The Wall Street Journal notes that comic strip characters are increasingly being hired in India as spokesmen for products such as Dilbert shilling for cell phone manufacturer Nokia.

“Using such characters as ad faces or endorsers is infinitely cheaper than using real-life celebrities, experts say, and also helps connect with consumers on a note of humor in an increasingly grim economic milieu,” the WSJ’s Live Mint blog noted.

Snoopy, the perennial Peanuts Pitchdog, continues to push insurance products overseas as well as for MetLife here in America while Mowgli, from the Jungle Book, can be seen in holiday-themed ads for Coca-Cola.

R.K. Laxman’s Common Man can be found pushing consumer loans for Asset Reconstruction Co. and Air Deccan.

“The premise for using popular comic-strip characters, experts say, is essentially the same as that for a brand picking a celebrity endorser,” the site notes. “There is an instant recognition, a familiar character connects better with consumers, and the values of that celebrity could have a positive rub-off on the brand.”

“Most comic-strip characters or cartoon characters are very well established,” says K.V. Sridhar, national creative director of Leo Burnett India Pvt. Ltd. “When you see them on screen, you know what’s going to happen. So in that sense, they telegraphically communicate what they are and what they stand for.”

Comic strip characters play better to consumers in India given their superior readership while the WSJ says comic book heroes resonate better for consumers in the United Kingdom and Japan. They’re also cheaper to obtain than living spokesmen. “In some cases, the amount could be a hundredth of what it costs to hire a C-grade celebrity,” Leo Burnett India’s Sridhar said.

“India is a very fragmented media market,” Patil of Amar Chitra Katha told WSJ.

“The creative objective was to visually depict people’s working environments and unique habits to show that Nokia works in the same way as they do,” Devinder Kishore, director (marketing) for Nokia India said. “Dilbert’s character has helped consumers connect with the devices in an engaging and ‘fun’ manner…it is unique and cool, and also a great clutter-breaking tool.”

Max Allan Collins will be writing a third Quarry novel for Hard Case Crime.  On the heels of the recent The First Quarry, Collins will be authoring Quarry in the Middle which the celebrated publisher will release in time for Christmas 2009.

Meantime, Tom Sizemore is portraying the character in director Jeffrey Goodman’s adaptation of Last Quarry, The Last Lullaby which Collins cowrtoe the screenplay. His costar, Sasha Alexander, has already been named Best Actress at the San Diego Film Festival with the film taking the Audience Award.

The film’s website provides the following synopsis:

Price, a former hitman, is struggling to cope with retirement.  He left the assassination business to live the "easy life."  However, retirement arrived with its own agenda.  It was not the instant peace and calm that Price expected.  Rather, it was emptiness, boredom, and, worst of all, restlessness.  The Last Lullaby plummets Price back into his old life and forces him into a corner from which he may never escape.  Price’s old ways no longer work for him when his heart opens, and he finds life beyond his profession.  The tension finally comes to a head as Price must decide to close himself off again or open himself up to a world beyond his control.
 

IDW Publishing is holding its first ever sale of comic books and graphic novels at its San Diego headquarters on Saturday, December 6, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  This is a fantastic opportunity for comic book collectors to scoop up some real bargains and hunt down some rare titles they may have missed, including some limited editions and signed copies – all at bargain prices.  There will be surprises and giveaways with every purchase.

A number of comic book creators will be on hand offering free autographs on their work, including Ben Templesmith (Wormwood, 30 Days of Night), Chris Ryall (Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show, Zombies vs. Robots), and Chris Mowry (Transformers).

The sale gives IDW a chance to thank fans for their continued support and for helping with the company’s phenomenal growth over the past few years.  IDW was recently ranked No. 4 comic book publisher in the United States by Diamond Comic Distributors. 

The sale is primarily intended to free up space in IDW’s warehouse for the company’s expanded and exciting line up of titles in 2009.   

“Our warehouse manager is literally buried,” says IDW’s Chief Operating Officer, Greg Goldstein. “After 10 years of publishing, it’s only natural that the boxes have piled up because of accidental print overruns, books that were set aside as office copies, books intended for reviewers and others earmarked for promotional purposes. Time to get them out of here.”

