COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 321
As we speak I am breaking my neck trying to win A.I. passes from the local radio station. I normally wouldn't bother, since my phone lives to drive me nuts and the music on the station sucks. And until a month ago, I was perfectly content to wait until the movie came out, or even afterwards. But that was before I encountered the game.
Those in the know have an idea of what I'm talking about. Jeanine Salla. Type that name into any search engine and you find yourself entangled into a murder mystery, exploring through pages for universities and cybernetics companies that don't exist, personal pages of people not even born yet. It's an absolutely brilliant promotion. Get people intrigued and interested. Flesh out the movie's background. Drive everyone nuts. People who wouldn't normally shell out the Hamilton for a movie ticket (for tickets are now $10 in midtown Manhattan - I cry and vow to never leave Brooklyn) will gladly sell their first-born to get to the bottom of all this A.I. crap.
And the entire marketing scheme cost them, what, no more than $5000? Accounting for labor, domain registration, server costs... I could be underestimating the cost but it's going to be considerably cheaper than traditional magazine/newspaper/television blitzes. Which they are doing anyway, and seeing those is only increasing the hunger. It's a Blair Witch marketing campaign again.
The Internet has proven itself time and time again as a good marketing tool. So how much are comics companies using it?
It's rather mixed. I've enjoyed the Marvel site for years, and it just gets better every year. I'm pleased about their initiative to reprint popular comics on the site, so that anyone who missed it can catch up. Last night I finally read through the first five issues of Ultimate X-Men. I was pleasantly surprised by it, though I confess I don't plan to buy the series. There are just too many incarnations of X-Men out there right now for me, I'll stick with the originals.
I remember a few years ago the DC site used to be absolutely ugly. It's gotten better but still somewhat lacking. Even after the redesign the site still strikes me as clunky and not entirely useful or fun. Dark Horse is a better looking site, and they have comic previews which I like to read, and nifty little things to download. There's also a cute little mascot on the front page. But nothing tops the Marvel site.
Comic creators have discovered the joy of the Internet. Every creator worth his or her salt has a site. Warren Ellis' site is a one-stop shop for all things Warren. Lea Hernandez's site is popular enough that a porn site stole her domain name. Neil Gaiman has a good site, too bad he doesn't do comics anymore. I went to his NY signing, BTW. Got two of my books signed, and people were asking the usual questions about upcoming projects, nothing really on the comics front. Not even Marvel, even though Quesada approached him and begged for Neil to do something. He just doesn't have the time.
Hey, I understand. I barely have time to get anything done, what with reading all my web comics and writing this column. Okay, that's not a fair or even accurate comparison. But I'm trying to write this and getting distracted by phone calls and the radio, which seems to be giving everything but tickets to A.I. away. And now I've decided to check out the Crossgen site. Because they're a good company, I'm impressed by the fact that none of their titles have been late all year, and I congratulate them for it. I was impressed by the money-back guarantee they offered when they started up. I figure their site must be pretty cool.
It is. They use Flash technology to display a map of their universe, allowing you to click on the home planet of the title you like. Overviews, creator and character biographies, it's all very well presented. My only complaint is the incessant droning music that plays while you browse the site. It never changes and I will have to mute the computer now. That, or just shut off the computer and do something else. Yes, that would be nice. Later.