Comic strip launch
Skills
Print design
Branding
Illustration
Marketing promotion
Highlight
A very unique sales tool that provided out-of-this-world results.
Sales kit
This sales kit creates excitement among newspaper editors to buy this comic for their publication.
Normally comic strips will get a custom folder containing the comic samples and character sheet. But for this unique strip, The copyrighter and I knew we HAD to do something different.
We brainstormed many ideas. I went to the library and took out many books on science fiction, toys, and retro culture. We also looked at many printouts from the internet of classic movie posters. It baffles me how designers don’t go to the library for ideas on how to design something. It’s such an incredible resource to use.
We settled on doing a toy box to contain:
- Foam Rocket (for Brewster Rockit!)
- Magnets featuring the characters
- Sell sheet
- Character sheet
- Comic samples
Sketch I sent to the artist
Many covers of comic books provided inspiration for the scene on the cover of the box. I wanted something dramatic that showed the personality of the comic strip’s main characters.
Brewster was to be doing something noble and brave, but ultimately goofball. He dramatically flies away, but his trail of fire from his jetpack leaves Winky on fire. Winky always ends up being the test dummy for the crew’s many adventures. The Engineer Cliff Clueless is roasting hot dogs from Brewster’s flames. Pam is the brave woman holding a rifle in hand. Dr. Mel Practice’s satellite serves as an area for type treatment on the box.
Ink by artist
The artist of Brewster Rockit, Tim Rickard, had some great ideas on how to improve the characters in the drawing. I was afraid Winky running on fire would be too gruesome. Tim suggested that we have Winky’s butt on fire–perfect! He also put Pam into the arms of a one-eyed octopus. Dr. Mel’s satellite became a much cooler robot!
Box cover
I had a blast coloring the artwork in Photoshop. I brought in ben-day printing dots for some of the shading to give a little more of a vintage feel.
Sell sheet (front & back)
Inside the box is an 8.5 x 11-inch sell sheet. I wanted this design to look like those cheesy ads found on the back of classic comic strips.
Set of six magnets
We let Tim Rickard run free with how he depicted the characters–as long as he stayed within a square format. I then added the funky little design border to identify the comic strip, the character’s name, and the character’s title. (That’s a lot to fit in a 1.75 x 2.25-inch space).
Character sheet
At the last minute, a character sheet request was added. Originally the magnets were going to be used to describe to introduce the characters, but the sales team wanted a character sheet with more information.
Foam finger rocket (and label wrap)
This is the label that runs on the foam rocket.
The salespeople can’t get enough of these rockets. We’ve made three repeat runs of these rockets. An excellent way for the comic strip to take off!
