Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Comics in
A recent Joe Monday column on Newsarama proclaimed such a clump of odd announcements in such a serious fashion, it had us at Dark Star checking the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st. I mean the lead was the return of Alan Davis' Clandestine (a title that hadn't worked over a decade ago)? Followed up by the pulse pounding crossover between the upcoming Mighty Avengers title and 'daytime drama' The Guiding Light? Since there's exactly zero chance of soap viewers becoming comic readers, I'll go out on a limb and suggest this is another stab at garnering as much free publicity as possible (if whole pages from this comic doesn't appear in both TV Guide and Soap Opera Digest, someone wasn't doing their job).
And in a classic example of burying your lead came the revelation of Marvel's acquisition of the Dabel Bros. I really was going to stop talking about late comics, honest, but thanks to this deal, The Marvel has pushed back the release date of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter; Guilty Pleasures #1 to nearly Thanksgiving (10/18/06 for those scoring at home). We're calling all the nice folks who preordered the title from us to inform them of the 'good news.'
But at least it's a corporate buyout that makes sense (years later DC buying Wildstorm still doesn't compute, which I guess is why DC is trying to justify it by a major relaunch of a bunch of Wildstorm titles that weren't selling five years ago). Dabel does an outstanding job creating genre literary adaptations that don't read like clunky old issues of Classics Illustrated (I thought their version of Hedge Knight was particularly good) and now, thanks to the unexpected success of their hardback Halo, 'licensed title' aren't the dirty words they once were at Marvel. So it makes sense for Marvel to buy (rather than subcontract out the work to) someone who knows how.
When it comes to licensed comics I find I'm of two minds. While I certainly appreciate that 'back in the day' titles like Transformers and GI Joe once served as excellent 'gateway' titles, getting kids who ordinarily wouldn't have to read comics, the same way I think it's nice to see The Lone Ranger #1 was a national sell-out. But I can't help thinking wistfully back to the 1980s, the Golden Age of Creator Owned Comics, when instead of pursuing movie/TV/toy licenses, publishers competed with each other by producing better comics. And while some of the current crop of comics based on other properties is quite good, I have to admit I wonder how many great original comics we're missing out on because they're taking up so much shelf space.
But Joe wasn't finished; he basically wants to resurrect Marvel Classic Comics, the first announced title being Last Of The Mohicans. I quote:
'Today's mainstream world is finally getting over the stereotypical feelings that used to be attached with comics and today, many teachers are looking at comics as valuable tools to entice kids into reading more. It just makes sense to me that a line of classic material illustrated beautifully will be a welcome addition to those that realize its potential.'
To quote Monty Python 'That's as maybe,' but a couple things occur to me.
(1) No matter how well you trick them out, today's kids aren't going to automatically jump into a copy of Silas Marner because it now comes in comic form. Your average eight-year-old will likely always prefer a volume of Zatch Bell over Lorne Doone (while both books may have protagonists with eccentric names, Lorne has the distinct disadvantage of not fighting monsters alongside what appears to be a ventriloquist dummy wearing a baptismal dress).
Now maybe if they came in manga form you'd have something; it's hard to imagine girls who geek out at the latest volume of Fruits Basket not getting hooked on Ann Of Green Gables in the same format (and with the Ann books big in Japan I'm fairly confident there's already an adaptation out there just waiting for translation).
(2) Keep in mind as recently as the early 90s another publisher could get much traction with such a line even with the Classics Illustrated brand name attached to them.
Now I could be wrong, I frequently am, and I sincerely wish Marvel the best of luck with this project; such a line could be a success -- if they do the hard sales work of getting them to teachers, schools and libraries. But:..
(3) If they once again expect the direct sales market to once again cover the initial costs of production of them for you while you get the big profits from schools and libraries, think again. Retailers have long memories; they remember well not being able to sell an adaptation of War Of The Worlds to Marvel Zombies even after it was rewritten so it starred a guy dressed like a Chippendale dancer named Killraven.