Another perspective on the comic...

[pandorasblog]

While delving through my comics/feminism RSS feeds, I ran across an article: Why The Anita Blake Comic Won't Succeed (And Trust Me, I Want To Be Wrong). It turns out to be less an article on the likelihood of that particular comic doing well, and more one on why the author doesn't seem to think that many women read comics at all (began commenting, then realised it was turning into an essay; life's too short, yadda yadda yadda). Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting to have a line on the comic from outside the immediate fandom, and this is a particularly ironic one since LKH seems to have added First Ever Bringer Of Comics To Wimminkind to her list of imagined accomplishments...

Comments

[larathia.livejournal.com]

Why should a working woman/mom (and yes, I’m being a bit stereotypical here) who does most of the shopping for her household plunk down $3.95 (minimum) for a comic that will provide her 30-45 minutes of escape when she can buy an Anita Blake novel for $6.99 and get 4-8 hours of pleasure, with more detail, not to mention the sex scenes which will most likely be cut out?

Really? PROMISE? I will so buy the comic just for that. Oh yes. Yes please. Sex-free AB? And no ten pages of what she's fucking wearing because it's ON THE PAGE ALREADY?

...I wasn't a big fan of this idea, but now I'm thinking I just might give it a go.

so, yeah, I commented:

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

I’m a female who has been reading comic books for over a decade. I don’t read romances often, but when I do the average romance novel takes me about 30 minutes to read. And I find them far less interesting than comic books, as well as far more finite, so that I have nothing to look forward to afterward. I think the idea that women won’t spend the money on comic books, because of how quickly they go, but will spend money on romance novels, is probably not quite true.

Also, I’m confused by the fact that you think that comic books start at $3.95? The average comic I read starts at $2.99 an issue. If a person reads comics in TPBs, then they can potentially save more money.

And I think the majority of your generalizations can easily be said about men, too, and why many males I know don’t read comics.

I think the ABVH books will flop because they’re off of a series that, while it would have made an awesome comic book in the beginning with the mystery plots and fight seens, is now little more than erotica. From what I’ve seen of the comic, they’re trying to mix the “sexy” Anita with a more action-filled comic, but not succeeding.

[scarbie.livejournal.com]

*sighs* One reason why I think the comic won't sell well is because the art is terrible. I've seen comics with good stories go down the drain because the art team was crap. There are plenty of women that read comics. I've been reading them since I was a little girl.

Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting to have a line on the comic from outside the immediate fandom, and this is a particularly ironic one since LKH seems to have added First Ever Bringer Of Comics To Wimminkind to her list of imagined accomplishments...

*LOL* Someone just needs to make her a certificate listing all of these things she's a so called pioneer in because that list is just getting longer and longer.

Re: so, yeah, I commented:

[pandorasblog]

Good reply. :) I wonder if she'll reply to that...

And yeah, I was a little puzzled by the price thing, but didn't like to mention it since on the rare occasions that I buy new comics, I'm paying UK prices anyway; about �2.50... $3.95 did sound rather unlikely, though, even to me.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it won't sell well becasue fans of the series who would otherwise go, "OMG COMIC! YAY!" will see the art and just go, "WTF? Um. EWG." and not buy it.

I don't think LKH will gain very many new fans via the comic arena simply because there are way better things out there to read. Alan Moore, she is most decidedly not. Not to mention, the porny and/or violent things tend to have a disturbing amount of plot - which is something that comic readers who venture into Anita Blake-dom will probably be very picky about as the series progresses.

Naw, I see this whole wymyn 4 k0mix thing as a really big failure.

[ravenhaley.livejournal.com]

I still hold the only reason why Marvel picked up on Anita Blake Vampire Humper is because of this:

Dark Horse Comics will publish a new series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics that will pick up the story of the cult TV show and act as a de facto eighth season, Comics Continuum reported.

The new Buffy series is targeted for a March launch, and the first story arc will be a four-part series that will chronicle events after the Buffy television series' finale, which aired in 2003. Buffy creator Joss Whedon will write, with art by Georges Jeanty.

Buffy already has a following as it is. Not to mention this is going to be over the next season. Many fans were upset there wasn't going to be another season to explain what happens next. Anita will only be the ugly step-sister to Buffy.

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

Maybe it'll branch into an alternative universe, like so many other Marvel fandoms?

...Hopefully?

[ravenhaley.livejournal.com]

The comic book people from Dabel Brothers Productions are on LKH's board. I asked if they had any plans to make alternative universes.

Some LKH lover came back to tell one that LKH doesn't share/play well with others. It doesn't matter if she does or doesn't if she wants to branch her piece of crap out to other people. (The Earth is Doomed)

Anyways, I finally got an answer that they only are going to do "Guilty Pleasures". Of course depending on how well the comics do, is if there will be another book of "Laughing Corpse" and so on.

Marvel has signed on as the exclusive publisher for Dabel Brothers Productions, obtaining the marketing, print and distribution rights. The first project under the agreement is an adaptation of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novel "Guilty Pleasures".