Back Issue #55, April

Comic book publishing is a business. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Granted, it’s an entertainment business much like movies or video games. The world would not suddenly fall into ruin if comic books weren’t published, but it sure would be a much more boring place.

As a business a comic book company has to make money in order to survive. If a title does poorly it’s dropped from the publishing schedule. Often comic book companies will do tie-ins. Should a movie(s), TV serie(s) or novel(s) prove especially popular with the public comic book companies often adapt such material into comic book form. Complete series can result from the tie-ins. Although the comic book publisher has to pay royalties the profit made from said books can determine if a publisher sinks or swims.

Tie-ins are a huge part of today’s comic book industry. Dark Horse and IDW publish a number of tie-ins each such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc. Some comic book properties become successful movies or TV series and the title(s) on which they are based jump in readership and sometimes spawn additional titles (Hellboy being a case in point).


TwoMorrows Publishing’s Back Issue #55 looks at some of the more successful movie, book and TV show tie-ins. Licensed comics include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Man From Atlantis, and The Twilight Zone adaptations.


The magazine examines each adaptation, the writers and artists involved (along with original art), publishers and the success of each title. Star Wars is given the lion’s share of coverage with Indiana Jones in a close second. All of the articles make for interesting reading and I got a kick out of looking at the original art both in pencil and ink forms.