Chapter 194: Simple but Big

Correcting the 'easter egg' commotion aside, the 'Calvin and Hobbes' project was set to kick off.

Poor Old Sullivan need not make it happen on an Easter holiday deadline and just needed to coordinate things better.

In any case, Alexander's plan to start 'Calvin and Hobbes' was not too far off in his schedule.

It was relatively simple to make, complex in its effects, and quite fitting to use given all the media propaganda previously used against them.

Frankly, this comic strip was bound for great achievements and Alexander wanted to take advantage of this new plunder to the fullest.

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Anyways, the relative simplicity in the making of a comic strip comes in many aspects for Alexander.

For someone who had previously slated a record of 'seldom three' and 'near-two' comic book issues per day, the creation of something small-scaled like 'Calvin and Hobbes' can be noted.

Of course, the simplicity also comes with the fact that the re-lifed Alexander still has his enhanced memory and could more or less remember most of what the original creator, Bill Watterson, had achieved.

Although Alexander was known by his peers to be an indifferent, introverted, recluse with a penchant to collect coding abnormalities, what they didn't know was that he had a knack for reading 'Calvin and Hobbes'.

He just empathized with Calvin in many ways and subscribed to the precocious boy's publicated journeys as much as he could.

It had to be said that Alexander did have some bits of inclination toward tigers and there was no doubt that Hobbes was among the top of his pop culture tiger list.

There was Rath from Ben 10, Tygra from ThunderCats, Richard Parker from Life of Pi, Shere Khan from the Jungle Book mythos, Rajah from Aladdin, and of course... Tigger from Pooh must have some spot there somewhere.

Anyways, Alexander's content production for the comic strip has already been set but with lots of pop culture knowledge stacked and to be sorted through from his Mind Mansion, Alexander could also go on with his plundering side habit of trying to improve on things.

In any case, the Calvin and Hobbes project was a tackling of nostalgia and adding his own twist to it.

Even now, Alexander was wondering what was to happen if stuff such as pick-up lines, knock-knock jokes, bits of meme-ing, and futuristic trends were to be introduced by a simple little comic strip. Calvin and Hobbes might just be the Kid- and Stuffed Tiger-father of many things!

Of course, the uncomplexness of its new projects also comes with the fact that lawsuits such as Mirage Studios and whatnot are near nil.

Unlike TMNT and all the others that had led to legal issues, this comic strip was something that had been registered by Mr. Legalities at an earlier date.

He didn't want a guy like Bill Waterson jumping up with making problems for him, After all, he already had his plates full with the others, so a relatively safe plunder like this was always something that he could go for.

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It was a truly simple project to do with just those factors considered, however, it still has massive effects once realized and that was what Alexander was after.

The comics section of a newspaper publication is something that every child during the newsprint era cherished and enjoyed.

For those that can't swallow up all the heavy columns and texts to read, the humor and pictures in the comics section are to look out for.

As much as Alexander took pride in what he had achieved with the comic book industry, there was still a lot to be gained from serializing a comic strip.

Having a comic strip and it being a part of a wide-reaching newspaper publication could very well mean that the influence of the Creed brand could go further.

It won't be that evident or immediate but at least that link between his name and the subsidiaries under the Creed Entertainment banner would have a much stabler reaching and staying power.

Of course, aside from that, there was also the media breakthrough that he and Old Sullivan had discussed.

As much as Creed Comics gained their popularity with free advertisements that came from topical reportings, those were just articles drawn to their story because of its trendy momentum.

In the early stages of Dragonball, it was an unexpected hit and a publication or two gave it an article because their reporters had inadvertently noticed that market phenomenon.

The same publicity and article postings happen once or twice with the other Creed titles, which were already good in their own right. Alexander had pretty much accepted such publications as free advertisement and publicity in every regard.

The problem with that was the fact that Creed Comics had relatively no control over what was written and they were essentially passive when it comes to those matters.

This was even more highlighted when the DC-Moore challenge had been the talk of the industry. It was exposed even more so when the united front of multi-pronged, highly-publicized lawsuits went against everything Creed Comics.

A lot of people interpreted Creed Comics' lack of media response as "indifference" but the entire truth of the matter was that Creed Comics had not much sway in media relations at all.

DC Comics had the mass-media influential Warner behind it. This meant that any attempt of Creed Comics to use media propaganda to their side would be futile and a money-wasting.

With Hasbro and a lot of other long-running publications ganging up on them, Creed Comics ultimately chose to not waste much effort on a media-influencing battle.

Alexander's choice to go with a comic strip now was his stopgap solution to help with that media weakness. Although it was just in print media, it was a great start nonetheless.

If Calvin and Hobbes would be able to integrate with a major newspaper publication, then the Creed's media relations would be improved and their passiveness might be not so passive anymore.

It had to be said that these sought-for effects are some fingers crossed scenarios that had yet to be proven to work.

It may seem like a stretch for anybody to think that a simple comic strip like Calvin and Hobbes could achieve all that advantageous things.

However, Alexander was not just anybody and he had seen what Calvin and Hobbes had achieved during their glory days.

Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic and philosophical interest.

At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. In 2010, reruns of the strip appeared in more than 50 countries, and nearly 45 million copies of the Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold worldwide.

If that wasn't an amazing I.P., then Alexander didn't know what was?

It also had to be kept in mind that such a success was achieved with a "comic strip only" restriction. Bill Watterson is a stubborn guy who wants his magnum opus to be preserved as it was originally intended.

Many business-minded people from the past-future were probably in regret and had their minds wondering about what greatness 'Calvin and Hobbes' could have been.

What were to happen if Calvin and Hobbes got the multi-media franchise treatment as Garfield and Peanuts?

Fortunately, Alexander was on his way to answering that as his cooperation with Stubborn Watterson was completely nil on this version.

It can be seen that aside from all the Creed brand improvement and print media integration plans, the comic strip was another revenue booster that Alexander was looking forward to.

If everything works out, then a lot could really be laid out and the Creed companies would be better for it. In many ways, a simple Calvin and Hobbes comic was now set to achieve big things!