Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, international pop star Lady
Gaga and "Twilight" actor Taylor Lautner aren't typical comic book
protagonists, but they've all starred in recent releases from Bluewater
Productions. Since 2008, the Vancouver, Washington-based publisher has
carved out a niche producing unauthorized biographical comic books of
public figures.
"We saw how during the election that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton
were being treated really unfair in the public eye, and so what we
wanted to do is really showcase them," says Bluewater Productions
president Darren G. Davis of what initially inspired his company to
produce the bio comics, adding that they fit well with the theme of "female
empowerment" established by his superhero characters "10th Muse"
and "Isis."
"So we did those, and they just took off like gangbusters," Davis
said in a telephone interview.
Michelle Obama to Taylor Swift
Bluewater's output previously consisted of licensed properties and
original characters. Following the success of the Palin and Clinton
comic books, announced during the 2008 presidential election and
released in early 2009, Bluewater initiated its "Female Force" line,
profiling female political figures and celebrities, including Michelle
Obama, Barbara Walters and Ellen DeGeneres.
This inspired "Political Power," a series dedicated to politicians
regardless of gender; and "Fame," the company's newest imprint,
spotlighting figures of current pop culture fixtures like Lady Gaga and
Taylor Swift.
That puts Bluewater at three biography comics a month, though Davis
points out it's still less than half of what they publish.
Though sales are modest — Bluewater didn't have a comic in the top
300 for April 2010 based on sales estimates — the company has
regularly received an impressive amount of mainstream media attention
for their celebrity biographies. MTV and MSNBC covered the Lady Gaga
comic. And that's kind of the goal.
Mass audience appeal
Davis has a background in entertainment marketing, working for E!
Entertainment Television for five years, and he is specifically
targeting people who wouldn't normally wander into a comic
book store, but might be persuaded to stick around once they do.
"What the biography comics really do is bring new readership in to
people who have never been to a comic book store," Davis said. "We do a
lot of signings where we have 50, 60-year-old women coming into the
stores, buying these 'Female Force' comic books, and then turning around
and buying 'Spider-Man'
for their kids."
Jermaine Exum, manager of Acme Comics in Greensboro, North Carolina,
has seen this strategy work in his store.
"Some offerings do serve to get people in the door that would not
have been there otherwise," Exum told Newsarama. "Or catch the eye of
someone who is in the store with a comics fan."
Questions of quality
Even if Davis is approaching this venture with truly noble
intentions, his company has seen a great deal of criticism from both
mainstream and comic book industry press. Charges range from the
unauthorized nature of the comics leading to poorly researched material,
alleged non-payment of freelancers, Bluewater capitalizing on the
success of others rather than their own original ideas, and general
concerns about the quality of the comic books themselves.
Earlier this month, Rush Limbaugh questioned the accuracy of his
Bluewater biography on air. Jezebel, a female-targeted blog owned by
Gawker Media, reviewed preview images of Bluewater's Lady Gaga comic
this month under the headline "Good Idea, Gruesome Execution." That same
week, comic book commentary site ComicsAlliance poked fun at
Bluewater's Limbaugh biography, calling their research process "taking a
quick look through Wikipedia and then expanding it out to 28 pages."
Johanna Draper Carlson, author of comic book review blog Comics Worth
Reading, has been one of Bluewater's harshest critics, accusing them of
"milking politics" with their biography comics. She's especially
skeptical that these comics could lead to new fans of the medium.
"I'm afraid that anyone drawn in because, say, they're a fan of Lady
Gaga would be so turned off by what they got that it wouldn't be a net
benefit for comics," Carlson writes via e-mail. "It could confirm the
outdated stereotype of comics being sub-literate and for the
uneducated."
Davis is certainly aware of this type of criticism.
"I don't have a thick skin," Davis says. "People say that we're
whores, and bottom-feeders, and that we're just out trying to make money
off of these celebrities."
Countering criticism
Davis contends, however, that his company reaches out to every
subject of a biographical comic, even if the books aren't produced with
the subject's participation. He said Bluewater donates a percentage of
the comic book's proceeds to a non-profit of the celebrity's choice, or
runs ads within the comic for the selected charitable organization.
Noted animal lover DeGeneres, for instance, recommended Bluewater donate
a percentage of the profits to the Humane Society of the United States.
Davis said the upcoming biography of Charlaine Harris, the author of
"The Southern Vampire Mysteries," the book series that inspired HBO's "True
Blood," is "technically our first authorized one," since Bluewater
is working one-on-one with the writer.
Davis is also quick to defend the research behind the books.
"People think we just take Wikipedia and kind of go with it, but
that's not the case," he said, explaining that the writer of the Oprah
Winfrey bio comic interviewed the talk show host's father as part of the
process.
"We do so much research, fact-checking," Davis said.
Though the criticism clearly bugs Davis, he's still optimistic that
Bluewater is reaching their goal of getting new people interested in
comic books. And Bluewater comics are popping up in some pretty
surprising places, suggesting there's some serious mainstream appeal.
"We're sold in Jo-Ann Fabrics," he said. "That's success to me."
