If you’ve been listening to the Major Spoilers Podcast, or reading my editorials for the last couple of years, you know one of my big gripes is publishers not advertising their titles on television – a potential great way to get new readers.
Looks like Warner Bros. is finally listening, by running a commercial for Bill Willingham’s Fables series during the Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation Marathons running on BBC America this weekend. I’ve learned the commercial will air on Saturday, but Vertigo didn’t know the exact time.
With the MPAA considering releasing first run movies for home delivery, and now this news, it’s good to see people at least thinking seriously about my rants for a change (grin).
16 Comments
Sounds more like they’re trying to drum up/gauge interest in a movie than in the comic itself. TV ad time is just too expensive to simply promote a single comic series.
Probably not a movie, as the television series was opted by ABC in 2008. Nothing has come of that yet, and there was nothing in the ABC Up Fronts about a television series this fall.
Why Fables? Is my question. Why not a comic that already has a movie or tv show too?
Because Fables is a kick-ass series that isn’t about capes and tights, which just might draw more readers in than say a Batman or Superman commercial?
I agree Fables is a kick ass series, and certainly deserves recognition, my question is more why not a series that is more well-known OUTSIDE of the comic book community? I.E. Iron Man who just had a movie come out?
_My uninformed answer_ (Though I agree with you… read through)
That one (Iron Man) specifically is hard to do without the money for the CGI. And audiences don’t take well to having a character suddenly be played by another actor. And lets face it Robert Downey is carrying those films in many ways.
Besides film tend to make more dough than TV. So when creators are looking to do something with their property, film are a first priority..And all those “well known” comics are by the big companies who have the ability to get films made and therefore will instead of going go the TV route. Existing profitable superheroes on TV haven’t really been proven (With film its quite the opposite) besides with animated stuff. I agree they should try it and don’t let “Birds Of Prey” discourage them.
Yeah, an Iron Man TV show would be more difficult to sell, but they are running an ad for the Fables comic book, not the TV show.
I agree Fables is a kick ass series, and certainly deserves recognition, my question is more why not a series that is more well-known OUTSIDE of the comic book community? I.E. Iron Man who just had a movie come out?
Why not advertise the series that already has more visibility, higher recognition, higher reader base and a built-in movie audience?
I’m not sure that you fully understand the underlying purpose of advertising…
He was suggesting an Ironman TV show not advertising Ironman.
Disregard what I said…
I think people are misunderstanding what I mean. I think that it’s great that Fables and comics in general are getting advertised, and if this works that’s great. Fables deserve it.
I am surprised that the powers that be or “suits” didn’t want to have a series with a bit of higher visibility.
Iron Man or Hulk movie and video game fans aren’t necessarily comic fans – I think we all know that a successful comic book movie doesn’t mean that a bunch of people pick up the comic. So it DOES make sense to advertise a comic that has a higher visibility in other mediums, because they’re more familiar to the layman who doesn’t read comics, and people do tend to go towards what’s familiar.
While Fables is a great series and one of the better selling Vertigo series, I wonder if American Vampire wouldn’t have been a better choice for a television spot. Not only is it a newer series, it also has the benefit of having Stephen King’s name attached.
I’m curious to find out if there is any sort of benefit for this commercial spot. It’s not like there are a lot of commericals for books, comic or otherwise.
Stephen internet-five -SMACK-
This is good. This won’t just draw attention to Fables but also to comics as a medium. And it will promote to those ignorant of the fact, that comics are not just about people in tights…Though those are awesome…
We need to see more of these, if not just to promote a series…Then a company. Or maybe just a comedic 30 sec pitching session with all sorts of crazy awesome shows..and then going…Okay you won’t see those on the channel. But you can go read the comics AHA and then maybe one day it will become a movie or a series.
Along those lines, perhaps the Vertigo Crime graphic novels would be the perfect line to promote.
Fables TV show would be aweome as long as it followed the comic stories and characters and didn’t dumb down.
I had only scanned over this article before, so was a bit shocked when I saw it air a few times during the “Dr. Who” marathon on Sunday. I didn’t watch Dr. Who until I starting listening to Major Spoilers, so maybe this is a sign I should probably pick up “Fables” eh?