ESSAY // 11.21.02

POPSTARS: THE COMIC BOOK
By Lawrence Rider

Popstars, odious and irritating television show that it is, has captured the hearts of an entire nation, launching short-lived but highly successful music careers that make frankly ludicrous sums of money. And more importantly, equally successful shows that have infected other countries (including the USA's American Idol show this past summer).

It's all been achieved by abusing wannabe stars and crushing their dreams; turning a rabid public loose with the power to affect the poor bastards professional lives. And it's entertaining. There's nothing the public likes more than a good lynching.

Well, maybe a public execution, but you have to wait a while for one of those to come along these days. (About 12 months if the current Popstars implosion record is anything to go by.)

What does this have to with comics, I hear you cry? Bugger all on the face of it. But recently Marvel were involved in what could be described as a kind of mini-Popstars.

U-Decide.

U-Decide took one ailing title, after some harsh words about lack of support from the writer, and relaunched it alongside two new titles. All three were given six months to prove their worth. From this were spawned CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol. X or whatever, MARVILLE and ULTIMATE ADVENTURES.

The premise was simple. Three different creative teams each vying for the top sales. Each book needed to find a way to sell itself, and it was quickly found that the content was not the most important aspect.

Wars of words broke out, gimmick covers were brought back and the virtues of the titles were screamed from the rooftops of the Marvel offices. The hype machine kicked into overdrive, and Marvel took part in what was one of the largest promotional campaigns that had been seen for quite some time.

Not content to just announce the idea and leave it lying until a few weeks before the releases Marvel continually plugged the books, not missing a single opportunity to let the public know that they were coming out.

And everyone knew about it. Everyone could name the titles, the creative teams and the basic premise of the books. And while many professed to be bored with the constant back and forth and blatant self-promotion, it worked.

Orders on CAPTAIN MARVEL were higher than previous issues, and the two new titles debuted in respectable positions. In the face of this apparent success there is only one question left to ask.

Why doesn't this happen more often?

This leads me to propose Comicstars, a new spin on an old idea. Take a selection of new talent, drawn from the large pool of aspiring comic creators. Put them into teams, and let them go.

Ten wannabe groups of creators, set against each other with a basic brief. Each group must create a five-page story to be hosted online, which the readers will vote for. Five teams will make it through to the next round.

Round 2, the teams are let loose on a twelve page story, which the public votes on again. Only two survive.

In round three, the teams have to create a twenty-two page pilot issue of an ongoing series, this time to be published by traditional means. The website and voting methods would be listed in the book, and the public would vote again. The winner gets an ongoing series, guaranteed twelve issues minimum run.

Creative teams involved in this, especially if executed in true Popstars style using unknowns, would most likely be willing to work for free on the first round, maybe even the second round, primarily because the creators in question would gain free exposure.

The publicity for the company involved would be huge. Comic readers would be talking about it, and actively taking part in it. Even those who disliked the idea would be forced to publicise, because it would be what people want.

It would be fun. It would be new and different. It would have a potential crossover audience, if marketed correctly. All of these are things that are sorely needed in the comic industry today.

Another side effect of this process would be to reinforce the idea of comic creators as personalities. If readers find that they like a particular writer artist for than just their creative abilities then they are quite likely to be more inclined to follow that creators career.

The cult of personality that exists today with writers and artists like Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis and Jim Lee would be reinforced, leading to a greater awareness of upcoming projects, a possible increase in pre-orders and maybe even greater sales on backlist items.

For the company(s) involved it would be a win-win situation. Massive exposure for the entire line, potentially high selling new books, a new pool of fresh talent to draw from and, most importantly of all form a business perspective, money. Lot's of it. Enough at least to justify the venture as PR exercise, and certainly the potential for increased revenue in the long term.

Let's flick back to Popstars now. There's been running commentary for over a month now, updates, arguments, voluntary withdrawals, slaggings off from the judges and Christ knows what else. Business is good.

Let's bring some of that to comics. Let's bring bitchiness, backstabbing and one-upmanship to a bitchy, backstabbing industry. It should get along quite nicely

Comicstars then. Careers could be made (and potentially destroyed) and valuable new blood could be injected into the industry. It would be a valuable inroad to the industry now that many companies have closed their doors to unsolicited submissions.

The most important thing would be that it would be entertaining, and memorable. It would be a true comics event to get people talking again.

And just in case people are paying attention out there, I'd like to copyright this idea. Simply so I can cash in too.

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