'Dr. Horrible' Comic Goes For Origin Story

‘Dr. Horrible’ Comic Goes For Origin Story

by Joshua Cohen on November 6th, 2009

The winner of my Coolest Cross-Media Promotion of a Web Series award goes to GOLD. The online program about a group of professional role players who play collectible card games recently produced its own character card game. GOLD, the CCG features 20 of the series’ most popular characters and gameplay based upon actual show events. It’s the perfect mix of fundraising, marketing, and meta.

The almost winner of my Coolest Cross-Media Promotion of a Web Series award goes to Dr. Horrible, which just released some sneak peak shots to Splash Page of its upcoming, highly-anticipated, paper and ink comic book. Published by Dark Horse and written by Zack Whedon, the one-shot issue “establishes how a young, impressionable, but brilliant Dr. Horrible was drawn into a world of crime” and recounts the first encounter with his soon-to-be archnemesis, Captain Hammer.

Whedonesque readers know that this isn’t the first Dr. Horrible prequel, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic written by Zack Whedon, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic and Dark Horse collaboration, it’s just the first one you’ll be able to physically hold in your hands. In the past 18 months, Zack Whedon wrote three digital comics for MySpace’s Dark Horse Presents, including Captain Hammer: Be Like Me!, Moist: Humidity Rising, and Penny: Keep Your Head Up (all of which are preludes to the events seen in the Sing-Along Blog).

The 24-page hard copy comic will set you back $3.50 (which is what comic books cost these days) and hits the shelves on November 18. Stop into your friendly neighborhood Dark Horse retailer or pre-order yours here.

It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to have a last name like Whedon or a hookup at an established comic book publisher to get your own comic made. Check out what the creators of Defenders of Stan produced with some skills and some Comixpress.

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Comments

Tim Street - November 7th, 2009 12:29 pm

Looks like transmedia is going to play a big role in entertainment moving forward. I think the interesting thing will be seeing which media buckets work best to promote and increase sales of other content.

Right now we are giving away a lot of video for free but where is the line drawn?

Producing and distributing a digital graphic novel is a hell of a lot cheaper than creating a weekly web series but can you sell enough PDFs to finance your online video extravaganza? I don’t think you can yet. I am curious if you could create a low cost weekly show – say a video blog – that would be given away for free to build an audience a promote a pay-per-view video.

Could we use the Professional Wrestling model of creating an audience around a free story then building to a pay-per-view climax? I think we are close. We just need a break through web video hit that becomes a household word.

Joshua Cohen - November 9th, 2009 9:27 am

Interesting ideas, Tim. I don’t think the Vince McMahon distribution method can translate online just yet, but I’d be interested to see someone try.

It would be great to know how many ‘Date My Avatar’ (http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009.....s-youtube/) downloads The Guild sold. And what if they would’ve made the video only available for a price? Would those 5.5. million views on YouTube translate into enough paying audience members to fund a few episodes? Or a whole season?

I’m also not sure if comic books or card games can fund a web series, but maybe things like sewing machines can (http://news.tubefilter.tv/2008.....e-ships/).