Comic Book Junction

Mulling over the imprint-formerly-known-as-Minx, I think back to another line of paperback-sized, bookshelf-format comics: the Acclaim Young Readers line.

The line, launched in 1997 by Acclaim Comics (formerly known as Valiant) had an impressive roster of books to offer:

* Classics Illustrated: Mostly reprints (recolored and relettered) of the classic comic book series, with educational material in the back and beautiful fully-painted covers

* Disney’s Enchanting Stories and Disney’s Action Club: featuring new stories starring all of the company’s top characters (girl-themed and boy-themed).

* Fox Funhouse and Saban’s Powerhouse: Spearheaded by The Tick and Power Rangers, these book ran a number of original comics based on Fox Kids programming.

* Acclaim Adventure Zone: Starring Turok & Ninjak, plus other Acclaim/Valiant properties.

With top licenses and a beautiful product, these Acclaim Young Readers books seemed like a no-brainer.

From the marketing booklet:

What if the world’s most popular, most recognizable and most profitable children’s properties were teamed with the country’s fastest growing, most dynamic comics publishing company?

And how was this line different from your standard run-of-the-mill comics?

We started by creating an attractive, trend-setting new visual storybook format. Wider than a paperback, smaller and thicker than a comic book, more substantial than a magazine. Feels like a book, reads like a comic.

The idea from the beginning was to get the Acclaim Young Readers line into the bookstores, but I don’t think it ever penetrated the market. Initial reports back from those hired to pitch the books to buyers was, to my recollection (I was the assistant editor on some of the line), kind of poor. But from no lack of offered floor displays, shelf extenders, and the like.

But if Acclaim Young Readers never made it into — or made an impact on — the book stores, in the Direct Market they were completely lost. Relegated to the bottom shelves, packed in with the “Kids Ghetto” of comic selections — or even worse, racked spine-out. Unlike the beefy mangas that would make such a splash less than ten years later, the spines on the Acclaim Young Readers line were extremely thin and nondescript. If they had the misfortune to be placed on store shelves like actual books –they were completely invisible & forgotten.

What about the quality of the material itself? Classics Illustrated was definitely a harder sell than anticipated, largely because though “remastered,” the art still looked very antiquated. The licensed material was pretty decent, though editors and talent struggled through the first couple of volumes of each, trying to hit the sometimes near-impossible standard set by Disney & Fox. What Acclaim ended up doing was depend more and more on comic studios overseas, who were trained to knock out picture-perfect replicas of the properties in question, especially Disney’s. As for Acclaim Adventure Zone — the company had a hard enough time selling their own mainstream comics. They were fun stories, though.

Despite poor sales, Classics Illustrated had ambitious plans for 1998: all-original new adaptations, including Pride and Prejudice and Dracula (which, if memory serves me correctly, MIGHT have been slated with Marv Wolfman writing the script), plus Classics Junior, a line of adaptations for younger children. But, as in the case with MInx ten years later, the series, and Acclaim Young Readers in general, was pulled, leaving nearly-finished books and not a few scripts dead in the water.

Was Acclaim Young Readers ahead of its time? Can digest-sized comics for kids other other than manga success?

Well, there’s always Jughead’s Jokes.