VFX Merchandise Man to the rescue of Comic publishers! -

Merchandise Man to the rescue of Comic publishers!

The Merchandise Man

A customer’s eyes lock on to the Vimanika Comics’ booth from afar at a Comic Con or the Vimanika Comics store, and it reminds those eyes of something. Nostalgia, maybe? Genuine curiosity? Or is it another emotion entirely? To confirm, my eyes lock on to their movement. Customers/Fans? or just curious bypassers – old and young; men and women; excited, frustrated, confused or hopefully hopeful – float toward a Shiva Figurine, a Vishnu Digital painting , a Kali T-shirt, a Narsimha Jacket, a  Hanuman mounted Sketch, a Karna Poster that draws them to us like the aromatic wisps of a windowsill pie, seduce the stomach of a hungry wanderer in those illustrations that we all saw as kids. They admire them for a few minutes before their eyes fall on the comic books i.e. Graphic Novels which were right in front of their line of sight all along and question innocently, “oh, so that is from a comic book?”

That is when I think of the Merchandise Man

The Merchandise Man is my superhero – a charming, powerful individual reserved only for flights in the skies of my secret garden. I call upon him when I am stuck (occasionally all of us are) and he rescues me from disappointing book sales figures or a bad product replacement. He reminds me that comic-books, a field to which I have dedicated all of myself almost all my life to, is a business and in a business as monopolistic as this – when the bad days come, they come to save the day.

I feel merchandise is very important as it was to Marvel when they went bankrupt once upon a time on their way towards the illustrious successful legacy they have created today, there was a point Vimanika found it hard to break in the profits too, lo and behold the M Man came to the rescue! The merchandise is like butter on the bread; where the comics is the bread – the foundation, the merchandise is the cream. The point of contention being, comics become monotonous and merchandise act as a variant to provide the much needed break from the ‘black and white’ of comics.

Comics are the core but we need other collaterals to really get in the moolah, so to say the cash cow i.e. T-shirts/ figurines /Games /Mugs/Posters etc. you get the drift? You see we have not just come in this industry to survive but to profit too!

Vimanika-Comics
Merchandise is a great way to sustain the comic business for publishers

We can still do better with the M-MAN

Fans want more titles and series/seasons of those titles but without merchandise, I don’t suppose they could get churned out for long from any comic publishing house unless they are selling lacs of units annually. Everybody does not read comics but T-shirts is something that everyone wears! They fall in the FMCG category whereas comics are a niche market. Kids love playing Games and the Y-Gen loves to buy figurines and  mobile cases with their favourite comic characters on it.

It is also important to first accept that they are all still art. Mugs, toys, posters, comic book movies and TV shows, T-shirts/Sweatshirts  and Games of those comic book movies and TV shows are made with passion, love and pure respect for the comic books. Owing to the need for these products and the place of these icons in pop culture, the proud geek drinks, wears, binge watches these derivatives gleefully and with pride.

But it has all come at the cost of the very genesis point of the supers. When compared to the Golden and Silver Age (40’s to 60’s roughly) when a comic sold at least ten lakh copies around the world the most popular titles today have trouble breaking the 1 lac barrier. Some of Vimanika’s titles are hailed as “Best of The Year” by reviewers and fans but the numbers continue to be an area of concern. That is precisely the moment my mind’s Merchandise Man helps Vimanika conceive a new t-shirt design or a montage poster. Thanks to the M-Man we pay our bills and please our fans; they cannot wait for more.

Vimanika-Comics-Art
As long as the world will wear clothes, the comic industry will be alive and well, states Karan

Adapt to survive and grow

The issue isn’t a lack of interest in reading. I believe that in the digital age, as with all other interests, reading has evolved and expanded. Physical copies don’t sell much now around the world, and buying digital copies is still a growing phase. Thanks to the internet even a company that started as my boyish dream, can continue winning laurels and churning bestsellers today. The biggest issue from a reader’s perspective is the price and that concern is justified. Writing, art, lettering and the logistics of building the comic book come at a price and the Indian comic book industry puts that price on a book with caution and forethought. The amount you spend on a dinner and a movie is the same maybe even less of an amount we ask you to spend on furthering the hopes and dreams of hungry writers, magician artists and everyone else in between you and them that hope to buy our ‘roti’ with money that we make from doing what we love. There are stories waiting to change your life in those pages; you just have to pick them up to have your life changed.

But our philosophies and dreams will not keep the lights on. Merchandise on the other hand – thanks to its accessibility, style and transformation from casual want to a must have pays for the cool air, bright lights and then some more. I don’t see why the industry needs to be apologetic for what we are doing with the merchandise space. If a Pin Drop Violence Kali Rakshas tee makes you happy, buy it. Spare a thought though for the demon on that tee and his story told in ‘I Am Kalki’.

As long as the world will wear clothes as I mentioned earlier, the comic industry will be alive and well. To the fashion savvy we will sell T-shirts. To the passionate readers we will provide original, introspective stories that will do their best to move you. Some look at merchandising as an endgame for survival. We look at it as another pathway to bringing comics into your life.

All hail The Merchandise Man. We will bring you comic books. He will take care of your wardrobe and your décor. If we all are satisfied, then that is all that really matters in the end, doesn’t it?

(These are purely personal views of Vimanika Comics & Apparels, Founder, Karan Vir Arora and AnimationXpress.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views)

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