Wednesday, May 21, 2008

THE 99: Tolerance Through Comics & Theme Parks

You know...I've read THE 99...and it really doesn't grab me. But I'm not the most important target audience for it.

You see, while I am Muslim, I'm still probably more defined by my Western upbringing than my choice of religion. I don't read comic books and wonder why there isn't someone I can identify with in them (even if I did pitch an embarrassingly bad attempt at a Muslim-starring mini-series to Dan Raspler in 1997).

No, I really think this is geared toward Muslim kids born into the religion and possibly only first generation citizens (at least when we're talking US-based audience).

Quite obviously, the Middle Eastern audience is obviously the biggest target...as evidenced by the theme park they're opening in Kuwait.

That's good stuff. It is great that the property is working out for them to the point that it seems marketable as a theme park. Theme parks and comic books have the opportunity to leave an amazing mark on the lives of children. Maybe it can really make a difference in the world.

2 comments:

  1. What was Dan Raspler like? The main thing I remember about him is he was always so funny when he answered letters in The Demon back in the day.

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  2. I pitched to him via the internet. I was living in Chicago, Illinois, at the time and corresponded with him at his DCORaspler@aol.com account (which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist anymore).

    I can just tell you that he was very kind and, I believe, humored me by letting me get to the second stage of pitching it to him. I look back at it and cringe at what I tried to put together.

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