Brad Meltzer Promo Juggernaut
- Posted by Johanna on September 12, 2006 at 10:21 pm
- Category: Comic News
First, DC Comics and Warner Books decided to cross-promote Brad Meltzer’s new novel The Book of Fate by publishing a book chapter in a comic.
Reading that press release, the book sounds like a DaVinci Code ripoff. It’s also described as “chock full of plot twists, conspiracies and double crossings that should resonate with comic book fans accustomed to jaw-dropping cliffhangers and deadly secrets”.
If that wasn’t subtly insulting enough in its assumptions about adrenaline-driven readers, here’s the next promotional outlet: NASCAR. Meltzer’s novel is “the first book advertised on the front of a racecar.”
Update: Here’s more coverage from nascar.com, where I got the picture.
September 12, 2006 at 10:49 PM
Oooh new promotional tagline for Meltzer’s stories. “His stories are a car wreck waiting to happen!”
or
“See how (or who) he crashes and burns next!”
September 13, 2006 at 11:42 AM
Hey, hey, remember, you can’t judge a book by its hood decal!
September 13, 2006 at 11:48 AM
And someone who WROTE Nascar comics would know!
(I did remember that right, Nat?)
September 13, 2006 at 3:15 PM
And even if Gertler didn’t, he adapted Speed Racer so that’s close enough!
September 13, 2006 at 6:41 PM
Is it wrong to hope that someone gets up under him and puts him in the wall?
(I know it’s wrong to even know that phrase, but what can you do. CMT is right next to SciFi on COX cable…)
September 14, 2006 at 9:37 AM
I, for one, am proud to be both a comic book and NASCAR afficionado. Remember those great Justice League cars from a few years ago (and the Flash car won, of course). Though I will admit I’m not a particular Metzler fan…
Still, that’s tiny decal that will only be legible in a close-up of the hood — which would only be seen in a wreck — which most likely would destory the hood in the first place.
September 14, 2006 at 10:32 AM
I knew DC had done some superhero deals, but I had no idea that the Flash car won.
Thanks for the insight, Scott. Sounds like the promo value is more in the articles than the actual logo.
September 14, 2006 at 10:55 AM
I knew DC had done some superhero deals…
MAD magazine, too, IIRC. I seem to recall some Spy vs. Spy NASCAR sponsorships a few years back…
September 17, 2006 at 12:04 PM
Heh, heh. DC/Time Warner continue to worship at the altar of the most talent-free god since the golden calf. It’s so bad, it’s good. (No–not his work. That’s just so bad it’s bad. I mean the marketing.)
Wouldn’t it be neat if DC someday ran a feature like GQ does from time to time, pulling features from over a decade ago and pointing to them as “our occasional lapses in judgment?”
June 8, 2007 at 8:55 AM
Ach, just saw months later that I was asked a question here; the answer is yes, I wrote some of the Nascar comics line (the Vortex one, not the new one). And yes, I did do the English script for some Japanese Speed Racer stories (although not quite as many as I was credited for), as well as writing a couple issues of the American series for Now.