2008 Woodie Awards
Read Your Comics!
Michael Fitzgerald
Issue date: 3/12/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Brace yourself, readers, for in this very somber edition of "Read Your Comics"… one of your favorite Voice columnists will DIE!!!
Well actually, that's not true. It's just a hoax, a dream, an imaginary story.
This column does talk a lot about comic book events like these, however. The massive tragedies, inter-company crossovers, and wild publicity stunts that grab mainstream media attention and attempt to drive customers into comic book shops around the nation (or at least reinforce brand recognition).
Crossover events are probably one of the more well-known techniques companies use to generate buzz. Mesh up a few characters that haven't really been known to associate with others and you've got a simple attention grabber right from the concept.
One of the earliest crossovers was the creation of the first team of superheroes: The Justice Society of America. The group first appeared in the pages of All-Star Comics in the year 1940 and included an assortment characters that hadn't yet graduated into their own personal titles.
Of course, they didn't stop there. Superhero teams soon became the norm and creative company "universes" were established. All of a company's characters were fair game for crossover and team-up "events."
1976 saw the first inter-company crossover of the modern age in a special co-published edition of Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. As time went on, comic publishers occasionally dabbled in the crossover. Even underground comics got into the action with independently created characters like the Flaming Carrot and Cerebus.
In 1985, DC editorial felt the need to create a massive reboot of all of its characters and storylines with a twelve-issue series titled Crisis on Infinite Earths. A famous crossover event that included hundreds of superhero characters across multiple dimensions and was chronicled in every comic book DC published at the time. These issues were adorned with a special "Crisis" logo and included storyline elements from the main series.
Well actually, that's not true. It's just a hoax, a dream, an imaginary story.
This column does talk a lot about comic book events like these, however. The massive tragedies, inter-company crossovers, and wild publicity stunts that grab mainstream media attention and attempt to drive customers into comic book shops around the nation (or at least reinforce brand recognition).
Crossover events are probably one of the more well-known techniques companies use to generate buzz. Mesh up a few characters that haven't really been known to associate with others and you've got a simple attention grabber right from the concept.
One of the earliest crossovers was the creation of the first team of superheroes: The Justice Society of America. The group first appeared in the pages of All-Star Comics in the year 1940 and included an assortment characters that hadn't yet graduated into their own personal titles.
Of course, they didn't stop there. Superhero teams soon became the norm and creative company "universes" were established. All of a company's characters were fair game for crossover and team-up "events."
1976 saw the first inter-company crossover of the modern age in a special co-published edition of Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. As time went on, comic publishers occasionally dabbled in the crossover. Even underground comics got into the action with independently created characters like the Flaming Carrot and Cerebus.
In 1985, DC editorial felt the need to create a massive reboot of all of its characters and storylines with a twelve-issue series titled Crisis on Infinite Earths. A famous crossover event that included hundreds of superhero characters across multiple dimensions and was chronicled in every comic book DC published at the time. These issues were adorned with a special "Crisis" logo and included storyline elements from the main series.
Be the first to comment on this story