It's never too early to start thinking about calendars. With a number of different publishers competing for licenses every year and comic-based properties moving frequently from one calendar producer to another, it is easy for pop culture retailers to miss out on items which, because of their strong visuals, have considerable appeal to core clientele. For 2003 Tide-Mark has stepped to the plate and acquired a number of key titles based on properties published by Dark Horse and Image Comics. The Tide-Mark calendars will be in a vertical format with the image area for each month roughly equaling 11 inches by 14 inches. The large full color images are at the heart of the appeal of these specialized calendars. Tide Mark's comic art calendars include 12 color illustrations and will retail for $12.95.
Tide-Mark has chosen two Dark Horse titles for 2003 calendars, Mike Mignola's Hellboy and Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo. Mignola has one of the most distinctive styles in comics today. His strong line work made him a natural for Disney's Atlantis (see 'Atlantis Has a Comic Connection') -- and Mignola was indeed responsible for much of the cool retro design of that dramatically challenged cartoon feature. Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo anticipated the current interest in Japanese themes and style by at least a decade, and the artist has maintained both his innovative style and his offbeat sense of humor.
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