Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in
The next three months are going to be like a water slide; you’re thrilled at the start but by the time you reach the bottom you’re just hoping not to swallow too much water and keep your trunks on. By my count there are 11 (13 if you’re extremely generous, and include the Brendan Fraser double feature Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D and Mummy III: Tomb of the Golden Emperor) would-be summer movie blockbusters coming out this year. That’s a lot, especially in a recession when gas and food prices have reached record highs. I don’t know, maybe
Right now they’re worried that instead of seeing Iron Man a second time, guys like us will buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV or sales of the Indiana Jones DVD box set will siphon money away from movie tickets. I suppose we should be grateful it’s a given our customers will somehow manage to find the money to buy our comics and go to the movies.
In May alone I’ll be seeing Iron Man, Speed Racer, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, followed by The Incredible Hulk, Wall-E, Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Batman The Dark Knight, X-Files: I Want to Believe.
I have to admit it’s been a while since I’ve looked forward to so many movies, like Speed Racer. Even to someone who owns a copy of the Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go manga collection, this seemed like an exceedingly bad idea…until I saw the trailer (the same way the way a Will Farrell comedy version of Land of the Lost seemed like a bad SNL sketch… until I saw the Sleestak designs). On the other hand there’s the new Speed Racer: The New Generation cartoon; gosh, it sucks. I’d (half) laughingly suggest it’s an experiment to make an animated series without any money but layered on top of the flat, ugly flash animated figures is some of the worse CGI animation I’ve ever seen. Today’s kids deserve so much better than this.
And while I’m getting too old to attend midnight showings of any of the above, I’ll admit I geeked upon learning that Iron Man director Jon Favreau was going to play Happy Hogan. Naturally Marvel killed him, once again proving to writers desperately trying to be “edgy” they should leave lumpy supporting characters alone; you never know when you’ll need them again.
But I’m sure you’re asking yourselves “the question”; a.k.a. “what does this have to do with us?” We’ve been through this before, but it bears repeating; no matter how well they do at the box office, comic book movies have no real impact on actual comic book sales. Comic book stuff is more mainstream than comic books will ever be in this country, which I’m going to blame on publishers who continue to hold fast to their policy of “why should we make an effort?”
There’s a lattice of licenses and tie-ins to the Iron Man movie: starting Sunday, Toon Disney will be showing the 90s Iron Man cartoons, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the Burger King spot where the idiot dad wears a homemade Iron Man costume, making him look more like the Golden Age Red Tornado. The package of sliced turkey I bought for lunch offered me the chance to win a copy of the Iron Man movie videogame. But when it comes to say, an Iron Man magazine (you know, like the Spider-Man ones I see at Wal-Mart*), well I suppose the thinking is there’s already a bodybuilding publication with the same name, that should promote the movie just as well as if they actually did something.
Understand I could rag just as easily on DC and its indifference concerning promoting Batman The Dark Knight.
So if they don’t care, why should we? I cling to the idea that these kinds of movies legitimize comics to Americans (if they’ve based a major motion picture on one, they can’t be all bad) and raises comic book consciousness, increasing interest in comics and bringing more people into your stores. Even if I don’t have the numbers to back any of it up.
*This isn’t exactly a correction, but in my last column I wrote that I’d never seen a copy of Shonen Jump in a Wal-Mart. This is true, but when I stopped at the
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.