems to be shifting, though. While there aren’t nearly as many comic books based on movies and TV shows as there were back in the day, there are a lot more than there were ten years ago, when the genre was pretty much reduced to the stalwarts of Star Wars, Aliens, Predator and other things that never quite went away when everything else did. Sure, there was a resurgence in 80s properties a couple of years ago, when the return of G.I. Joe spearheaded a nostalgia craze that has mostly died off by now, but we’re seeing current hot TV shows, current hot movies… and even TV shows and movies that aren’t quite hot yet, cracking into the licensed arena.

Wildstorm Comics, while by no means the only company involved in this enterprise, has definitely been contributing a lot of the more surprising entries lately. A few years ago, they took over the license for the New Line Cinema horror classics A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but this year their licensed books have begun to branch out so much that they’ve even created a whole separate trade dress for them. A few years ago, who would have thought there’d be a new Lost Boys comic book? But with a sequel to the original movie in the works (I know, I’m skeptical too), Hans Rodinoff is writing Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, featuring the adventures of the Frog brothers in-between the two films. And although I am not totally sold on the idea of a sequel, the first two issues of this miniseries have been quite good.

But c’mon, it’s not like they’ve put out a comic based on just anything, right? Like… Chuck? That NBC TV show about the tech geek who accidentally got an entire NSA database downloaded into his head? And now has to get protected by a gorgeous blonde and Jayne from Serenity? Would they actually make a comic book out of that? Ten years ago, probably not, but issue one came out just last week. And like the Lost Boys comic, it’s not that bad. That’s something the current crop of licensed comics has apart from the older ones: quality. With comics starring the likes the Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, they’re telling darker, more intense stories than the movies have been in decades. With Chuck, they’re tapping into the writers of the TV show to contribute to the comic. Who could know better how to tell a good story with those characters?

Okay, but Chuck was a minor hit before the writer’s strike cut the premiere season in half. It’s not like they’re going to grab on to a property that hasn’t been proven, right? Well, unless the property in question comes from J.J. Abrams. The man behind Alias, Lost and Cloverfield has a new show coming to TV this fall, Fringe. At the moment, I know almost nothing about the show, except for this: Wildstorm has announced a two-issue prequel miniseries that will come out in August and September, scheduled for release before the first episode of the TV show hits the airwaves. Wildstorm also promises a big surprise when the announcement of the creative team is made. Does anyone else want to lay odds that the “big surprise” is that Abrams himself wrote – or at least plotted – the prequel miniseries himself?

This is a pretty interesting tactic to take with licensed comics. Most of the time, these are books made to capitalize on an existing audience. In other words, with the upcoming X-Files Special #0, Wildstorm is counting on cash from the same fans who are going to go out and see then new X-Files: I Want to Believe movie. With Fringe, however, there are no existing fans to draw from. Instead, they’re hoping to help create fans, hoping to gin up interest to get we comic book readers to tune in when the show begins. I’m sure this isn’t the first time such a thing has been done with a comic book, but it’s certainly the first time in recent memory. It’ll be interesting to see how many people will be willing to plunk down six bucks on a TV show they haven’t seen yet, with faith mainly placed in Abrams’ name.

Of course, all these licensed books are ancillary to the actual Wildstorm Universe. Let’s look at a publisher like Dynamite Entertainment, which has relatively few original properties. Almost their entire line-up is made of licensed properties. Most of their licenses, however, aren’t for currently-hot properties. Sure, they have Battlestar Galactica, but they also have Army of Darkness, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Red Sonja… even a line based on the “classic” Battlestar Galactica making up the core of their line-up. I never would have expected a series based on Sergio Leone’s The Man With No Name, but here we have it. Here, you’re totally banking on the idea that the fans of the old movies and TV shows (or even books) will come back and drop their hard-earned cash on something that isn’t really much in the public eye anymore. It’s a gamble, but with most of these books actually being very good, it’s a gamble that seems to have paid off.

IDW, traditionally, is strong in two areas: horror comics and licensed books. They’ve got the TransFormers license, which will soon be joined by the G.I. Joe license, but they’ve also put out a lot of comics based on TV shows like 24 and CSI, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel, and video games like Metal Gear Solid. Then there are the properties that help straddle the line between licenses and horror: Angel to a degree, but not as much as the comics based on the Saw movies or George Romero’s Land of the Dead, and the horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead. They’ve also recently added Doctor Who – both the classic and current incarnations – to the line-up.

