This week we’re going to begin a two-part look at two DC Comics promo campaigns I worked on at the farthest reaches of my time at DC. One I’m still very proud of, and the other, well…not so much.
In 1996, not long after I started at DC, the company’s editorial structure was split along two lines: DC (not the DC Universe – that would come later) and Vertigo. Yes, there were other labels like Paradox Press, but DC and Vertigo dominated the publishing schedule.
At this time, Vertigo was making waves with The Sandman (then approaching its finale), the new series Preacher, and the fledgling science fiction imprint, Helix. DC editorial, then led by the three-headed beast that was Mike Carlin, Archie Goodwin, and Denny O’Neil, was riding high on the successes of “The Death of Superman,” the Batman “Knightfall / Knightquest / Knightsend” saga, as well as the popular Justice League, Flash, and Green Lantern lines. (Remember when Green Lantern could sustain multiple comics every month?) But the DC editors wanted to stretch their wings and remind fans that Vertigo didn’t have a monopoly on horror heroes.
The four titles launched as “The Dark Side of DC” were Scare Tactics (written by Len Kaminski, art by Anthony Williams), Challengers of the Unknown (written by Steven Grant and Len Kaminski, art by John Paul Leon), Fate (written by John Francis Moore, art by Anthony Williams), and Night Force (written by Marv Wolfman, art by Brent Anderson).
To introduce this mixed bag of new concepts, reimaginings, and relaunches, the decision was made between editorial, sales, and marketing to send retailers bundles of two promotional minicomics called Weird Mystery Tales and More Weird Mystery Tales. Each ran eight pages and measured 5 inches by 6.5 inches, with color covers and black and white interiors. Both were written by me, with art on WMT by Anthony Williams and art on MWMT by John Paul Leon.
If you haven’t guessed yet, these two minicomics are what I’d call the less successful promo items. In Weird Mystery Tales, over a six-page story, Vault of Horror-style versions of the new comics’ editors arrive at DC with a big creepy book. They interrupt an editorial meeting, open the book, and the characters from Scare Tactics (a rock band made up of monsters, in case you don’t remember) and Night Force appear from its pages while the editors crack wise.
More Weird Mystery Tales follows a similar pattern, which members of the Challengers of the Unknown and Fate trying to figure out what happened to the spookified editors.
What these minicomics don’t do is explain what these four new comics are. I’m not sure why we featured the editors so heavily, but since no one has ever bought a comic based on who edited it, it’s safe to say that it wasn’t necessary.
Could I have written six-page comics that promoted these new books more effectively? Probably, yes. If the WMT story started with Baron Winters sensing the eldritch presence of Scare Tactics on a music video, and they jump out of the TV into his mansion, followed by discussion of who they are, what their missions are, along with some scary allusions…yeah, that might have been a little better.
Really, we should have made four mini comics, each focused on one of the series with some story pages, sketches, and maybe a Who’s Who in the DC Universe style profile page. That’s the kind of content you get in a promotional minicomic these days. And each of the four minicomics should have been called something like Challengers of the Unknown Promotional Comic. Not exciting, but that way at least you’d know what they were all about. At the very least, we should have called them The Dark Side of DC. I’m really not sure why Weird Mystery Tales made any sense here, unless it was to protect copyright, but even so, what exactly was the point?
Also, pro tip — if you’re promoting color comics via a comic book story, make that story color as well.
The four new series ran from 12 issues (Night Force, Scare Tactics) to 22 (Fate), with Challengers of the Unknown in the middle at 18. I can’t imagine that a better minicomic campaign would have made a big difference in their longevity, but it might have helped.
When Paul Levitz, DC’s Executive VP and Publisher at the time, saw the minicomics, he told me he didn’t think they worked but didn’t say why. I’d guess he hadn’t give it enough thought to know exactly where it all went wrong, although it seems obvious to me now.
Next: Things get considerably better as we jump ahead nearly 25 years (gulp!) to DC Future State.
I remember, when I started working on the monthly Marvel catalog, we had two documents each month to send to distributors/retailers.
One was called the Marvel Order Form. That was the catalog.
The other was called the Marvel Ordering Form. That was the order form that accounts filled out.
Every conversation ever about the two of them involved saying, several times, "I mean the Ordering Form, not the Order Form..."
So I asked, "Can I change the name of the Order Form to 'The Marvel Catalog'? And the Ordering Form to "The Order Form'?"
I got a "Holy shit why did no one do this before" look, and from then on it was much easier to tell what we were referring to.
Within a year or so after I left, the Catalog was renamed SALES TO ASTONISH and numbered to make it collectible. I thought that was cute, but goddamnit, call it a catalog! You're selling comics, not selling the catalog.
Anyway, yeah, I get you on that WEIRD MYSTERY TALES thing. Any time a publisher does a TM-saver title like that, I want to ask them, "Is this a title worth protecting, or are you going to wind up selling fewer copies just so you can use an old title?"
kdb