Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 4 of 38  Cover, Transformers 2 (Fleetway, 1995), a comic about toy robots. Art: Anon. TV also provided a rich seam to be mined. Unarguably the biggest success in this respect was Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (Fleetway, 1990) which fed from the publicity surrounding the hit animated series of the same name, and which at one point had a print run of 700,000. This was a tale for youngsters about four turtles with martial arts skills ('heroes in a half-shell'), who combat crime from their base in the sewers. In actual fact, the idea originated in a comic (a small-scale, American, independently produced satire for adults), but was re-conceived for a children's audience: as such it became the basis not just for the TV show and the Fleetway comic, but also for a massive toy merchandising campaign and a series of big budget live-action movies (see also pp 174-5). Later, animated shows like 'Ren and Stimpy', "The Simpsons' and 'The Batman Adventures', all had comics devoted to them in British editions, while live action series like 'Power Rangers' and 'Red Dwarf also led to spinoffs. Slightly more imaginatively, but still with something of a sense of desperation, the comics companies turned to computer games and toys. The most successful spinoff from the former was Sonic the Comic (Fleetway, 1993), about the character 'Sonic the Hedgehog', while there were also a number of titles to tie-in with 'slugfest' martial-arts-style games such as 'Streetfighter' and 'Mortal Kombat' (which themselves became movies in due course). Comics which piggybacked on to the toy market included: Transformers (Marvel UK, 1984), about a group of robots (which also became an animated TV series); and less successfully, Sindy, which brought the girls' doll to life; and Action Man, which did the same for the boys' 'GI Joe' toy (both Tower Magazines, 1995). Marvel UK were undoubtedly the publisher most seriously involved with the toy industry, leading one exasperated commentator to write: 'They have opted to become an extension of the toy companies' public relations departments. They let the companies buy up the Saturday morning TV advertising, and when it gets profitable enough, they buy the license and start to clean up. It's all Transformers, Zoids, Masters of the Universe and the bloody Getalong Gang. The quality or even the content become unimportant when you've got the name of the latest hyped-up toy all over the shiny covers ...' |