Dark Horse was the publisher that really held the torch for licensed properties throughout the 90s, but not so much today. Oh, they still have licenses, but they’re mostly for properties that have been in their stable for a long time: Star Wars, Buffy, Indiana Jones, and the two properties which have become inexorably tied together: Aliens and Predator. In fact, one could almost say Dark Horse was built on these properties. Before it was a proven publisher, when it only put out a few weird comics like Boris the Bear and Concrete, snaring these big licenses really helped give it the capital to make it one of the top four publishers in the entire industry. Let’s be honest here: it ain’t a dark horse anymore. Star Wars cash is what allowed books like Usagi Yojimbo and Sin City to find their audience.

I don’t think we’ll ever see a return to the days when every vaguely popular movie or TV show became a comic book. I mean – show of hands here, who’d buy a comic book based on Two and a Half Men? That’s what I thought. (The Big Bang Theory, sure, but not Two and a Half Men.) But it’s nice to see so many of them coming back.

Favorite of the Week: June 11, 2008

Brainiac is back, so is Gary Frank, and Action Comics #866 easily snared favorite honors for this week. As he’s done for so many characters in the past few years, Geoff Johns has completely redefined Brainiac, but he’s done so by taking everything that has made him an interesting character, from the comics, the movies, even the Paul Dini cartoon, and synthesized the elements into a timeless incarnation of the character. This is going to be the definitive version of Brainiac for a long time, and I’ve got every confidence that this storyline will be as awesome as “Last Son of Krypton” and “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes.” Man, I can’t wait for Legion of Three Worlds.

Don’t forget to visit me at the new Evertime Realms! The first chapter of my next novel is now online!

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the irregular “Think About It” humor column at Think About It Central. He’s also the co-host, with the inimitable Chase Bouzigard, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.

[bluemonkey]

I remember when New World owned Marvel for like a second and they converted their "hit" comedy Sledge Hammer! into a two-issue series. I think Spidey had an appearance in issue 2. This probably isn't the same as the other licensed comics you are talking about, Blake, since New World owned the property. But I just remember as a kid seeing this in a store and thinking, "They made Sledge Hammer into a comic? Cool! I gotta get this!"

[virtuadept]

I'm all in favor of licensed comics to an extent. I was at one time picking up a ton of Dynamite licensed comics and still do pick up a ton of Dark Horse licensed comics. Star Wars Legacy is one of the best comics on the market today, IMHO. And when Dark Horse can pull top-name talent like series-creator Joss Whedon for their Buffy comic, well that's just all good for everyone.

As long as comic makers can do something fresh with the franchise, I'll keep buying stuff from franchises I like. But sometimes some of the comics I've read feel pretty weak, almost like bad fan-fiction. I won't warhammer the point with any actual examples, ahem.

What are some of the TV/Movie/Book licenses you'd like to see get made into a comic book?

[Dino1963]

I think it would be cool to see Heroes become a monthly comic but as that isn't likely, how about---Torchwood! They've got a Doctor Who comic so they're only a step away from Torchwood. That I would spend four dollars on.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by bluemonkey

I remember when New World owned Marvel for like a second and they converted their "hit" comedy Sledge Hammer! into a two-issue series. I think Spidey had an appearance in issue 2. This probably isn't the same as the other licensed comics you are talking about, Blake, since New World owned the property. But I just remember as a kid seeing this in a store and thinking, "They made Sledge Hammer into a comic? Cool! I gotta get this!"

I got the first issue of that Sledge Hammer comic.

True, freaky story: that issue involved Sledge getting into a shootout at a summer camp. There was one panel I vividly recall that showed a pair of eyes in the dark under a cabin, with a thought balloon reading something along the lines of "I hope they don't find my treasure!"

Being a youngster at the time, but already having a terribly overactive imagination, this panel fascinated me. Who was this hiding in the shadows. Was he a future opponent for Sledge? Would his story be carried over to another title? Was he some villain from the Marvel Universe proper?"

Years later, looking back at the book, it's obvious that it was just a throwaway gag, and the eyeballs in question belonged to some random camper.

But man, that panel disturbed me for a long time.

[Ben Lehnsherr]

Didn't really understand the "Sightings" label on this weeks Action. Read decent, but I didn't see the overall "impact".

[Ryan Broussard]

i own beavis and butthead #1......................yeah

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Ben Lehnsherr

Didn't really understand the "Sightings" label on this weeks Action. Read decent, but I didn't see the overall "impact".

And you probably won't for some time. The "Sightings" labels mean that this is a book that's going to be significant to a future big storyline. Considering that Johns and Robinson have some sort of big Superman plan in the works, I'm guessing the label means that this issue is the beginning of that arc.

