Family Circus movie (facepalm)

[minor muppetz]

It's when you go the Jim Davis route and start letting them plaster your characters everywhere from tampons to toilet paper that it starts to get questionable.

I haven't really noticed much Garfield merchandise in the last year (only books and DVDs). I haven't neccessarily been looking for Garfield merchandise, but if the strip was over-licensed I should have seen a lot of stuff without looking for it.

When I read about Bill Watterson's lack of interest in merchandising I wondered, "what about the various book collections?" I guess that's different or he doesn't have controll over how the strip is released (then again, he did write liner notes in the 10th anniversary collection, and some of the big color Calvin and Hobbes books had original material). I've also read that there were a few official Cavin and Hobbes products early on, I think one was an educational book or something. Having said that, it's a shame he wouldn't at least license the characters onto school supplies.

I must also say, in the 10th anniversary book, Watterson says that licensing the characters would affect the "innocence of a six-year-old boy". And I think, what innocense? He has a distructive imagination, he often complains and causes trouble for authority... Not exactly innocent.

Also, I find it ironic that the tenth anniversary book came out so soon to when the strip ended. I don't think Watterson even mentioned any plans to end the strip in that book.

Hmm, I don't really want the thread to go off-topic from its original topic. Are there any existing threads on this forum about Calvin and Hobbes?

Speaking of artists licensing their characters, I wonder, and I might not be able to get an answer here, how much does the average successful comic strip artist make a year without the extra cash from merchandise sales? And have there ever been any Family Circus toys?

 

[D'Snowth]

It's almost similar to how Jim felt about merchandising; we all know he was initially reluctant to license his characters for merchandising, but he knew that at the same time, having proceeds and kickbacks from sales and such would help maintain and finance the company... now, that's probably not quite the same case when it comes to doing comic strips, but in some cases, merchandising is a necessary evil.

Of course, believe it or not, back in the old days, there were actually practices and standards that prohibited such merchandising, especially as far as kids are concerned... y'know, because even back then, parents thought advertising products to kids was evil.

 

[Drtooth]

I haven't really noticed much Garfield merchandise in the last year (only books and DVDs). I haven't neccessarily been looking for Garfield merchandise, but if the strip was over-licensed I should have seen a lot of stuff without looking for it.

Garfield's heyday was the 80's and 90's, where there was a LOT of merchandising. I actually have some old Garfield stuff that had his early 80's appearance. Somehow, I haven't really seen any Garfield stuff since those awful movies (not the DTV ones). Except Jim Davis let them license a comic book for the first time in Garfield's 34 year history, under the stipulation that Mark Evanier writes it. And quite honestly, as I said before, he does a better job with Garfield than Davis does. The only other Garfield merchandise I know of is T-shirt and prints on the Garfield website.

Now, Peanuts I see an abundance of merchandising everywhere I look. Not just perennial stuff. It's not that I haven't seen Peanuts stuff before, but it really seems like there's been a Renaissance of Peanuts products.

 

[minor muppetz]

Now, Peanuts I see an abundance of merchandising everywhere I look. Not just perennial stuff. It's not that I haven't seen Peanuts stuff before, but it really seems like there's been a Renaissance of Peanuts products.

I haven't really noticed there being more Peanuts merchandise than there had been in the past decade, though I do notice the Peanuts merchandise.

 

[D'Snowth]

Peanuts merchandise seems almost exclusive to Hallmark... I mean, I usually can't walk into a Hallmark store without seeing Snoopy plushies of varying sizes, in addition to things like snow globes, Christmas tree ornaments, keepsake items, among other things.

 

[robodog]

The only time I seem to see Peanuts merchandise is around Christmas time. CVS usually has tons of Peanuts stuff from November through December.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think, in that sense, Peanuts have become victims of Christmas, in that sometimes, something has a project associated with Christmas that's so successful, that soon, the rest of that franchise itself is associated almost exclusively with Christmas.

Dr. Seuss could be another example: How the Grinch Stole Christmas is probably his most well-known and popular book and special (you would think The Cat in the Hat), and because of that, the only time of year you get to see any of the other animated specials is on ABC Family during their annual 25 Days of Christmas celebration, even though the others aren't Christmas specials.

 

[Drtooth]

Peanuts merchandise seems almost exclusive to Hallmark... I mean, I usually can't walk into a Hallmark store without seeing Snoopy plushies of varying sizes, in addition to things like snow globes, Christmas tree ornaments, keepsake items, among other things.

There's a LOT more t-shirts and kids books and the like than usual. The T-shirts are basically current slang and an "every day I'm, Shuffling." Not to mention the first licensed comic book since the Whitman/Gold Key era. I'm sure when that movie rolls around, we'll see more. it's not really a huge come back, just a pretty sizable uptick.

 

[mimitchi33]

I'd really like to see this movie, it sounds interesting.

What I'd like is a CGI US Acres movie, DTV or something... and get as much of the main cast as possible back. They'd need to find a replacement for Howard Morris, though. I'd probably say Tom Kenny would do a decent job for Wade.

I'd like that to happen, too!

Also, another comic strip that got an animated adaption was Marvin, that comic strip made for mothers, but it was a TV special.