I read an interview years ago with Garry Trudeau, who said his opposition to merchandising was perfectly captured when a fan asked him if there were any Doonesbury "by-products". And Bill Watterson said he didn't want the nature of Hobbes's being decided by a stuffed doll.
I think Dave is correct that merchandise distracts from the book. I would include variant covers in the same category. If you want your work taken seriously as art, don't yourself treat it like a child's toy.
Ah Damian, Isn't that the rub, present company excluded, comics were/are created for children. Given the current pricing structure of comics that's probably not the case anymore.
Wasn't there an outside chance back in the day when the first TMNT action figures (toys) came out that Cerebus would make an appearance in that line?
If I remember correctly (and that becomes a bigger if every day,) the Cerebus TMNT figure was a nonstarter because Dave wanted a really low production run (like 3000 figures) and only wanted them available for a limited time (like three months) .
Setting aside that that isn't how toy sales work (there might not be any figures on the shelves in three months, but there's no way retailers are gonna pull them just because some guy in Canada wants them to), Playmates was probably selling tens (if not hundreds,) of thousands of the various Turtle toys. ANd this was back in the late 80s, before anybody ever thought up the term "variant chase figure".
4 comments:
I read an interview years ago with Garry Trudeau, who said his opposition to merchandising was perfectly captured when a fan asked him if there were any Doonesbury "by-products". And Bill Watterson said he didn't want the nature of Hobbes's being decided by a stuffed doll.
I think Dave is correct that merchandise distracts from the book. I would include variant covers in the same category. If you want your work taken seriously as art, don't yourself treat it like a child's toy.
-- Damian
Ah Damian, Isn't that the rub, present company excluded, comics were/are created for children. Given the current pricing structure of comics that's probably not the case anymore.
Wasn't there an outside chance back in the day when the first TMNT action figures (toys) came out that Cerebus would make an appearance in that line?
Michael
Michael,
If I remember correctly (and that becomes a bigger if every day,) the Cerebus TMNT figure was a nonstarter because Dave wanted a really low production run (like 3000 figures) and only wanted them available for a limited time (like three months) .
Setting aside that that isn't how toy sales work (there might not be any figures on the shelves in three months, but there's no way retailers are gonna pull them just because some guy in Canada wants them to), Playmates was probably selling tens (if not hundreds,) of thousands of the various Turtle toys. ANd this was back in the late 80s, before anybody ever thought up the term "variant chase figure".
Matt Dow
The only piece of "Cerebus junk" I ever owned was an Elrod button that I wore on my denim jacket for a couple of years. Wish I still had it...
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