Chapter 166: Mixed Bags and Bizarre Coincidences

Amid all the bizarreness of the toy-themed or toy-adapted comic books, who would've thought that a comic book with 'Bizarre' title would stand out?

Well, probably not a lot, since Creed Comics had not announced or advertised their new titles once again.

All the Creed fans knew is that darkened silhouettes were found in the ad pages of last week's single-issue Creed comics and they just needed to find out what it is when the time comes.

Of course, quite a few knew that toy-themed comics were on the market because of all the advertising bombardments but that was the hype's end of that.

The ad bombarders seem to have led to many disappointments instead. The ads were clamoring about how amazing this toy-comic book was and how it stands out compared to the rest.

Meanwhile, the simplistic method of Creed Comics just gave some awareness to a new Creed comic title and nothing else. But how did it win while the others lost?

Naturally, the value of meeting expectations was highlighted from this comparison.

The heavy advertisements gave high expectations and when they finally took the time to flip the pages, why did they feel disappointed at the content? Some contents were decent enough but they still felt like something was missing.

The toy propagandists said that they were amazing and readers can't help but be immersed in it but why can't they find that state at all?

It was just a 'meh' in their opinion with the respective creator teams trying to squeeze out some forced stories from the toylines they are representing.

Some of them were even below the 'meh'-level as they were just plain ridiculous.

People discussing simple Jenga tactics was not fun at all.

Real guns seem to not work against aliens and Nerf blasters are the only way to save the world. It was an interesting read but what kind of toy-selling and forced propaganda is that?

A boy who is not good at making decisions chose to use a Magic 8-Ball instead. It stood out at first but simply fell out at some points.

Frankly, those premises and concepts seem not bad at all but the execution was not quite at point at all.

Barbie and Ken not knowing love and finding love in each other seems like a copycat of a certain popular February comic. Mattel and its chosen publication went far out with that one.

Then there was the kiddy stuff that just didn't appeal to many such as My Little Pony and Care Bears. Sure, those had their potential audience but felt kind of out of place.

Perhaps the ones that had considerable success were comic-established ones like He-Man and the Joes. The comic artists and writers clearly had much more leeway to show their skills with those.

In any case, a lot of expectations weren't met by such a mixed bag of performances. The entire toy-originating comic books became generalzed as unsatisfactory overall.

Anyways, the lows of the toy-comic book coalitions were already locked in that level for the most part.

The quantitative data of market sales that were compiled just made irrefutable evidence to prove those failures.

Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, and all the toy companies that took part in the comic book industry advertisement wave had already started their corresponding damage control procedures to combat the after-effects of the March debuting fiasco.

These companies knew the value of branding and a failure at a certain venture meant damage to their toyline as well.

They seem to not lose heart though and want to try again with a much-improved approach to the image-printed story medium.

Even though they made an embarrassment of themselves and took a collective downgrade from their coalition, not all hope was lost.

Although their bizarreness didn't amount to much, a certain bizarre title did rise up against all that messy releases.

Since JoJo and his supposedly Bizzare Adventures can do it, they why can't they?

Since the Creed comic and toy companies can do it, then they can do it as well. There should be no stopping them from leeching into the ever-present value of the comic book industry.

There would be an ongoing debate whether their extended stay was a good thing or a bad thing though.

If they were set to stay, there was high chance that the mixed bag fiasco would happen again.

What kind of damage would the comic selection be subjected to when their low-quality titles continue to be published?

If it keeps up, then the alarmist game industry crash would probably be not far from the truth.

Of course, there was also a high chance that they would do better. It would mean bolstering the prospects of the entire industry but also welcoming the floodgates of other inter-field cooperation titles and much heavier competition.

Whatever the case, Creed Comics needed to find stable ground in those potential events.

-----

It just so happens that the proprietors of the winning Creed Comics were discussing the March debuting matters as well.

"That was quite a smart move to stick with the simplistic silhouette advertisement." Sullivan praised. It was the right move against all the heavy clamoring that the competitors were doing. "No disappointment was made and the Bizarre protocol performed quite well as it should be.

"You have Mr. Advertiser to thank for that advertisement model." Alexander parried.

"Oh... don't discount the fact that you were adamant on keeping the low-key advertisement model and that Mr. Advertiser of yours wanted to have an advertisement battle."

"Tomatoes, I guess." Alexander simply shrugged the praise off with the simplified tomato enunciation phrase.

Old Creed could only shake his head at Alex's extreme humbleness but also felt inspired. Perhaps he could use an 'extreme humble brags' technique to give his enemies a heart attack?

Jokes aside, Sullivan did have some somberness when it came to the toy company partition. "Alex, what's your take on the pros and cons of having the toy companies roughing up your comic playground?"

"Well, we did rough up their's... so this all makes it even." Alexander continued. "As for the title inflation that they brought up, it might even be conducive to the acquisition and imprint plans I've told you about."

"Indeed. With them bloating things up, monopoly and all the anti-trust lawsuits hopefully shouldn't be a problem anymore." Old Sullivan could only chuckle at that and the ambition that his grandson had. "I'm starting to like JoJo more now. That publication not only won against the bizarre trend but its also giving us opportunities in making the previous giants to be imprints under our banner."

Alexander hadn't really pegged his grandfather to like JoJo in that matter, so he asked in surprise. "I never knew you liked JoJo that much?"

"How could I not when it starts out on my old British home? I do read your other comic books but they're way too American or Oriental." Sullivan sighed with melancholy. "I don't know any noble family with the bizarre Joestar name but I do know some peculiar Brando neighbors."

"Alex, next time you make British villains, have them take the surnames of people that chased us out." Of course, Old Creed's British times weren't all that good, and wanted to give payback as well.

"No problem, grandpa." Alexander timely added. "I just hope that those Brandos don't blame me much for Dio's scheming and evil representation."

"It's okay. The Brandos were probably in cahoots with those nobles as well." The British-themed JoJo was good and all but it seemed to have spurned old Creed's resentments.

Alexander could only be amused at the coincidences though. Hirohiko Araki started in England while moving the next arc to America. Maybe the Joestars and the Creeds are even more quite alike than he thought.