From the 1960s to the mid 1980s all the major UK comic publishers used to advertise new comics and free gift issues on television. These snappy ten second ads, usually shown at teatime when children were back from school, were the perfect way to grab the attention of potential readers.
By the 1980s sales of comics had declined too much for such expensive promotions to be economical. Today the internet is a better (and far cheaper) platform for such marketing gimmicks and Titan Magazines are using YouTube to promote their brand new adult comic magazine CLiNT.
Titan aren't the first publisher to advertise comics this way, but it is fairly unique for a British comic from a major company to be promoted like this. What's strange is that other mainstream UK comic publishers haven't already done it, but perhaps now they will.
For those of you who haven't already heard about it, CLiNT is the brainchild of comics writer Mark Millar and the 100 page slick comic mag will feature a mixture of comic strip (some of which has already appeared in America) and articles.
With the involvement of Jonathan Ross and Frankie Boyle the media are already taking notice of the new comic, so expect to see more coverage of it on tv as publication day nears. An interview on BBC Breakfast news is already scheduled.
CLiNT launches on September 2nd and readers in London can attend a special signing of issue one by Jonathan Ross and Mark Millar at 4.30pm at WH Smith at London Victoria Station.
More information here:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27924
Official Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/clintmag
Official Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/clintmag
5 comments:
I'm probably not the first to mention this, but are they sure about that title? In the same way that the cover of SFX magazine is sometimes arranged so that it looks as though it's titled SEX, the title of this comic could look like...well you get the idea.
It's deliberate. The words CLINT and FLICK used to be banned from use in American comics in case the cheap newsprint made the ink smudge.
It's a very old and juvenile gag but the mag is aimed at 16 to 24 year olds so they'll probably think it's hilariously radical.
This is so not my cup of tea and the title immediately rubs me up the wrong way (ooh-er) so it's hard to be objective but their little movie/ad isn't very good, is it? A few minutes in After Effects to side some text around and the promise of strips by Ross and Boyle hardly gets the pulses racing and the cover looks like the recently departed sci-fi mag - Death Ray. I think the more kid-friendly Strip mag sounds more like my thing although I'm not keen on the name.
Sorry, I sound really grumpy.
I knew it reminded me of something Wil. You're right,- Death Ray!
I really have misgivings about the cover design as that style of layout is looking so old fashioned now. I was hoping CLiNT might stand out from the crowd, not blend in with it. Still, I hope it works.
Coincidentally, 2000 AD now have a YouTube channel.
At the moment it is the older trailers, which largely lurked unnoticed and unloved in the downloads section of the site (there was a 2000adtrailers.com site but that didn't last long) and there was no way for them to be spread virally without someone first uploading them to YouTube (which seemed silly to me, so I have been pushing for 2000 AD to get on YouTube until I realised it'd be simpler if I did it for them, after asking permission of course, and then hand the keys over. So there it is).
I'm told there are three new trailers planned to publicise new stories starting this year, so keep an eye open for them.
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