The Four Color Media Monitor

Games Radar says there's another comic debuting based on a video game, but, there's a drawback or two:

The Horizon Zero Dawn comic book follow-up will be launching on August 5, Titan Comics has revealed.

Horizon Zero Dawn #1 will go on sale in both comic stores and digitally for $3.99 [...]

Co-created by one of the game's original writers Anne Toole and with art from Ann Maulina, the comic takes place with a new story after the events of the PS4 game, with Aloy and Talanah set to star. As first reported in The Hollywood Reporter, the comic is set to tell Talanah's tale, as she grapples with the disappearance of Aloy, as well as investigating a new threat that has sprung up in the Wilds.

The important part here is that we have a video game whose primary developer was a woman, something the PC crowd is bound to obscure and dismiss. And I think it's great some consider these computer games perfect wellsprings for adaptations. But the downside here is the 4 dollar price, and, as noted more by Push Square:

We've seen the cover of the comic already, but it turns out it's just one of several variations. Courtesy of GamesRadar, we can now see the alternative artwork for Aloy's debut on the printed page.

But that's another problem. Why do only so many publishers, no matter the quality of their work, insist on perpetuating the multiple variant cover approach? Surely that doesn't confirm they lack faith in drawing a huge audience? Unfortunately, it does, and as always, it's a shame, no matter how good the multiple art portraits are. In an era like this, it'd be better to save money by just sticking with one cover. If publishers were to take up the advice I've made why paperback/hardcover is better, they could take advantage of a better alternative: put those variant illustrations into the paperbacks as bonus material, much like some Marvel collections of Silver/Bronze Age comics have copies of the black and white drafts for the older material. Or, market them as wall paintings for the house and art galleries. We're still years past the time when variants went out of control, and nobody wants to try that advice.

Making comics based on computer games is fine. But variant covers remains a very troubling issue from a financial and marketing perspective. It really doesn't do the illustrations justice.

Labels: indie publishers, licensed products, sales, technology