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1.20.2006

The Hive #1 Recap

For the benefit of those who didn’t participate at The Hive last week I went ahead and summarized some of the ideas we came up with to make comics more accessible to new readers. It was a lively discussion, plenty of publishers, creators and fans stopped by to give their opinions and ideas.

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The Hive Plan #1: Intros and Outros

We have one goal at The Hive – make a new market for creator’s to sell their comics.

It’s a big goal but we’re big thinkers.

Before we worked out marketing and the distribution we needed to redesign our books to make sure they were something this new market will be comfortable with – something that lets them know we appreciate that they’re taking a chance on our medium – something that gives them a sense of the mechanics of sequential art and your story so we, as creators, appear inviting and understanding that they may not be able to jump right in.

Here’s the column that started the discussion. And here are some ideas The Hive came up with:

“Hey Kids, Comics!”

The inside front cover is often overlooked by a seasoned comic reader – we know there’s rarely anything of merit there – just legal mumbo-jumbo and perhaps a repeat of the logo. The inside cover is an ugly place, not prime positioning for strong work, even when we crack a novel the inside cover tends to be blank.

But we can use it for something – a standardized 6-panel, half page public service announcement on how to read comics – the cliff notes of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics – done by a cartoonist and friend to the industry who wants to push our medium into the hands of new readers.

We at The Hive fully realize the 6-panel into won’t teach somebody how to read every lay-out imaginable but that’s not really the point of the PSA. The PSA is to assure new readers that they’re not the only ones who may not understand a layout. That reading a comic for the first time can get confusing but if they tough it out there’s some good story at the end.

Essentially, it lets our new audience know that even we have had problems reading a comic at some point, we acknowledge the issue, and we’re trying to help you through because we want your business.

“The Lost Recap”

We all watch Lost, right? 24, maybe? A lot of cliffhanger style TV shows do a recap of all relevant information needed to fully enjoy the upcoming episode. It reminds the steady viewers where we are and brings the first timers up to speed so they don’t spend the entire episode trying to figure out what’s going on.

Comics have the recap pages. Marvel’s been doing it for years, DC does it occasionally and even some small pressers do it. Our recap pages are essentially chunks of text that precede the story and remind us where we are.

Chunks of text.

We’re a visual medium, why aren’t we doing a visual recap? Cutting and pasting impact panels, laying a narrator over if necessary, essentially taking the “Lost Recap” and slicing it up into panels, not just telling the reader what happened before but showing them, putting them into the story before the new issue starts, showing the cold smile or the even stare instead of telling them the villain was ready to strike.

“Lost Preview”

Again, cliffhanger style TV shows like Lost and 24 have the preview for the next episode to get you excited about it – to remind you to set your Tivo or cancel your plans because next week a character just may die or someone’s life will be changed forever.

Let’s give our readers a preview. Once again, panels from the next issue – impact panels that follow from the conclusion of the current issue and hint at the big revelations and twists you have coming up.

Combine it with some text detailing the options your reader has to get the next issue – not just saying “In comic stores next month!” or “Be sure to preorder” – it likely won’t be in comic stores and new readers won’t know how to preorder. Tell them what to do, every time. Whatever distribution strategies we come up with and you decide to use, no matter how simple they may seem, concisely lay them out for the reader. Not everyone will need detailed directions, true, but they put directions on salad dressing for a reason.

“The New Back Cover”

New readers – they’ve been reading these things called novels before coming to us. I read them occasionally, too – everyone at The Hive does. When we go shopping for novels the first thing we do after picking up a book is flip to the back cover and at least glance over the synopsis. I’ve bought many books based on that back cover alone.

New readers to comics – they might expect the same thing from their back covers and even if they don’t there’s no harm in giving it to them. Maybe an impact panel from the previous issue followed by the details of your story. Something that sets the tone and effectively relays the relevant information of this book in an exciting manner – enough to get them to bring it home with them and give the whole book a shot.

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After two days The Hive came up with all of that. There were other ideas thrown out in the thread but I feel these were the best of the bunch. Some are revolutionary to comics, some are simply new executions of old ideas, but all of them will help you roll out the red carpet to new readers and help keep them in your house for a little while.

Next Thursday we’ll be talking about supplemental content and trying to generate some new ideas for the back ten pages of your 22/32 floppy, if you decide to use it.

Jason at 7:37 AM  |  link to this   

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