Comic Books: Marketing Leads to Creative Storytelling

Today I offer this delightfully informative blog post by Kendall Whitehouse (Wharton School’s tech and media blogger) about transmedia and how it relates to marketing and publicity for comic books.

Transmedia: this is a term I’ve only seen around for a few years, and I haven’t been to any panels or done in-depth research yet; however, it’s a concept that appeals to me on multiple levels. Anything that crosses platforms has the potential to feel more real and more interesting. Whitehouse’s blog post is what’s finally inspired me to gain better understanding of the concepts of transmedia.

It’s interesting to note that CZP’s campaigns for Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies (NVPFZ) and Rasputin’s Bastards both enter this realm. (As a reminder, I was at one time affiliated with ChiZine Publications and so almost certainly hold bias on this topic!) James Marshall, author of NVPFZ, has a blog that’s mentioned in the novel by Guy Boy Man – the protagonist – and is also an actual website which is in part “authored” by Guy Boy Man. There are also NVPFZ twitter events, blog interviews and more – crossing media in fun and interesting ways. (And don’t forget the Zombie Acceptance Test! The ZAT tells you whether you’re cut out to be a zombie or zombie food.)

I particularly enjoy the Rasputin’s Bastards website, WhatIsCity512.com. Take a look through the video elements, the CSIS files and the articles. There’s a Facebook page that you can follow, too. There are more interesting things coming for Rasputin’s Bastards in the future, though you’ll just have to wait and see. By the way, one of my personal favourite things that was done for this campaign was the teaser trailer, which can be found here.

I’m starting on a project soon that has me revisiting these transmedia ideas. Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section.

(Originally posted at http://www.elsewords.com and slightly edited to bring it up to date.)