Chapter 167: Drama Lays out the Bizarre

As the discussion about JoJo and its prospects ensued, the Creed grandfather and grandson duo speculated amongst themselves and considered how the title could expand in the future.

They've been honing their best abilities to grow money-makers from comic books, so their plans for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and its profit template were already in the works.

Comic book continuation, toy-making, possibilities Jonathan and Dio-catered costumes, peripheral authorization potentials, the upcoming JoJo animation scheduling, and even the possible ramifications and weaknesses that could be exploited. These are all still plans and templates though but the Creed duo's attention to the comic ventures' pros, cons, and expansion was already quite impressive.

Sullivan's little business lessons towards his grandson just moved up to the practical application of things. Anyways, Alexander has been using some other business tactics during his little management of Creed Comics that these business discussions of theirs were just the broadening of perspectives.

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The Creed's future JoJo franchise honing aside, the popularity of the JoJo title at the present had already gotten its much-needed legwork.

With a mass debut of 5 issues like its RoboCop predecessor, JoJo had established itself and grew from there.

Just like all the other Creed titles before them, it had its established reach to the comic reading households with an infectious channel.

For the direct market, the Creed buy train and store hubbub was the very start to make the buyers hooked.

Since a lot of people were buying JoJo's Bizarre Adventure comics, then they had to buy them as well.

In the pervading society, how the JoJo title spread is when the neighbor kids find out that their fellow neighbor kids had that JoJo title.

Of course, the comic discourses being held at school were another catalyst for the new Creed title's infectious spread. Not to discount the fact that relative media would want article fillers so a report on the new comic book trendsetter was a propagating norm.

Those that were hit by those aforementioned propagators would more or less know what JoJo was about or want to buy that less-than-a-dollar story for themselves.

Herd mentality, following what was hip, neighbor kid jealousy, school discourse, relative media coverage, and all that contributed to the rise of Creed Comics' titles and JoJo was the same.

Even though every other product would follow that popularity progression model, Creed Comics had done it so many times that it had become a scary thing.

It was just so methodic, leveled, and effective that market correspondents and societal trend researchers could only applaud.

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Of course, to maintain such consistency in their popularity propagating, product quality and appeal had to be at an established level as well.

Fortunately, Alexander can selectively pick from the best of the best and even improve it as he pleases or wills.

Mr. Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure just happen to be a staple of manga culture he had targeted and tweaked this time around.

Since the Phantom Blood arc is the start of it all, Alexander did not need to deviate from that 1880s England setting and just changed the story progression to his liking.

JoJo #1: Fate opens to a rivalry that echoes across multiple generations and the mysterious stone mask that was the catalyst of it all.

A coach incident just happened to intersect the affluent Joestar family and the cunningly scummish Dario Brando.

Under the watch of the mask, with a noble promise from the Joestar patriarch and the trickery of father Brando, they had inadvertently fated young Jonathan and Dio to meet.

'Jojo #2: The Joestars' highlights the life of the protagonist and set why he is such. Jonathan Joestar is a rich second generation with the bearings of a stumbling but strong-willed gentleman who hopes to prove himself.

On the other hand, 'JoJo #3: The Brandos' had it much harder in life. Just Dario's aggression and wastrel lifestyle led the young man to provide for himself, succeed from that tempering, and ultimately didn't escape the fate of being as cunning and evil as his father.

The 2nd and 3rd issues showcased and extended the motives and backgrounds of the characters in a much effective manner. Jonathan is the one that people aspire to be and Dio is the evil we loathe but also someone we empathize with.

'JoJo #4: Dio the Invader' finally sets off with the clash of opposing characters.

With Dario's death and the noble pledge, Dio sets off to seek refuge under the Joestar household with a darkened heart.

Jonathan meets the guest with a much welcoming start but eventually finds himself bearing the brunt of great malice.

Being much excellent in studies, being better in table manners, being much composed and dignified. Dio had effectively turned the Joestar patriarch against his own son.

Poor JoJo's stable life is on the brink of chaos as Dio seeks to invade it.

Of course, in Jojo #5: Damaging Brawl, the invading Dio didn't stop his scheming means as he sought to put Jonathan beneath him.

In the community brawling huddle, Dio proves himself better with his fighting ability, underhanded eye-knuckling, and social manipulation.

In one single brawling move, Jonathan finds himself bested and had his social life damaged with a simple non-secretive rumor.

Everything was vastly different from the original run and Alexander designed it that way.

With 20 plus pages per issue to work on and armed with many storytelling memories, he had outlined things to be much more fleshed out, less Japanese-y and more England-y, and to be able to tug the reader's emotion.

Everyone who read up on these 5 issues could not help but feel indignation for poor Jonathan's sake while also hating on Dio for taking things too far.

As much as they sympathized with the poor Brando due to his hard life, his devious means only prove to evoke people's disgust for evil things.

Focusing on fleshing out Jonathan and Dio with their respective issues should be helpful enough for the readers to confide in them.

As people read on with the story, no matter how they think upon it, it seemed like a drama story of diametrically opposing men whose goals and upbringing are destined to contradict one another.

One wants to be richer from his poor life while one is a goody-two-shoes set to be stepped on and rise again to take back what is rightfully his.

People's expectation on the story progression would be on how Jonathan would win out in the end and how Dio would get what his evil deserves.

With its British setting and characters, some people can't help but feel a teensy bit disappointed as it seems that story feels just like a simple good versus evil story set in swashbuckling times. Doesn't this seem to be mediocre compared to the Creed titles before it?

With this preconceived notion, a lot of people should have turned down the story for something much more exciting. However, why did it still stand when the toy-theme comic books lost?

It shouldn't be that the Creed brand is so effective that people just want to buy such a simple good guy versus bad guy story? Jonathan seems great and Dio is a new kind of evil but it is nothing close to revolutionary.

Of course, as much as people tried to downplay JoJo's Bizarre Adventures with these thoughts, it can't be denied that something bizarre is bound to happen.

After all, throughout the clashes of the story, the stone mask continues to pervade and observe as if waiting for its crowning moment.

The JoJo story should be quite a revolution in the comic drama genre but the stone mask and the 'bizarre' title compelled people to think that there are more bizarre things to come.

In any case, the quality of the story was there and the set-up to keep the readers invested had already been laid out.

By the time vampires, reanimated historical figures, Hamon energy, and Stands come into the picture, everyone shouldn't be able to unhook themselves from joining in on the bizarre adventures of the JoJos.