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[Resource of the Day] - Comics About Presidential Candidates? It’s Happening!
By SeanJJordan | August 3, 2008
Article: Presidental Candidates get the Comic Book Treatment
by: David Twiddy, Associated Press
Source: The Morning Call
IDW is one sharp publisher. They’ve carved a nice niche out in the comic book industry by producing primarily licensed books based on television shows, video games, and films. They picked up the Transformers license when Dreamwave dropped it a few years back. They even publshed an original title, 30 Days of Night, that was made into a major motion picture. IDW is also press savvy, and they know how to get their news out into the mainstream media.
So I wasn’t really surprised when I read an article today saying that IDW is producing two biopic comics about the candidates in the upcoming US presidential elections — John McCain and Barack Obama.
What did surprise me is that the article didn’t resort to using words like “bang!” or “pow!” (which always seems to happen in any article about comics), and it didn’t make any tired analogies to Batman or Superman (though they did get a mention in the lead, to the article’s detriment). It also didn’t really talk too much about the comic book; instead, it focused on the fact that these biopics will also be made available through cell phones.
“Cell phones?” you might be saying with a shrug. And the answer is yes — apparently, cell phone comics are a growing market for comics syndication services, and while I can’t imagine why anyone would want to read a comic book on such a tiny screen, I thought it might be an interesting idea for would-be-publishers to consider…But enough about what I think. Here’s a snippet from the article:
IDW Publishing in San Diego, better known for stories of robots (”The Transformers”) and vampires (”30 Days of Night”), commissioned the books with no input from either campaign.
”We’re not doing anything that is sensational here,” said IDW special projects editor Scott Dunbier. ”We’re sticking to the facts.”
Comic book biographies have been written before — Marvel Comics had a best-seller in 1982 with a biography of Pope John Paul II. And books intended to be read on cell phones have been gaining popularity worldwide this year and last.
Dunbier said the company is breaking new ground getting out fully researched comics on two candidates before Election Day. And the nontraditional storytelling and visuals of comics may reach some voters more effectively than other types of media can.
”We’re not in the business of doing textbooks, but I think comic books really do have the great potential to inform and teach,” he said.
Amen, brother. I’m thrilled to see the medium being used for stories that are more appealing to mainstream readers, and I think IDW is making a smart move here that is going to help them expose their entire line of books to a fresh new crop of readers. My only reservation is that the Obama book is probably going to outsell the McCain book by a healthy percent since Obama is so much more popular with the young people who might consider reading these comics. But hey, good for IDW for not being partisan here. I really respect the fact that they’re trying to be fair to both of these guys.
I’m going to do some research on comic books on cell phones and hopefully post an article tomorrow about it. But in the meantime, check out today’s article, and see if it gets your creative juices flowing as you try to think up your own set of comics that can reach out to the mass audience!
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