Comic Book Resources

Looking at the toy world, two items come to mind: Bratz dolls? (Hate to say it as I hate them but it would bring in a young and female audience to comics)

Hasbro's Action Man toys? Kind of a poor man's GI Joe...GI Joe wasn't GI Joe until the cartoon and comics, Action Man provides a similar framework with a blank slate.

Looking at other properties--Magic: The Gathering, the comic book? That stupid Vampire LARP in comic book form? Sure, both are a hair past their prime but both provide fairly blank slate universes for tales to be told, much like Dark Horse is doing with the Knights of the Old Republic series.

Halo comics? Think how cool those would be if each came with a disc adding additional levels to the game, harkening back to the days of User MODS with Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. They could even release level kits to the web and let the gamers create the levels, they just play test it a bit and burn it to a CD to put with the comics. Game play and story in one.

While I'm on games, Half Life. Same idea.

I think the game to movie adaptation works poorly but comic books may be a better venue. Lower cost, able to be more experimental, and rather than retelling the story from the games like Silent Hill and so many others did you could instead just set comics in the universe of the games. Dead Rising, Prey, Bioshock, hell Mario Brothers. All could work as comics.

Now let's move on to television. We're seeing a renaissance of action TV not seen since the late 70's and early 80's. So comics for Chuck, Reaper, Supernatural, or the obvious one: Lost. Give us non-canon stories focusing on the other 40 survivors of 815 or The Others or the tailies before they encountered the main people. Lots of opportunity there which wouldn't step on the toes of main continuity.

There are lots of opportunities for licensed comics where the license probably wouldn't break the bank, the multimedia appeal might bring in new comic book readers, and where there are rich stories to tell in other people's universes, or to create your own.

DC's actually been producing Bionocle comics for years, you just wouldn't know because they were only available through Lego's Kids Club, as pack-ins to their magazines.

which is why a company that actually gets them into stores is a good thing...

In an interview with the artist (or writer - I forget which), he claimed that the Bionicle comics were the most widely distributed in the world... numbering in the millions of copies per issue... and this has been going on for years... my son has been getting them for about 5 years, now.

Looking at other properties–Magic: The Gathering, the comic book? That stupid Vampire LARP in comic book form?

Acclaim..i think...did Magic comics back in the 90's. Moonstone...had some of White Wolf's properties..Werewolf the Apocalypse for sure..not sure about Vampire the Masquerade. They didn't do well.

DC’s actually been producing Bionocle comics for years, you just wouldn’t know because they were only available through Lego’s Kids Club, as pack-ins to their magazines.

Yeah, as yo go re mentioned, that's why it's impressive that they're actually getting these things into the stores.

That said, one thing Papercutz downplayed a BIT is that they're starting up by reprinting the comics DC did for Lego.

it's a good place to start: Mata Nui (the Bionicle homeland) has a pretty well-developed world and a long, ongoing story, so just jumping in at a random point would be strange. Better to give people who couldn't get the Lego stuff-ins the chance to start from the beginning...