Comics / Comics News

The Comic Company: Direct Marketing with Style

By The Editor
November 9, 2010 - 05:15

In 1987 the Comico graphic novel The World of Ginger Fox was wowing readers with its action, adventure and style. Lucky for us all this brilliantly executed work is available in serialized form right here at CO2 Comics where it is updated weekly!

Ginger Fox attracted a lot of attention because, not only was it written by Mike Baron, one of the top talents in comics it was illustrated by a young and outrageously gifted Mitch O’Connell who’s work was already infiltrating pop culture.
Mitch’s art had a signature style that had already caught the eye of Playboy magazine and propelled Ginger Fox into a larger arena than the Direct Market could provide at the time.

A creative director at Jordan Marsh, which was a big department store chain in New England but has since been absorbed by Macy’s, took notice and evolved a plan to turn a negative into a positive.

Jordan Marsh had been heavily criticized in the press for a “Jack and Jill” themed ad campaign that many felt targeted white’s only and slighted other races in their demographic. They needed to patch things up with their minority shoppers.

The idea was to create a comic that had the feel of “Archie” with a multi-cultural cast to support the Jackson and Jillian characters. The characters would be presented in numerous situations that would allow for wardrobe changes where they would model the outfits that were being sold in Jordan Marsh’s Style-o-rama department for young men and women. Text boxes with pointers would be used to describe the products and their prices.

The call rang out to Comico. We knew how to get Mitch and we knew how to make comics that looked great. Who else would you call, Ghostbusters?

I flew up to Boston a few times to work out the details of the campaign and I wrote the script. Mitch of course provided the art which was colored by Linda Lessman.
L. Lois Buhalis provided the lettering and Maggie Brenner had the editing chores.

This was to be Jordan Marshes fall catalog and though it had a playfully spooky theme to the story it was not particularly about Halloween.

The finished product was stunning and was used as a direct mail ad to be distributed to mailboxes throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. (Sorry Vermont!)

The effectiveness of the mailer was questioned by the venders of the outfits who would have rather seen actual photos of their products but Advertising Age magazine, the leading source for news in the advertising industry, awarded it as one of the best Direct Marketing campaigns of 1987!

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12