Guilty Pleasures: not just a comic anymore! Now... a handbook!

[pith]

http://wizarduniverse.stores.yahoo.net/feb072174.html

Now there's going to be a freakin' handbook for the Guilty Pleasures comic. Oy. Marvel really has no shame, do they? I'm happy that the only title I get from them is Blade, because that's easy enough to let go if I ever get to the boycotting stage.

I think Laurell needs a handbook at this stage so she can tell the characters apart. Can you imagine the poor artists?

Artist #1: Um, okay. The guy is hot and has long hair, so it's… Nathaniel?
Artist #2: No, that's Jean-Claude. He has black hair. Nathaniel has… *checks notes* mahogany hair.
Artist #1: *writing* Nathaniel = brown hair. Gotcha.
Artist #2. Not brown. Mahogany. And his eyes are lilac.
Artist #1: Riiiiiiiiiight. And the blond guy is?
Artist #2: That's Asher. And it's not blond. It's gold.
Artist #1: Uh-huh. This counts as paid time, right?
Artist #2: Damn well better.

Comments

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

Oh, and don't forget that Asher has very pale blue eyes. Like a husky's eyes. I have never understood why she couldn't find a better descriptive phrase. Like it's a compliment declaring someone to have dog eyes.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

... What's wrong with Marvel. No, wait. There are a lot of things wrong with Marvel. How is the handbook to the NOVEL somehow a problem because it's in the style of their comic handbooks?

[wickedmommy.livejournal.com]

No wait. You guys are veiwing this wrong. This is actually a good thing. We all know that LKH can't keep up with who is who, what they are able to do and sometimes,even the names of some the characters she made.

The people at Marvel seem symapthic to her plight and are putting this out so she won't have to use post-its any more. I think they might be trying to be helpful.

[pith]

I personally quite like husky's eyes, so I didn't mind that so much, but she could have just as easily used something like "the frosty blue of arctic ice" or something.

[pith]

The handbook is to the Guilty Pleasures comic, not the novel, as far as I know. (Hence Asher wouldn't be in it, yada yada yada, but I was forecasting.)

[electra310.livejournal.com]

(Baseball game vendor)
Handbooks, getcher handbooks! Can't tell one unnaturally beautiful yet oddly submissive and Anita-oriented stud from another, 'less you have a handbook! Handbooks!
(/baseball game vendor)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

You...you realise we're going to get the action figures (lol, in the spirit of Anakin Skywalker and Neo and the "spare crispy-fried hed" we're gonna get "ANITA ACTION FIGURE! WITH SPARE CROTCH!") and collectables next, don't you?

I think I can feel my soul shrivelling up and dying as I type this.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

Uhm, maybe I'm missing something but from the linked site:
This is your chance to learn all about the LAURELL K. HAMILTON's famous vampire hunter in the first ANITA BLAKE novel in the series, GUILTY PLEASURES. [bolding mine]

And, again, why would you boycott Marvel over something like this?

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

Especially when she writes about some unfortunate chartreuse-eyed person in a suit that matches his eyes. *shudders*

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

The Micah action figure will come with a full-sized dildo attachment or something. I have THE FEAR.

[pith]

And JC will have a pull-string and say ma petite on command.

*cringes at thinking of the Rainmaker effect* It'd be like babies who cry and wet, but so much worse.

moving swiftly off topic...

[catskin.livejournal.com]

I can't stop staring at your icon.

I think I love it. And you, for bringing it into my life.

[pith]

The handbook is being published by Marvel(/Dabel) to complement the comic series, Guilty Pleasures (based off the novel), which they are publishing. Marvel would not have the rights to do a handbook for the novel unless a separate contract was made.

And... "boycott"? Is an expression around here. Besides, customers vote with their money. If you don't like what a company is doing, one of the best ways to let them know is to stop buying their stuff. If they quit making money (or not as much money as they'd like), they'll reevaluate things a lot faster than if they get a few whiny fan letters.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Richard will come with bonus angst, however with the JC figurine - the gay will not be included, despite appearances.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

I know the comic. I'm perfectly well aware. However, the hadnbook summary doesn't say the "comic based on the novel" it says "the novel", indicating that the handbook is being based on the novel itself, rather than the comic adaptation (which will probably leave out things due to necessity.)

But, see, I understand boycotting LKH's books and comic and such, but saying you'd boycott Marvel for this confuses me as much as someone who say they'd boycott Jove for publishing her books.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

That's the thought that crossed my mind too!

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Boycott Jove for publishing her books?

... After that slog through the horror that was the last Merry Gentry novel? That really doesn't sound that drastic anymore. Kinda sane actually. But that might be because I know I lost a good number of braincells right arouund the KillerTreeDeathMonkeySex scene.

Marvel's just out for the money. They're quite mercenary. I almost admire it. Before you know it we shall all own Anita Blake action figures, with realistic "combat" motions. ... Oh. Get the image out of my head... *runs for brain bleach*

LKH is not an excuse to print money!

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

I'm going to admit it -

Pigwhorecuntface! I'm jealous.

The leeway that comes with being an established name, quite frankly, sucks. Fuck branding. Branding is the reason LKH can have two series that are nothing be degenerate, impossible and quite frankly dangers and mentally damaging series all about sex and now this comic book.

I know, as much as we make fun the first couple of books story-wise aren't actually too bad. And quite frankly given how Marvel cuts books off, her series might never reach the Arcs Of Poon.

Still?

Corporate Branding is a souless policy and LKH is the horrible proof.

Damn man, even Ann Rice changed her tune 10 years in and decided to write about Jesus.

Whoa... can you imagine LKH as Christ's new buddy? Writing Christian romances with no pre-marital sex?

Am I bitter to think she'd fall from one windfall into another?

Yes, yes I am.

Do I care? No.

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Le what? Seriously? She did? Does she know what chartreuse IS?

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Uhm isn't chartreuse a kind of greenish yellow / yellowish green? Like the non-neon version of a washed out green? Baby vomit green?

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD. I had the Same Exact Thought!

Only mine was that Anita would have Realistic "Combat" Motions (tm)! A little lever on her back will make her go into what looks like a seizure and there will be blood and... *cries* Hopefully no sound effects.

And because my soul just died anyway... Do you think there'll be customized spare crotches for each 'partner'? JC with Matching Anita Attatchment.

I think my marketing professor would weep if she saw this.

[pith]

If you're looking to the comics community (and Marvel products in particular) for clear wording, you'll be disappointed on a regular basis. These are people who don't know the difference between compliment and complement, after all.

It's a point of view. You and I don't share it. Nuff said.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

While digging up stuff for the comic page on the Wiki (yes I'm still working on that...honest) I noticed that this book was being pimped EVERYWHERE there were previews in lots of other books and there was a big preview in a special free handout that shops were told to give away. I got one of those in my last comic shipment, its mind blowing on WHY Marvel is so big on pimping this thing out. Don't they know what happens in the series later on?

[pith]

Honestly, I think the pimpfest is the major reason the comic is selling. Otherwise, the only people who would've known about it would have been LKH fans and LKH non-fans.

I'm still amused by how many copies of the "limited edition" print my comic store still has, especially when comic geeks usually snap up 5 copies of anything that says "limited edition" on it.

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's like what happened with Fox and the anime Escaflowne. "Oh, girl gets sucked into another world with big giant robots? Sounds great, we'll buy the whole series and air it on FoxKids!" Then they dicovered it was actually pretty violent and after editing the first 9 episodes or so all to hell, they pulled it.

So my guess would be that it might just be possible Marvel jumped on the LKH bandwagon without knowing quiiiite what they were getting themselves into.