Why MacGuffin Loves Joss Whedon
It's not the fact that he does incredibly entertaining work in TV, film and comics.
It's not the almost guaranteed weekly sale of an Astonishing X-Men trade or hardcover.
It's his contributions to the hilarious first couple season's of Roseanne.
It's not even my guilty pleasure love of the Buffy movie.
No, its the fact that in the span of 45 minutes on Sunday we had two women (entirely new to MacGuffin) separately walk into the store, spend 15-20 minutes browsing and purchase Serenity while asking my thoughts on Whedon's other comics work before leaving, excited about their visit (particularly the new to them information that Buffy was getting an 8th season in comic form).
This is what we need more of, true crossover comics that succeed for both new and long term fans. Joss Whedon is a name that fans will follow to just about any project, particularly those that are similar to his previous work. I have yet to encounter a single individual who was a fan of Buffy or Firefly that has not purchased or read the Serenity book. From there it's an incredibly short hop to Fray and Tales of the Slayer not to mention the various spin-off Angel and Spike books. These aren't licensed properties trying to cash in on potential crossover appeal, they are the evolution of the story into another medium, guided by the original creators and caretakers of the property.
All of which brings me to Halo. I was excited to see Bungie and Marvel decided to release this book as a standalone graphic novel since I find it much easier to introduce a new reader with a complete story rather than part one of 6 (especially when there's no guarantee when part two is coming). This is another example of a property transitioning from one medium to another under the supervision of the primary creators (my understanding is that Bungie pretty much brought the completed graphic novel to Marvel to publish). On the day of release we had two new customers come in specifically for Halo not to mention a few of our regulars adding it to their other purchases. It's a bit disheartening to hear that Halo will continue as an ongoing monthly since I think the format works particularly well in this case, but hopefully by using the graphic novel as an introduction it will be possible to transition those new readers into following the monthly book. Otherwise, they can simply wait for the inevitable trade. Either way, we've gained five new customers in the last week from just Serenity and Halo, four of whom left with more than just the one book and impressed by the store.
It's not the almost guaranteed weekly sale of an Astonishing X-Men trade or hardcover.
It's his contributions to the hilarious first couple season's of Roseanne.
It's not even my guilty pleasure love of the Buffy movie.
No, its the fact that in the span of 45 minutes on Sunday we had two women (entirely new to MacGuffin) separately walk into the store, spend 15-20 minutes browsing and purchase Serenity while asking my thoughts on Whedon's other comics work before leaving, excited about their visit (particularly the new to them information that Buffy was getting an 8th season in comic form).
This is what we need more of, true crossover comics that succeed for both new and long term fans. Joss Whedon is a name that fans will follow to just about any project, particularly those that are similar to his previous work. I have yet to encounter a single individual who was a fan of Buffy or Firefly that has not purchased or read the Serenity book. From there it's an incredibly short hop to Fray and Tales of the Slayer not to mention the various spin-off Angel and Spike books. These aren't licensed properties trying to cash in on potential crossover appeal, they are the evolution of the story into another medium, guided by the original creators and caretakers of the property.
All of which brings me to Halo. I was excited to see Bungie and Marvel decided to release this book as a standalone graphic novel since I find it much easier to introduce a new reader with a complete story rather than part one of 6 (especially when there's no guarantee when part two is coming). This is another example of a property transitioning from one medium to another under the supervision of the primary creators (my understanding is that Bungie pretty much brought the completed graphic novel to Marvel to publish). On the day of release we had two new customers come in specifically for Halo not to mention a few of our regulars adding it to their other purchases. It's a bit disheartening to hear that Halo will continue as an ongoing monthly since I think the format works particularly well in this case, but hopefully by using the graphic novel as an introduction it will be possible to transition those new readers into following the monthly book. Otherwise, they can simply wait for the inevitable trade. Either way, we've gained five new customers in the last week from just Serenity and Halo, four of whom left with more than just the one book and impressed by the store.
posted by Sam Hobart at 3:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home