[Justin Byrd]

As cX's resident Transformers ubernerd, I was appalled at first of the "contemporary" reboot to the G1 franchise IDW did.

But I am so digging it. It's well written, the characters are fleshed out, and there's no need to worry about selling toys anymore, so it's all about the story.

Plus Prime's a bad***.

[Richard Davidson, Jr.]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

And you probably won't for some time. The "Sightings" labels mean that this is a book that's going to be significant to a future big storyline. Considering that Johns and Robinson have some sort of big Superman plan in the works, I'm guessing the label means that this issue is the beginning of that arc.

I think that the "Sightings" label works into the Final Crisis story as kind of a way to see appearances from characters that will factor into that miniseries. None of these books are required reading to understand the big mini but it's a way for DC to promote their product and give a heads-up to people that might be looking for things like that. There was an issue of Birds Of Prey last month that had a similar banner that was for highlighting magical characters that will be part of another upcoming plot or miniseries.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Richard Davidson, Jr.

I think that the "Sightings" label works into the Final Crisis story as kind of a way to see appearances from characters that will factor into that miniseries. None of these books are required reading to understand the big mini but it's a way for DC to promote their product and give a heads-up to people that might be looking for things like that. There was an issue of Birds Of Prey last month that had a similar banner that was for highlighting magical characters that will be part of another upcoming plot or miniseries.

You're thinking of the Dark Side Club banner -- that's not really specific to any single storyline though. It just signified that the DSC made an appearance. "Sightings," similarly doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Final Crisis. It marks an issue as a key one to a major storyline, but not specifically that storyline. I'll bet we get one on the first issue of Prelude to Blackest Night, too.

[Richard Davidson, Jr.]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

You're thinking of the Dark Side Club banner -- that's not really specific to any single storyline though. It just signified that the DSC made an appearance. "Sightings," similarly doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Final Crisis. It marks an issue as a key one to a major storyline, but not specifically that storyline. I'll bet we get one on the first issue of Prelude to Blackest Night, too.

I thought that these were markings for appearances of characters that related to future books, like Final Crisis and the one about a battle in Hell that I can't remember the title of right now. It's kind of a way to track the different characters that will later appear in the other series or minis but not as a direct link to the future books. It's kind of there to say, "If you want to keep track of the way these different characters move towards the upcoming books, just find the headings that are related to each other.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Richard Davidson, Jr.

I thought that these were markings for appearances of characters that related to future books, like Final Crisis and the one about a battle in Hell that I can't remember the title of right now. It's kind of a way to track the different characters that will later appear in the other series or minis but not as a direct link to the future books. It's kind of there to say, "If you want to keep track of the way these different characters move towards the upcoming books, just find the headings that are related to each other.

Well, "kinda sorta," but Sightings doesn't automatically equal Final Crisis. Dark Side Club, though, doesn't have anything to do with Reign in Hell as far as I know. DSC is about Darkseid and the New Gods, while Reign in Hell is about a war between Neron and... oh damn, what's his name? The devil subsitute Superman fought in the 80s and 90s. The one who masqueraded as the editor of Newstime Magazine. Man, Mark is never gonna let me live this down if I do-- SATANNUS! Yeah, that's it! Anyway, RIH is a Neron/Satannus war story.

[Ben Lehnsherr]

Dan DiDio has announced Sightings, which will be "signposts, marking important storybeats and moments throughout the DC Universe." These Sightings will be related to Final Crisis and other major DCU events in the coming months....

[Andrea Speed]

This is kind of an off topic aside, but what the Sam Scratch is going on at DC? Blake, this seems like ideal column fodder.

[Justin Byrd]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

Well, "kinda sorta," but Sightings doesn't automatically equal Final Crisis. Dark Side Club, though, doesn't have anything to do with Reign in Hell as far as I know. DSC is about Darkseid and the New Gods, while Reign in Hell is about a war between Neron and... oh damn, what's his name? The devil subsitute Superman fought in the 80s and 90s. The one who masqueraded as the editor of Newstime Magazine. Man, Mark is never gonna let me live this down if I do-- SATANNUS! Yeah, that's it! Anyway, RIH is a Neron/Satannus war story.

Is Blaze making an appearance there too?

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Ben Lehnsherr

Dan DiDio has announced Sightings, which will be "signposts, marking important storybeats and moments throughout the DC Universe." These Sightings will be related to Final Crisis and other major DCU events in the coming months....

Mark the pertinent part there, Ben. It's not just Final Crisis, which is what I've been saying all along.