The sale will be held in IDW’s parking lot, 5080 Santa Fe St, San Diego, CA 92109.

IDW is offering new comics for $1 each (Reg. $3.99 cover). Titles include — subject to availability — 30 Days of Night, Transformers, Star Trek, Wormwood, Spike, Fallen Angel, Dr. Who, Scarface, Gene Simmons, Metal Gear Solid, Clive Barker, Zombies vs. Robots, and CSI.

Trade paperbacks / collections will be $5 each (Reg. $19.95-$24.95 each).

Other books, comics and magazines will be up to 80% OFF cover price.

Most items are brand new; some with nicks and dings.

There will also be some limited edition and signed editions TBD, along with special surprises.

For example:

•         Signed and numbered, limited edition copies of Clive Barker’s Thief of Always (hardcover) only $10!

•         Limited edition Zombies vs. Robots Bertie statue regularly priced at $350 will be reduced to $250.

(All prices are in effect day of sale only and are not applicable online.)

Giveaways with every purchase.

Cash or major credit cards accepted; no checks.
 

A few weeks ago, I discussed the usefulness of active, available archives for webcomics. Archives provide huge amounts of free content to draw in new readers; and they prevent continuity lockout by providing a way to easily go back and refresh your memory of previous events. With print comics, especially before the advent of everything getting collected in trade paperbacks, there really wasn’t a way to avoid that — which is a lot of why Silver Age stories needed to be as self-contained as they were.

Nowadays, people who are flush with cash can always go buy a TPB collection of stories they missed or forgot. Who the heck is this character in the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man? The editor’s note says he first appeared back in Ultimate X-Men #17. All it takes is one trip to Amazon.com, several days for delivery, and then reading time, and I’ll be caught up enough to understand what’s going on in the comic currently in my lap.

Of course, those of us with rent bills to pay have to make do with the lower-cost option: The internet. There are lots of choices to catch up on, say, DC Comics continuity: The DC Wikia, the Justice League Library, Heroes Wiki, and heck, even granddaddy Wikipedia itself.

But you know where you can’t go to figure out what happened in that recent issue of Batgirl you missed, or that Green Lantern plot point from 1988 that recently cropped up? DCComics.com.

Now, don’t get me wrong: If you want to see artwork previews, or check the list of everything that’s in print, or get a short graphic bio of most of the characters, DCComics.com is the place to go. But say you haven’t been following Trinity and want to catch up. If you go to the forum and ask for the best place to do so, they’ll point you to Wikipedia.

Of course, Marvel’s website already has their own version of the wiki and it’s pretty nifty, too.

So here’s my suggestion to DC: You need a wiki. You’ve got an army of fans just aching to show how much they know about the characters and storylines, as evidenced by the other wikis that crop up everywhere. You need accessible utilities that’ll help build a bigger audience, especially among younger people, who don’t have the continuity knowledge to get into most recent titles. You need to drive traffic to your website as effective advertising for your products, and keep people at your website, rather than shunting them off to an outside source. And you’ll want all of this to be under your nominal control.

Here’s how you do it: Acquire the Wikia content (I don’t know the legal channels, but I’m sure you could find them). Hire a few of your most OCD fans (and a couple of the ComicMix contributors come to mind) as moderators. Set a few ground rules (no spoilers for this month’s books, no speculation, no flaming), and let the fans go from there. Link in the original stories, history of the DC and other online content you currently have, and have the last line of the wiki entry for each ongoing book or characters be a link to a preview of the next issue. Heck, if you set up creator/author/artist pages right, you can have an “subtle” way of linking fans of one book to things that they would also want to buy.

Also, everything that currently in print? There should be a “Buy It Now!” icon. Not a tiny, blend-in-to-the-background “Subscribe to your favorite comics” down at the bottom of the page. That’ll also be really easy to transition to digital pamphlets when the time comes and the color ebook readers are ready.

Just because classic print comics and “webcomics” as I define them are different animals, doesn’t mean they can’t take lessons from each other about what works in terms of monetizing web content.

(On the odd chance someone official reads this and goes ahead with this idea, I’d also love to see a Showcase volume of my dad’s work from the 70s and 80s, particularly ‘Mazing Man. Also, a pony.)