Chapter 48: Successive Successes
Creed Comics has released its second publication to great success.
It spanned to all niche comic book stores like the first one. No matter how envious these comic book owners were of old Sullivan, that did not stop them from earning money alongside Creed Comics.
If this new publication company would maintain its success in the long run and have more issues to display, then upgrading into the Creed Comics aisle from Creed Comics shelves would be in consideration.
Spiegelman's Maus and Sim's Cerebus the Aardvark would lose its new neighbor when that would happen.
This second publication was also opening up another market that Dragonball didn't try to make contact with.
Newsstand owners were probably jealous of the comic book stores and wanted to join the comic sales.
This opening would help in distributing Creed Comics to the mainstream newspaper buyers but the Creed bosses vetoed the development as the entitled parents would flip when they see non-CCA approved comic books on newsstands.
It was fine for them if it came from the nerd stores but when it would be from newspaper booths, their parent association would probably revolt in an uprising.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was already going strong, so there was no need to compromise its stability with an opportunity that would attract trouble.
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The Turtles' Origin is Untold might seem like a surprising title that popped out of nowhere but it already had some expectant buyers since it was foreshadowed in Son Goku's advertisement pages.
In those pages, they were just dark and weird silhouettes but now that they were finally unveiled, everyone got to see Leonardo, Rafael, Donatello, and Michelangelo's full turtle-y glory.
The cover art and cover layout of the released issues were as new and appealing as Dragonball had been.
The superior aesthetics that was ahead of its time was still present in this new comic title.
The smoothness has made it stand out against all the other issues on display while complimenting its CC logo identity with Dragonball by its side.
Those collector and displayer people were already thinking about displaying the Turtles and Goku in special case displays just for the cover alone.
Baxter paper printing was still used and the turtle brother's pleasing greenness with their color-coded headband-like masks was clear to identify.
The content, the story, its interesting and humorous sewer premise, amazing action styles for each respective turtle, and parodic parallel to the superhero genre were a perfect mix.
The Daredevil parody was toned down by Alexander but nerd experts could still find some connections to the two.
When the cool-sounding names of influential Renaissance artists were designated to mutated turtles, the humor and parody theories just elevated.
By the time the issues would introduce the Foot clan, their suspicions would be proven true.
Superhero stories were popular but stories parodying superhero stories might be becoming popular through these green turtles.
It was unclear why but everyone felt drawn to these pizza-loving, sewer-living, shell-carrying, and green-colored abnormals.
It wasn't just the pleasant art style that helped that attraction but also the foursome's sense of heroism despite Splinter's warning about human's aversion to their freak-like existence.
The publicly-scorned but still heroic premise has evolved to a trope from a cliche but it still manages to capture the hearts of many.
Issues were being taken off the shelves as people lined up to the counters to have their turtle copies at home.
Everything developed as the original Ninja Turtles of the past timeline, Creed Comics just did it better with Alexander's refinement and Sullivan's marketing methods.
The Big Two and everyone else interested in comic book accounting could only watch as the weird Turtles increase their sales numbers.
What's even weirder enviable from the market data is the win-win situation that the Turtles and Goku have on each other.
They could more or less confirm that Creed Comics is raking in with a lot of profits as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles simply worked its way into being topic-worthy in the views of mainstream society.
How many hoped that Creed Comics would tone down on their aggressive sales that were achieved through simple methods?
From comic book stores to nerdy clients, to herded parents, to writers hoping for a catchy filler for their articles, to comic critics, to radio broadcasting, to brief television reporting, and finally into mainstream popularity.
It was simple and methodic but quite difficult to replicate.
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Just as everyone is reeling with Creed Comics' two successive successes, the week passed and a batch of new comic releases came into the picture.
The Big Two, other comic publishing competitors, comic book enthusiasts, and comic book distributors were shocked when they realized the terrifying upstart company's new release.
It was already foreshadowed as dark silhouettes in the first Ninja Turtle issue but they still could not prepare themselves for another comic title on store shelves.
An astonishingly cool and detailingly styled anthropomorphic lion prince was overlooking a grand city in the newest cover.
A cool black roaring feline against a red circular logo and amazingly goldish lettered 'THUNDERCATS' was plastered proudly along with Creed Comics' CC logo.
'Created by Alexander Creed' was still tagging along as the returning fans could only be amazed at this Alexander person's creativity.
They flipped this new comic book's pages and could only be in awe with its absolutely impressive art designs, characters, and epic worldview alongside its grand world-building.
For 1980s people who already marveled at cringy 1980s He-Man as cool, Creed Comics' Dragonball art and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle art was already supremely impressive.
The ThunderCats 2011 art design that Alexander chose to incorporate is already beyond what they thought comic book art could be.
Creed Comics didn't even need to sell them with the impressive lore of Third Earth's Thundera and the character of Lion-o as the art design and ingenious paneling already convinced them to take it home.
Latecomers who saw the line at the counters didn't even need to ask what is popular or common in their purchases as they immediately headed for the Creed Comics section that is always filled with people since two weeks ago.
Almost everyone headed for the shelves to grab a copy of the impressively grand Thundercats but everyone was surprised when they saw that there were four different issues on display.
Beyond the expectations of many, Dragonball issue no. 2 was also released today. A pretty light violet-haired gal with a weird-looking car was on the cover and the issue title of 'Bulma' was enough to tell everyone of the attractive girl's name.
Those that had extra money to spend didn't even think twice as they took Dragonball's 'Bulma' along with Thundercats' 'Thundera'.
Issues were bought off the shelves in steady paces but overall sales hike up at crazy speeds.
It was already too late for everyone to brace themselves as Creed Comics didn't overwhelmingly succeed just once.
It didn't stop at succeeding twice and it wasn't even satisfied with succeeding thrice because it just had to do it four times.
Before any competitor or the entire comic book industry could prepare itself, Creed Comics has already cemented itself in the industry with a clear-cut fashion and four successive successes.