Diamond Dateline is a supplement sent to retailers. It typically only features the “Premiere” publishers, Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse. IDW has never gotten more than a sidebar mention, and never an image run with a mention.
In the October 5 Diamond Dateline, middle of page 2, is a good-sized piece on Fallen Angel #1, with cover image, too. That may well be more coverage than we got for the DC launch.
Now we see whether this translates to retailer response.
PAD
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“There was nothing in any of the preview material that I saw, and I think I saw all the general release stuff, that made this movie look cool. If anything, I was rather underwhelmed by the previews.”
If so, that might explain it. I went to SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW based pretty much on the knockout trailer someone posted on the Web. And then went again based on how much I’d enjoyed it the first time. Can’t say about SERENITY’s ads as I somehow managed to miss them, and people saying “it’s FIREFLY” also did nothing for me as the studion’s screwing up the order they were broadcast killed it for me.
What’s with the beer talk? You guys are hijacking the hijcaking of this thread! 😉
(Not that I’m against beer. I DID go to SUNY Oswego … Although, while there was some selection of more obscure beers such as you connoiseurs might discuss at some of the bars, including a twenty-tap ale house, one was, I must admit, as likely to see a lot of beer in plastic cups 🙂 )
As far as the “Serenity” ads … to be fair, while I was beginning to be concerned that I wasn’t seeing any commercials for it at one point, once I started seeing them, by mid-September, I saw quite a few, especially on ESPN, IIRC. Now how effective those ads were in conveying what a good movie this is – and everyone I’ve heard express an opinion about the movie has really liked it (including the clerk at Waldenbooks, when I bought issue #3 of the comic) (so it did show up some place other than just the comic specialty shops, anyway) – may be another question. Is the essence of Whedon’s writing difficult to capture in a thirty second spot? Maybe; but it does seem like they could have picked a few better clips – to go along with the ubiquitous “Do you wanna run this ship?” “Yes!” “Well … you can’t!” exchange, which still gets laughs in the theater – to try to draw the general public in.
Was “Serenity” released simultaneously worldwide? Could it do well enough internationaly to lead to more films? “Serenity” hasn’t done HUGE box office, but it was the top new film of its weekend, in what seems to be a lull-period in movie-going; hopefully, it will “sleeper” here with the word-of-mouth; with worldwide take, and DVD sales, maybe it can still make enough to lead to some sort of sequel – movie, TV, or direct-to-DVD?
SPOILER ALERT (although,if you haven’t seen it yet – go!)
(Although, I will say that the movie did bring a kind of a resolution to things. I would love to see more of these characters – including the dead ones! Poor Ron Glass – who, if you’ve watched the “How It Was” featurette on Firefly, you know how much he loved the character and show – was hardly even in the movie; though I think I have spotted a photo in the Serenity movie magazine which confirms my suspicion that we’ll have at least one Shepard Book deleted scene on the DVD. Just to comment on the “overlooked” death …. Anyway, the actors would love to go on, just as many of us would love to see them continue, but I think the movie does serve – deliberately, I’m sure – to give us an ending point, one which I could see myself living with.)
(END SPOLIER)
And – read Fallen Angel!!
Not completely related, but still;
Will the entire first series of Fallen Angel be collected..?
As of this point, the first series of “Fallen Angel” remains a cautionary tale to those who simply sit around and proclaim, “I’ll just wait for the trade,” unable to comprehend that if there’s minimal-to-no support on a monthly basis, publishers will just assume there’s no interest and cancel it.
That said, I figure that if the new series is a thumping success, maybe that will light a fire under DC and make them say, “Hunh. Maybe there IS money to be made here,” and collect the original series. Maybe. Big maybe.
PAD
Fallen Angel’s price tag puts me off a little, but after enjoying another recent book after shilling out $4, I think I can manage to find the change. I’d never get a TPB if I didn’t get the first issues at this point, so I’d better support what I like while I can.
After thinking more about Serenity, I do think it was not an easy task to put together a trailer/preview. I think relying on too many of the witty lines was a mistake, though. Galaxy Quest may have done very well with the sci-fi comedy thing, but it had the whole “look, we’re making fun of Trekkies…who doesn’t enjoy THAT?” aspect going for it. Thanks to Star Wars, we’re used to our space opera having overly dramatic previews, full full of eye-popping “WOW…did I just see what I think I saw” scenes. Serenity didn’t have a lot of those moments.
Raising the point of Sky Captain is a good analogy…those previews made the movie look better/cooler than it actually was. A fun movie, and remarkable for its technical achievements, but not the wow, amazing film it seemed to be from the previews.
All of which bears back on Fallen Angel. The quality of your material only gets you so far. If marketing fails to attract the attention of the consuming public, it won’t matter how good your material is, because it’s not going to be around long enough for people to notice. You may get a footnote along the lines of “the best comic you’re not reading,” which is sometimes enough to give struggling TV shows a second chance. But somehwere along the way, you need effective marketing in order to get the sales that guarantee longer life.
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2681478
Hey, Star Wolf, here is a link to the first nine minutes of ‘Serenity’ if you’re interested.
Hi PAD. How necessary is it to have read the first FA run in order to not be confused with the upcoming? I can’t find any trades for the first run. I’m interested in FA with all of the good things that I have been recently hearing. I think that I will give it a try.
Troy,
I can answer that, as PAD’s said many times that you don’t need to have read the originals to be able to pick up and follow the new series.
And — do you want to check it out first? IDW’s making the 1st 11 pages available as a free PDF! I read about it on Newsarama(http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=4e6bda0006724e84908b8b5b2a75e95c&threadid=46708) and I think that’s a great idea for people who don’t know for sure that they’re getting the new book (as I for one will surely do).
If you send an email to letters@idwpublishing.com, and put ‘Fallen Angel pdf’ in the subject line, they’ll send you the file mentioned above. And they’ll do it dámņ quickly (I got mine in, literally, less than three minutes).
“Hi PAD. How necessary is it to have read the first FA run in order to not be confused with the upcoming? I can’t find any trades for the first run.”
As others noted, no, you don’t have to have. And FYI, the trade compliation of the first six issues is still in print. Either order it from some online service such as Amazon.com or Westfield comics, or through your local retailer.
PAD
GAAAAH!
That’s what I have to say after reading the 13 page preview! Gahh, I say!
That little teaser intrigued me more than the end to InCrisis…and that’s actually saying a lot.
Any doubts I had that I’d be picking this up just vanished. Thanks a lot PAD…now my kid’ll go without…well, something that costs about $4 a month…thanks to you. =P